knowledge is power, and why i love my philly neuro...

part one: knowledge is power...

saw the philly neuro today. i love her (see below). but she's still insisting on this whole MS thing, a diagnosis that dr. b. in pittsburgh has been confident in dismissing. which leaves me, the patient, caught between the opinions of two very intelligent, well-educated, determined experts. my own little rock and hard place. thus, the necessity of second opinions. but what does one do when one finds a doctor with whom one feels comfortable? if i were to go with dr. p. here, and put myself on some sort of MS-preventive course of drugs, i would (a) have to find different insurance, because my piddly student health plan wouldn't cover the expense of the injectables; (b) again have to wrestle with the fear of the diagnosis of a very unpredictable and potentially debilitating disease.

...deference to those who are supposed to know. these docs, they've seen a whole lot more seizures and lesions and episodes and adverse effects and blocked peripheral vision and headaches than i have. so while i've got all the necessary data to ask the questions, they're in a much better position to suggest the answers. suggest the answers.

knowledge is power. with great power comes great responsibility. yet, the docs aren't really taking care of me, i'm doing my best to take care of myself. guh... what the eff? i just want to figure out what to do next.

part two: why i love my philly neuro...

i had two primary objectives for my visit this morning with dr. p. (1) change my meds. even though i've felt SIGNIFICANTLY better since i self-lowered my dosage of this crap, i still feel wonky. and feeling wonky isn't something of which i'm particularly fond. dr. p. had no objections to trying something else out. and (2) get an MRI scheduled so i can get my brains scanned and find out if that seizure was indicative of a greater problem. dr. p. said, without me even having to bring it up, "well, it's obvious to me that we need to get you in for an MRI." i LOVE her! she retains the designation of my favorite doc. i'll have the MRI on monday evening and will talk to her next week. fingers crossed that the MRI looks just like the last one, because if there's any change, well...