I have a GREAT doctor... (NCC)

December 19, 2000

I finally decided to actively pursue my " final " diagnosis for foramen

magnum stenosis. For those of you who don't know, I do not have ACM (as of

last read...), but all of the symptoms.

I stopped by my doctor's office last week, and wrote him a long note,

asking for CINE-MRI as flow study, MRI of mid posterior fossa -> T2 with

gadolinium contrast with both axial and sagittal views (for scar tissue),

and thoracic MRI with gadolinium contrast, sagittal views only (to rule out

syrinx). And, oh, by the way, we should re-do the ENG, it has been 20+

years... (this was used as part of the basis for an MS diagnosis way back

when).

His administrator called me back Friday, said that doc had authorized ENG

only, that he felt that insurance would balk at doing more than that.

I was in a FOUL mood on Friday night - actually lashed out at a couple of

my friends... And a complete stranger... Very unlike me. Battling the

insurance company is *my* problem, not his! ENG is the least important of

all of the tests! Blah, blah, blah...

By yesterday morning, I had decided that my doc didn't understand what was

going on, and I made an appointment with him for today.

Went in, made my case, explained why the tests were appropriate. He said,

okay... I offered to schedule them if he would give me a prescription. So

we sat there together, and I told him what to write down. He had lots of

questions about why this, why that... We arranged it as cascaded MRI's - in

other words, if flow is okay, don't go further.

At the end of it all, he told me that he was glad that I was going to

schedule the appointments, because I knew a lot more about the tests than

he did. And he was quite serious. And he wants to learn more...

Doctors... Sometimes you GOTTA love 'em!

I also got my flu shot... I will let you all know if it was a bad idea...

--

-sylvan

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