Maybe it’s permanent. Grounding that is.

Finally got the follow up scheduled with the neurologist. See them tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile they’re ordering a lumbar puncture to go get some of my spinal fluid.

Sounds decidedly un-fun. Well more un-fun than usual I guess.

Got tired of looking at my home office so I went to the real office today. That got the right hand complaining so I gave in and took a small amount of the stupid drugs.

Also tired of peeing after steroids but it’s better than not, since it means the kidneys are still behaving. Drink water, pee, drink water, pee. Annoying.
 
@denverpilot I"m sick of your whining and complaining. You think YOU have it bad? I live in Florida and my airplane doesn't have air conditioning! So TOP THAT!


( I hope you can tell I'm kidding) I thought a little levity was in order. Not that I think anything about your situation is funny, but your attitude deserves an award.
 
JOhnH said:
@denverpilot I"m sick of your whining and complaining. You think YOU have it bad? I live in Florida and my airplane doesn't have air conditioning! So TOP THAT!


( I hope you can tell I'm kidding) I thought a little levity was in order. Not that I think anything about your situation is funny, but your attitude deserves an award.
Click to expand...

Dude. I wouldn’t wish Florida heat and humidity in a closed cockpit on anyone!! LOL.

Jokes are totally fine. Y’all know this.

They just want the spinal juice because it’s like maple syrup from an old ass tree.

They feed it to the aliens at Area 51 I think.
 
denverpilot said:
Dude. I wouldn’t wish Florida heat and humidity in a closed cockpit on anyone!! LOL.

Jokes are totally fine. Y’all know this.

They just want the spinal juice because it’s like maple syrup from an old ass tree.

They feed it to the aliens at Area 51 I think.
Click to expand...


upload_2020-1-14_18-11-4.png
 
Update ... steroids helped but slow reappearance of neuro symptoms afterward.

The news from the assistants was a little off.

Ping @bbchien since I suspect he will be interested in this.

So... what the neuro saw on the MRI is my one enormous lesion hasn’t gone “dark” with contrast like expected after a half a year on the MS drug. Normally after the MS drugs the spinal cord settles down and the equivalent of scar tissue forms and the inflammation goes down. So she’s concerned that it’s still very active. It does look like it maybe shrank a couple of vertebrae.

So next step is analyze CSF to see if any infectious markers, virus, cancer, etc that would cause a continuation of this long long “inflammation attack”. The key thing for me seems to be continued whole body inflammation. Hunting for a cause.

Also doing a referral for another opinion at University of Colorado Health. Our weird high incidence of MS here means pretty good docs in that field of study here.

Had some travel planned soon and she cleared me for that with an oral steroid pack if any acute neuro symptoms seem to pop up. Take those and get back home if it gets weird.

Awaiting scheduling for the lumbar puncture. Might be before or after trip. Not a rush.

Interesting follow up, for sure.

Hope everyone has a good day today!
 
I've heard that there are a number of medical oddities that have significantly higher than the norm here in Colorado.
My wife has an acoustic neuroma and her doc says this area is significantly higher than the national average by a large number.
 
denverpilot said:
Update ..

So next step is analyze CSF to see if any infectious markers, virus, cancer, etc that would cause a continuation of this long long “inflammation attack”. The key thing for me seems to be continued whole body inflammation. Hunting for a cause.

Also doing a referral for another opinion at University of Colorado Health. Our weird high incidence of MS here means pretty good docs in that field of study here.
Click to expand...

You need to get in to this guy’s practice.

e726a876f923dcd91c7c27f6803f4bc8.jpg
 
gkainz said:
I've heard that there are a number of medical oddities that have significantly higher than the norm here in Colorado.
My wife has an acoustic neuroma and her doc says this area is significantly higher than the national average by a large number.
Click to expand...
Closer to the sun?
 
Kenny Phillips said:
Closer to the sun?
Click to expand...
That's one theory on the acoustic neuroma ... even higher numbers up the mountain towns than down here on the prairie


And then there's the "closer to Rocky Flats" and "closer to Rocky Mountain Arsenal should have been/maybe was a Superfund cleanup site")
 
gkainz said:
That's one theory on the acoustic neuroma ... even higher numbers up the mountain towns than down here on the prairie


And then there's the "closer to Rocky Flats" and "closer to Rocky Mountain Arsenal should have been/maybe was a Superfund cleanup site")
Click to expand...

They just watered the grass with plutonium water. What’s the big problem?! LOL.

Not to mention the incinerators...

The history of Rocky Flats is fascinating and sad. The Grand Jury eventually all came out with what they learned even after being told if they spoke about it, they’d be tried as traitors...

Ironically my employer does business with a company that specializes in home care for the many many people hurt by that industry.

They opened an open space trail through the edges of the place. I won’t be hiking there. Fairly controversial in the local news.
 
steingar said:
Would you care to elaborate? Perhaps a cross country relocation might ameliorate your symptoms?
Click to expand...

Like Greg said, just statistics. Denver has a statistically higher incidence of MS than most cities.

Theories vary about why.

They probably won’t vary someday ... once someone understands the mechanisms of MS... :) Then it’ll make sense.

Kinda like nobody fully knows why spinal cord patients often end up ridiculously low in Vitamin D over time, more than a forced indoor lifestyle for some percentage of that population might indicate.

All sorts of weirdnesses with spinal stuff.

I spend way too much time reading papers from the Mayo. Haha. Always been a “boring” reader... love stuff like tech papers and accident reports... so I just added learning medical jargon and reading their papers to my reading list. LOL.

My doc says I have “good questions”.

I think that’s code for “Yeah yeah, I know I know, we already checked that, but you’re correct to ask...” :)

It was fun to read a Mayo paper from 2014 targeted at teaching docs how to diagnose all these maladies. And also reassuring to see my doc hadn’t skipped any steps including some of the very newest tests.

We see people on our support group all the time who’ve had acute attacks and went to a typical ER and weren’t treated with steroids, weren’t recognized as neuro patients, all sorts of awful misdiagnosis in initial assessments... having something rare happen to you that expresses as very non-specific symptoms can be a huge problem for docs. Also can delay important early treatments.

It’s wild what we see folks share there. Rare disorders are hard for the front lines of an ER. If paralysis results they get a neuro involved and it goes well. If less than paralysis — maybe a neuro, maybe not... with varying results that have more to do with timing of when a neuro gets involved.

Usually it’s at the “oh crap” MRI point in time, like mine was. Up until that point it was thought to be an orthopedic problem. :)

The ongoing joke in the group is the day you were diagnosed js forever known as your “crapiversary”. LOL. People share their onset story and we all yell virtually, Happy Crapiversary! :)
 
denverpilot said:
We see people on our support group all the time who’ve had acute attacks and went to a typical ER and weren’t treated with steroids, weren’t recognized as neuro patients, all sorts of awful misdiagnosis in initial assessments... having something rare happen to you that expresses as very non-specific symptoms can be a huge problem for docs. Also can delay important early treatments.
Click to expand...
I have been reading a book called "Slow Medicine". It isn't a technical book as much as it's a doc's journey from medical school through residency. One thing she learned early on, from an experienced doc, was that the key to good treatment is a correct diagnosis, and taking the time to find it, which is difficult in the era of 15 minutes per patient. It's probably worse in the ER. She's about my age, so she's seen many changes in the way medicine is practiced.
 
denverpilot said:
They just watered the grass with plutonium water. What’s the big problem?! LOL.

Not to mention the incinerators...

The history of Rocky Flats is fascinating and sad. The Grand Jury eventually all came out with what they learned even after being told if they spoke about it, they’d be tried as traitors...

Ironically my employer does business with a company that specializes in home care for the many many people hurt by that industry.

They opened an open space trail through the edges of the place. I won’t be hiking there. Fairly controversial in the local news.
Click to expand...

Yeah, BTDT ... I built and worked on a number of their Oracle databases back before the shutdown and on into the cleanup/shutdown years.
 
Nate and Karen know you are not alone. You are held tightly in the thoughts, prayers, and hopes of many and us in particular.

Jon and Jeanie
 
steingar said:
Our EAA chapter had a presentation about Angel Flights. The big conclusion was "don't get sick in a small town".
Click to expand...

Yeah. The rat colonies do have their perks when it comes to higher concentrations of medical rats. LOL.

So far being about a half an hour outside of one has been about the best balance point I can handle.

Karen travels to a couple of rural hospitals a year teaching nurses about the latest in wound care. She says they’re always very appreciative and amazed at her photos of what a specialized wound care clinic can accomplish. (Hers is even equipped for hyperbaric chamber treatments for the patients who’s wounds and bodied respond better to high oxygen levels.)

Also quite a few more truly ADA compliant rat buildings there.

I chuckled at the disaster of modifications someone had to come up with to make the rural license plate office (that’s in an old bank but used to be in the 1800s vintage courthouse) “accessible” when I went to get the handicap placard.

Calling it truly wheelchair accessible would be a stretch, but it probably met the letter of the law.

I suppose us rednecks would just modify the chair with knobby off road tires and a Cummins diesel and it would be able to go over the door jams and such of a messed up building like that one. Hahaha.
 
denverpilot said:
Meanwhile they’re ordering a lumbar puncture to go get some of my spinal fluid.

Sounds decidedly un-fun. Well more un-fun than usual I guess.
Click to expand...

I do hope it goes well.

For a very small number of people (or if they do it wrong), it can turn into a spinal leak. Which is even more debilitating. I've followed this person on Facebook and her website for a while.... https://www.legalnomads.com/spinal-tap/
 
First off, I don't know how I missed this thread until @Half Fast tagged me. I've been following Nate's progress on Facebook but this is a lot more detailed. Nate, I'm really sorry this is happening.

Everskyward said:
I have been reading a book called "Slow Medicine". It isn't a technical book as much as it's a doc's journey from medical school through residency. One thing she learned early on, from an experienced doc, was that the key to good treatment is a correct diagnosis, and taking the time to find it, which is difficult in the era of 15 minutes per patient. It's probably worse in the ER. She's about my age, so she's seen many changes in the way medicine is practiced.
Click to expand...

We haven't had any sort of major medical issues in our household (fortunately), but I've noticed the same thing. These days nobody wants to prescribe antibiotics because of overprescription when I was a kid. They also won't take the time to try to actually diagnose what's going on. So what ends up happening is you have to be sick for a month before they'll prescribe anything, because it's a 15 minute look-see and "It's probably a virus or allergies. Have some Zyrtec. Oh that didn't work? Well keep trying and just wait longer."

None of this is life-threatening, of course, but it is annoying. We've literally had to go a month or more of being sick and having something progress to the point of pneumonia before getting a prescription.

denverpilot said:
I suppose us rednecks would just modify the chair with knobby off road tires and a Cummins diesel and it would be able to go over the door jams and such of a messed up building like that one. Hahaha.
Click to expand...

Half Fast said:
Paging @Ted DuPuis .......
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I'm in if we can get the required parts together. Should we make a new "Building Nate a Roll Coal Wheelchair" thread?
 
I appreciate the sentiment on the wheelchair, but if it’s all the same to you guys I’d rather not have one!!!! :)
 
steingar said:
Mrs. Steingar got a lumbar injection once. Wasn't happy for her, and watching I just about lost my lunch.
Click to expand...
I've been known to pass out with a cortizone shot....I pitty the fool who has to give me a lumbar injection...
 
denverpilot said:
I appreciate the sentiment on the wheelchair, but if it’s all the same to you guys I’d rather not have one!!!! :)
Click to expand...

Agreed, that's everyone's hoped for outcome for you. :)

Just know that if you want us to make you a cool rolling coal vehicle to help with your mobility, I'll do what I can to make that happen.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Agreed, that's everyone's hoped for outcome for you. :)

Just know that if you want us to make you a cool rolling coal vehicle to help with your mobility, I'll do what I can to make that happen.
Click to expand...
I’m in. If it’s needed. Praying it’s not.
 
Craig said:
Cummins powered Segway maybe???:p
Click to expand...

I was thinking something like Jay's Boss Hoss 305 Chevy-powered bar stool, but yeah with a Cummins of some sort since Nate's a Cummins fan. An L10 or a Big Cam 400 would be ideal, but I think those weigh in at something like 1500-2,000 lbs. Even a 6BT or the baby 4BT is in the 1,000 lb range, but that can still be worked with.

 
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