Things seemed to be stalling with Doc Fundamental.  I had been seeing him for almost six months and he still hadn’t made a determination as to what the cause of my tingling leg was, much less start a treatment plan.  Even my primary care physician expressed a little concern.  “I know that you don’t have many symptoms today, but we want to keep it that way”.

Doc F was just being conservative and cautious, not wanting to misdiagnose me as having multiple sclerosis if indeed I didn’t.  It was a murky mixed picture.  My MRI reports were bad and said that it looked like MS.  Yet, I had virtually no symptoms.  My blood tests came back mixed and confusing.  Doc F admitted “I don’t know what to make of them”.  My spinal tap showed evidence of the antibodies that they test for to show evidence of MS.  But even then, the readings were not that far out of normal.

Thankfully, despite his many decades of experience (or maybe because of them), Doc Fundamental did not have a big ego.  He admitted that he was not confident in the assessment and suggested that I get a second opinion.

I live in a major metropolitan area.  That has it’s pros and cons.  One benefit is that there is an abundance of excellent healthcare options.  In my city, there are two very well known MS neurologists.  Both have been published countless times and received many awards and recognition for their research in multiple sclerosis.  Doc F suggested going right to the creme of the crop and seek a second opinion from one of these two; Famous Doc A or Famous Doc B.  He said that it was a coin toss.  He would would rank them #1 and #1.  As I was reaching into my pocket for a coin to determine it, he said that maybe we should try Famous Doc B first, because A has been on the lecture circuit a lot recently and I might be able to get in to see B sooner.

Doc F sent off my file and a writeup requesting that Famous Doc B see me for second opinion appointment.  It took a week and a half for them to decide, but they finally got back to me that she would see me.

I was very excited!  Finally, moving forward again.  Well, sort of.  The soonest that I could get an appointment was going to be four months away.  I can only imagine how long it would have taken to get in to see Famous Doc A.