I Have a New Neurologist...

...and I love him! I actually saw Dr. Fee along with a student doctor, Dr. Chambers. They are at the University of Kentucky clinic - it's a teaching practice, which is why Dr. Chambers was in there with us.

Dr. Fee started out by going through lots of questions asking me if I had certain symptoms. I appreciated this because I have a difficult time trying to remember everything to tell him. We talked a lot about the things that have been going on with me lately. He performed the clinical exam (pushing on muscles, pricking feet with needles, etc.), and everything seemed OK except for that cruddy numbness in my foot. It would figure that I went into this appointment feeling much better than I have been. My symptoms have seemed to be remitting over the last week or so.

He said that it was OK...that happens, but he told me to come back in 6 weeks to see how I was doing at that point. He also asked me to go ahead and see an Opthamologist to have my eyes checked. I haven't had my eyes checked for a year or two, so he wanted me to have that done (an Opthamologist can look for Optic Neuritis which is somewhat common in MS patients).

He sent me to the lab to have bloodwork done and to do a 2 hour Glucose test for Diabetes. The reasoning for that is that a normal stick test checking blood sugar isn't as reliable as the Glucose Tolerance Test, and he wanted to be able to rule Diabetes out completely.

One thing that was strange is that he said that Dr. Hutchinson had asked him to check me for ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease). I was surprised that he even asked him to do that. Of course, the doctor said that I DEFINITELY do not have that! He said that he could NOT rule out MS, though, but that he could not definitively say that it is MS until we get further testing pointing to it. Right now, it will be a wait and see game to be determined when I go back (if I'm feeling better, worse, etc.).

Overall, I'm very pleased. I'm happy that he took me very seriously, he did not downplay any of my symptoms, and he was a very good listener. He even got a kick out of the STRESS thing...I told him that Dr. Cooper (the former Neuro) had told me that my symptoms were probably caused by stress, and he laughed and told Dr. Chambers, "If there is one thing I want you to learn today, it is this...EVERYONE has stress...boys, girls, men and women. I wish that doctors would quit calling everything stress related because if every symptoms we have is stress related, then we're ALL in big trouble!" I was so glad to hear that! That means that he 's not going to brush me off and say that I'm too stressed (which I'm certainly not).

One thing that happened to me today...I was sitting in the lab waiting to have my blood drawn for the 2 hour Glucose test, and this woman wheeled this little boy in this wheelchair and sat down by me. The little boy was wearing a helmet, and I immediately assumed that he had Spina Bifida or something like that. The little boy was SO friendly and kept saying hello to everyone who passed. I started talking to him and was asking him about what he wanted for Christmas. After talking to him for a bit, the Mom told me that he had been hit by a car while Trick or Treating back in October. I remembered seeing the story many times on the news...at the time, I remembered praying for the little boy and hoping that he would make a full recovery. And here he was sitting next to me! I felt SO blessed to be able to meet this boy, not only because of seeing his story on the news, but also because he was just such a bright, shining light! He was SO happy! He just talked and laughed, and you could tell that this little 6 year old boy who had just a few months ago been running around with his little friends and now sat still in a wheelchair was SO full of life and love and peace. I feel like I received a very special gift from God today...to know that no matter what I go through there are a thousand little Hunter White's out there who go through something far worse and have such a perfect, wonderful outlook on life still.

His Mom told me that he will get to leave Cardinal Hill (the rehabilitation hospital) and be home just in time for Christmas! I truly hope that he will go on to live a very long, happy and wonderful life. Will you please pray for this little boy? He has touched my heart more than I can even express here.