New Year, New Doctor

This week I went and saw a new neurologist. With some of the MS related symptoms I'd been having plus the amount of training I've been doing, I figured it would be good to get acquainted with a new doctor before things really hit the fan, if they in fact did.

First impressions, I like this guy. All ready Dr. K out shines Dr. M by a long shot. He had the same views Dr. M had about my not doing the disease modification shots, but he expressed them in such a way that felt way more respectful. Instead of telling me (and I'm paraphrasing) that I'm stupid for not taking the shots, he expressed his belief that they work and it would be in my best interest if we could find something I would be willing to commit to. He gave me all the statistics Dr. M gave me, but he prefaced his opinion with, "It's your body, you have to live with what ever choice you make and what ever you decide thats how we'll proceed."

That's all Dr. M ever had to say to get me to trust her. Rather than push the hard sell as though she had a personal stake in getting me on something (and I am alluding to some financial kick back from the drug company, she was so pushy), all she had to do is listen to what I was feeling and be willing to work with what I felt I could do. That little bit of consideration goes a long way.

Another thing I really appreciated about Dr. K was his willingness to give me time to think things over. He could see by my lack of enthusiasm, that I wasn't in a position to make a commitment right then and there and he respected that I needed time. The last time I saw Dr. M, I told her my position on the shots, how they made me feel and all she could do was tell me, not recommend but tell me, that she was putting me on a different medication, handed me a release paper to sign on the spot and a big fancy marketing packet proclaiming all the great things about the drug. She left me no room to say no, or to think things over.

It got to the point that if she told me that I needed to eat a bar of chocolate every day I would have developed an instant dislike for all things chocolate and refused to eat it.

Another thing I really liked about Dr. M was how he explained why I was having the symptoms I was having, and no it most likely wasn't due to relapse (all though he would need to get my files from Dr. M to be sure). He told me that the brain and nervous can 'rewire' itself to bypass areas with MS related scaring, which is why symptoms go away after time. He also said that using the new pathways is harder on my nervous system and anytime I got sick or let myself get too run down my brain goes back to its original pathways where it encounters the scaring and old symptoms start to return until I get better and stronger and my system can go back to the new way.

Hello, that makes a whole lot of sense!

It explains why I have sudden resurgences of symptoms when I do something new thats physical, it explains why I felt so crappy for a week and a half. I had, as I assumed, pushed myself too hard. It was a good reminder that while over all I feel really good, it's important that I always keep in mind that I do have limitations, and if I'm going to push against them I have to do it slowly and mindfully.

Over all, I like Dr. K and despite all my objections to taking the shots, which I still have, I'm seriously contemplating giving them another try provided we can find something I could live with for the long haul.