moor trees

Today was the long-awaited appointment with the new neurologist; unfortunately, even though the appointment was five months in the waiting, & actually confirmed over a month ago, they didn't have my notes from my previous neurologist! Alarm bells should've rung when we checked in, as the file they pulled was far slimmer than the last time I saw it, but I just vaguely thought that perhaps all the obsolete old stuff had been pruned out by the previous hospital.

There's nothing like starting off on the wrong foot with a new consultant, but at least it was he who was wrong-footed rather than me; I was simply flummoxed, to the extent that I couldn't remember the answers to half the questions he asked (& neither could hubby, although was not so much flummoxed as seething at their inefficiency); luckily, I was able to present him with a list (a full side of A4) of all my current symptoms. It was also lucky that I'd opted to wear my purple leopard-print sox, as he spent quite some time searching for non-existent reflexes (I told him they were AWOL) in my ankles - perhaps he wasn't really searching for the reflexes, but was simply admiring my sox?!

So a not very satisfactory outcome to all those months of waiting. At least I'm now being allocated an MS nurse (I really miss my old one), & he's going to refer me for physiotherapy; he also recommended two drugs: Sativex (legal highs!), & errr, another one that I'd never heard of & can't remember the name of ?. unfortunately, he followed these recommendations with the information that neither are currently being funded (or possibly aren't even licensed?) by our local PCT. Talk about a postcode lottery!

I shouldn't have been surprised that the appointment was such a let-down, they usually are; and I always come away from these things obsessing over all the things I wish I'd said but didn't, or things I did say but wish I'd said differently ?.. but on the plus side, the hours I'd spent following the route on google street view paid off: my navigation was impeccable, & we didn't get lost once. And even better, we then got the pleasure of driving home across the moor in the late afternoon sun.

p.s. that blob on the far right horizon is the backside of a pony
p.p.s. such was my flummoxation that I forgot_to_mention the Noel Edmunds episode! Ah well, there's always next time ....