Oh, fuck modern medicine. It just keeps getting worse.

[Redstone]

Went to see the goddamn neurologist yesterday (Nothing personal; he's a terrific doctor).

After going over the brain MRIs and seeing all the lesions, then doing the nerve-conduction tests, he's come up with the following diagnosis: "I'm not sure what's causing your balance problems and numb legs and feet."

Suspect #1: Nerve damage in the lower part of my spine from arthritis resulting from an old injury. He wants me to have another MRI to check that out. If that's the case, THEN what the fuck do I do? Having had arthritis since I was a teenager, I became sensitive to ALL the NSAIDS; I can't even take Pepto-Bismol because of the salicydes.

And I am absolutely NOT letting anybody cut me again. Especially my spine. Those fucking horrible shoulder surgeries I had left me with nothing but life-destroying chronic pain, which I complicated by using alcohol as an anesthetic for eight years. I've stopped doing that, but NOBODY takes a scalpel to me anymore.

Suspect #2: MS. The myelin delaminations and holes in my brain are in the right areas to be a contributory or major factor.

Suspect #3: Seriously ass-kicked and misaligned C3, which we already knew was responsible for the nerve damage in my left arm (part of the reason I can't play the guitar anymore). Another blasted MRI, probably.

Suspect#4: Lyme disease, though not likely because the holes in my brain from the Lyme aren't exactly where they'd affect my legs.

I'm fucked.

And here I have a wife who tells me how much she loves me several times every day, but when I ask her to do something so simple as to just shoot me, will she DO it? No. No matter how many times I ask.

(That's a JOKE, people, OK?)

Redstone

[flvegan]

1. None of those sound good, Redstone.

But I'm glad your wife wouldn't follow through on your request. My best to you both.

[Redstone]

2. Hey, you know, it's pretty fucking embarrassing to be only 55 years old (and look 40;

my hair is still (naturally) black and I still have all of it, and to be tottering around in public using a cane.

Ah, fuck it, anyway. It ain't cancer or heart disease, after all, so I shouldn't bitch.

Redstone

[Kutjara]

23. We've had the cane conversation before, Mr. R.

I've been tottering around on one since I was 37 due to my MD and, after the inevitable initial embarrassment and feelings of being "old before my time," I got over it and made it part of what I flatter myself by calling my "style."

It's made a huge difference to my life and enabled me to do things I wouldn't otherwise have been able to do. The tradeoff between "young looking" and "able to walk around" isn't much of a tradeoff at all, when you come right down to it.

Now get yourself here: http://www.james-smith.co.uk/
Buy yourself an ebony and silver gentleman's stick.
And STRUT!

I will be watching...

[Gormy Cuss]

3. It sounds ugly, Redstone.

It would be better to know what the hell is going on. I hope the neurologist is calling for consults.



p.s. If I were Mrs. R I'd buy a water pistol and accommodate your requests.

[Redstone]

7. Ah, well, it's been over a month since I fell down once and broke a rib and another time

when I broke my nose, so there's SOME good news, anyway.

Redstone

[MountainLaurel]

4. My husband's thoughts on neurology

"You'd probably find out just as much having someone read the entrails of a dead chicken."

(This after various scans, sleep studies, and other tests on 5 different occasions to determine the cause of infrequent night seizures.)

Edited to send :hug: your way.

[Midlodemocrat]

5. Aw, darlin'. I'm sorry. I wish there was a cure for this.

Have you been to Yale at all? Just wondering.

[Redstone]

8. Yale's an unwieldy bureaucracy; I've been though their system. I'm working with

Middlesex hospital now, which has a damn good reputation and all the doctors I've dealt with in their system have been really good.

Redstone

[Midlodemocrat]

18. Yes, it does. It has a stellar reputation.

I'm so sorry you're going through all this, my friend.

[Redstone]

31. How do you know about Middlesex Hospital? Did you live up here at one time?

Redstone

[Midlodemocrat]

41. Yeah, I thought you knew that.

UCONN grad. Lived in CT my entire life until we moved here in 1991.

[Redstone]

43. Oops. Remember: Four concussions lead to BIG-time memory loss. So stick with three or fewer, OK?

Redstone

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. My dear Redstone!

Hey, you can still type, and bitch and moan, so you're not dead yet, right?

I'm so sorry, sweetie...

As long as you have the love and respect of good people, you will never be completely fucked!

Maybe mostly, but never completely! :P

:hug: :hug:

[Redstone]

10. Hey, when it gets to the point when I can't bitch and moan anymore, that's when

somebody needs to pull the plug on me.

Hey, everybody needs to have a purpose in life.

Redstone

[mainegreen]

9. Shit Redstone.

Just shit.

If you we're closer, I'd get you baked, just so you could enjoy a pain free day.

[Redstone]

11. Mrs R bakes me now and again, and it does help sometimes. Thanks for the offer.

Redstone

[Shell Beau]

12. You're a trooper!! I really hope you can get this figured out!

And your wife sounds awesome! :hug:

[skygazer]

13. So how many assholes have told you that god doesn't give you any burdens you can't carry?

Or whatever that stupid saying is.

I hate the not knowing for sure, even if knowing means that there's not really anything I can do about it. I think it all comes of living in the Flatlands personally.

Hang in there, man. We crusty New Englanders are a rare breed and we need all we can get.

[Redstone]

14. But God damn, we Vermont Yankees are supposed to die from getting run over by a tractor

or a moose, not THIS kind of complicated stuff like holes in the brain (we're BORN with those, after all; that's where the cussedness comes from).

Redstone

[Deep13]

16. As a native of Massachusetts, it is my right to be killed in a fishing accident.

I suppose it is idle to say I hope you feel better, but I do hope so anyway.

[TZ]

15. Hang on there Redstone

I have a friend who is almost as bad off as you (no MS but other issues). Certainly you have every right to complain...hopefully the docs will be able to find some answers for you. And don't worry about that supposed to be tough crap..from what I can tell you may be one of the toughest people I have ever talked to...I have issues enough myself but know I could NOT deal with what you do..

[miss_american_pie]

17. Hang in there

Everything I start to type just sounds insipid.

:hug:

[bicentennial_baby]

19. BTDT, got the t-shirt

It took something like 5 years for Dad to be diagnosed, 3 for Mom. Neuro SUCKS!

:hug: Hang in there my friend. If you ever wanna vent, you know where to find me. I can completely empathize.

[graywarrior]

20. Sucks

I'd make a recommendation, but you'd probably laugh it off.

[Redstone]

26. I could use a laugh. What, are you going to recommend that I jump in front of a moose? I did that

two summers ago, and the fucker almost stomped me into Redstone Jelly With Camera That He Forgot To Put The Telephoto Lens On In Order To Be On The Safe Side.

Be careful of them meese in Crawford Notch, OK? They're pretty crabby.

Redstone

[graywarrior]

34. Ha! One of them kicked in a friend's windshield because he parked too close

tp watch him trying to woo a female.

[Deja Q]

21. Hang in there! I can personally relate. Especially re: arthritis, NSAIDs, and surgery.

And yet WE are the cause of high prices, for which we should be shouting "BULLSHIT!".

:hug: :pals:

[Pool Hall Ace]

22. Goddess bless your wonderful wife!

I had a benign brain tumor removed in January, and my husband tried to file for divorce while I was still in the hospital! :mad:

Please hang in there, Mr. Redstone. :pals:

[Redstone]

28. You were married to Newt Gingritch? (Joke, joke). What a fucking rat bastard

your (I hope by now ex-) husband is. Want me to go administer him a lesson in manners with my 32-ounce Louisville Slugger?

Hey, jusdging by your screen name, maybe we should get together sometime and you could whoop my butt at pool. None of that sissy 8-ball or violent 9-ball, though, it's straight pool as God intended.

Thanks for the good words.

Redstone

[Pool Hall Ace]

39. Actually, I think it's hereditary! His sister left her husband

after he suffered a stroke at the age of 39! :wow:

He's not an ex- yet. I'm trying to dig us out of debt, first. In hindsight he feels bad about what he did, but the marriage will end eventually. That will be a big relief to me. :party:

And while I do play pool, I'm not an ace by far. The screen name actually comes from a misheard lyric from "Every Breath You Take." :)

You are more than welcome to dose my husband, "Newt," with your baseball bat! He certainly deserves it.

Warm hugs for you and your lovely wife! :hug: :hug:

[My Good Babushka]

24. That's awful,

I hope you can find some non-invasive answers and treatments.
I've come to the conclusion that it's best not to get a f--ked up in the first place, because most medical interventions have a very dark side, sadly, we all find this out too late. Hang in there, for your loving wife's sake, who knows, complain enough and maybe she'll come around.

[Redstone]

30. Well, not getting f'ed-up in the first place would have required me to not do things

like jump out of perfectly good airplanes instead of landing inside them, climbing mountains that had a perfectly good road to the top on the other side, taking a job that put me in a combat zone because $1500 a month was a lot of money in 1972, getting hit by cars three times while riding a bicycle...

And yes, Mrs R has been a Godsend. I've stayed inside every airplane I've been in until it landed since I met her, at her insistence.

She's truly a saint to be able to put up with the likes of me, lunatic that I used to be (but no more, since I met her).

Redstone

[My Good Babushka]

38. well, even living just a little can get you f-'d up

and it seems like you LIVED A LOT, and loved a lot, too.:)

[femmocrat]

25. So sorry, Redstone.

It's terrible to be on that roller-coaster. I wish they could help you right now! Or yesterday!

:hug:

[Tuesday Afternoon]

27. You know when Momma said there would be days like this, I didn't know

that she meant Every Day. :hug:

[Redstone]

32. I like that. I like it a lot. I'll use it.

Redstone

[we the tweeple]

29. Eat lots of raw produce and be totally vegan. Meditate. Don't take intoxicants...

:bounce:

[kimmerspixelated]

35. The path to wellness

resides in de-toxing. Try a supergreen food formula, lots of barley grass, spirulina, that kind of thing. I rec. Dr. Al Sears Supergreens. One teaspoon a day, but maybe more for you for awhile. Since I've been taking it, I never seem to get ill. Nature's path will help you.

[MichiganVote]

33. Friend of mine with similar problems went to get assessed for a new

wheelchair (not that you need that) and what's important is that with the assessment and the new chair her leg and feet numbness completely disappeared. So maybe that would help. Or smoke pot, that might lessen some of the affects.

Sorry to hear you're having such a go of it.

[Akoto]

36. You know I can sympathize, for what little it counts.

I was happy when a doctor finally said "I don't know what's wrong with you" to me, because it was the first time I didn't feel misled. The previous ones had thrown bogus, dismissive diagnoses at me. Of course, I finally discovered the cause of my chronic pelvic pain at the University of Miami, but there's no cure. There are some ways to mitigate the pain a bit, but the condition is for life.

It has been hard for me to adapt to constant pain at age 24, but I've been doing this for over a year now. That's longer than I once told myself I'd be able to endure it. In a way, acceptance has begun to set in, and that has been mentally beneficial. I bought a cool cane, started my fight for disability (headed to court next), and made peace with the fact that there'll be days when I need to live in bed or the bath. It sucks, but I'm too young to exit. Probably have many years ahead, and for my family's sake, I have to live them as best I can. I'll never work, but I will find other things to do.

Contact me whenever you'd like to talk. I don't have your problem exactly, but I can totally empathize when it comes to having mysterious, chronic illnesses.

[Mike 03]

37. Could it be two things going on simultaneously, like Suspect #3 plus

perhaps something like Ménière's disease, which could cause the vertigo-like sensations?

Sorry you are going through this hell. My heart goes out to you and your family as well, since they care about you too.

[Redstone]

44. I have a friend who has Meniere's (sorry, I don't know how to do the diacritical marks) do I know

what a nightmare that can be. And from what I understand, it's a difficult diagnosis, so my doctors are going aftere the most obvious suspects first...my spine is REALLY damaged in more than one location, so I do't blame them for wanting to look at that first.

Thanks for your post - you've been a good friend through all my bitching and complaining.

Redstone

[Odin2005]

40. Christ, that's gotta suck.

:hug:

[applegrove]

42. Vibes to you Restone.