To ms or not to ms

Duck tracks

Saw the homeopath this morning, roughly a 2 hour consult. At the end she called me a "well-rounded case"; I am not sure exactly what she meant by that but I am guessing she meant that all the symptoms we talked about fit together well and she could identify an appropriate remedy. I went home with a little bottle of water with a tiny grain of the remedy dissolved in it. We shall see what we shall see. I am supposed to phone her next week and then come in for a second in-person appointment the following week.

Duck tracks too

She was nice, observant and asked appropriate questions, at the end I felt that we hadn't left anything out. She said she doesn't like to use medical labels since it kind of goes against homeopathic philosphy, where she is treating the whole person not a selection of symptoms grouped together under a single label. And since what I think I have is kind of a systemic whole-person thing, that seems appropriate.

Decision path

What I think I have is multiple sclerosis (MS), and that I have had it for nigh on 20 years. In the first episode my doctor at the time thought either post-viral syndrome or chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). That episode only lasted 5-6 months, so not long enough to qualify as CFS. After recovery I was free of it for over ten years, and in that time I moved across the country and no longer had a doctor at all. If I had stayed where I was with the same doctor, chances are he would have diagnosed the thing correctly, the episodic nature of this illness is fairly unique. Not having a GP I went to a walk-in clinic and the doctor there ordered bloodwork and was kind enough to make sure I got a copy. Nothing showed up.

Decision path too

By the third episode seven years later I had a GP but saw no point in going to her because I didn't think it would help and the doctor would just tell me it was all in my head anyway. Which it kind of is, but no matter, I didn't go. That was two years ago.

This way?

So this is the fourth episode, and so far only the homeopath knows that, I haven't really had a chance to talk to an MD about it, mostly because it is so difficult to get an appointment and the appointment only lasts 15 minutes before the doctor starts looking at her watch and hustling me out the door. Sadly we don't have a healthcare system that provides for automatic passing on of health records to the next doctor. I did a bit of internet research in the absence of a doctor to talk to and quite by accident came across the description of MS which I thought fit me to a T. The relapsing-remitting kind (RRMS), which is the most common kind.

Or that?

The homeopath mentioned that she also has something similar, although she did not give it a name since that goes against her philosophy. In any case, it is difficult to get a diagnosis and can take years to accomplish. It involves numerous tests, including lumbar puncture and MRI. However, the fact that I have now had more than two episodes is pretty close to definitive. I like having a label, it's hard to tell friends the reason they haven't seen me lately is because of some nameless "condition" (aren't you better yet?). "MS" pretty much says it all. I don't like what I've learned about current treatments for this, it all sounds way too much like chemotherapy: lots of nasty side effects. So really, I don't need an official diagnosis if I am unwilling to do the proper treatments for it.