The importance of having a good relationship with your health care providers cannot be emphasized enough. This truth was reinforced through a recent interaction I had with my neurologist’s office before I left on vacation a couple of weeks ago.
The experience causes me to ask - If you call your neurologist’s office with a request that seems a bit unusual, what kind of response do you expect?
During the past month, I have been traveling. First it was a few days downtown in Washington, DC. Then two short trips to Chicago and New York City. Followed by last minute travel to Oklahoma to attend a family funeral (and spend a couple of days with the fabulous nephews). And finally, a really BIG trip to Washington State, Alaska, and Canada.
As mentioned in a previous post, my MS was threatening to get a little noisy a couple of weeks ago. Symptoms were beginning to boil, just under the surface, and I was waiting to see which way the wind would blow. Would the symptoms bloom into an official flare? Or would symptoms lessen to a simmer and fade with a whimper?
Seems like a lot of self-evaluation keeping on top of this MS business (don’t you think?), complete with whimsically mixed metaphors.
Sandwiched between New York and Oklahoma, my symptoms were beginning to become a bit stronger. Of course, I didn’t want to think about it, much less talk about it, especially since it was a Friday afternoon on which the decision was made to fly to Oklahoma the following Sunday morning. There wasn’t much time to think about anything.
I tried not to think about my MS, except that I did come “this close” to calling my neurologist’s office to ask for a single dose of IV steroids during that interim Saturday. I kept thinking about how the pulse steroids I took in the fall kept my MS and RA symptoms rather quiet. How I wished that they were being quiet right then.
Well….I didn’t call the doctor’s office before the Oklahoma trip, but I did call during the one and only day I was home between Oklahoma and Seattle. Things were still going on and I was afraid to admit that a minor flare was occurring. Of course, it’s not the minor flares which are problems. It’s the waking up not being able to walk or see which were fears in my mind.
When I first called the office, I got through to an employee who told me that Nurse A (the dedicated MS nurse) was at lunch. I needed to leave a detailed message of why I needed to speak to her and a number at which I could be reached. OK, fair enough.
I am lucky in that I have a dedicated MS nurse at my neuro’s office. It was a Nurse Carol who helped me out so much when I was new to MS. She was there to answer questions and to schedule last-minute appointments when a relapse was suspected. Nurse Carol retired last year and Nurse A took her place.
