A couple of years ago, we posted a blog in which our community ?interviewed? me. Lots of questions were submitted and our editors culled them down to about 30 and I answered. It was good fun and I think I surprised a few people with some of my responses.
One retort had me saying ?I?m not sick. I?m a healthy person with MS? or something like that. Last week, as I sat in between two of the three appointments I?d scheduled for the day, I began to feel a little bit differently? kind of.
I sat in the hospital?s cafeteria having a salad for my lunch and availing myself of the free wi-fi that was offered. The hospital?s executive chef happened to be on that particular campus and he stopped by to say hello. We?ve had a professional relationship that pre-dates my MS and it was nice to catch up.
After Chef left I watched him go out the door of the dining room.
Just past that door, if you take a right and go down the hall about a hundred yards (with one slight jog left) you?d come to the infusion center where I?ve had my share of Novantrone treatments. It?s one of better than a dozen rooms I?ve had that blue juice dripped into my veins (at three different MS centers).
My lunch break was after a little more than two hours in the MRI tunnel. We first sliced by brain up and then I was slid a bit further in to ?do? my c-spine. Then in came the infusion of gadilidinum (with its saline smell and metallic after-taste) so we could see if I was leaking and we re-did the neck before having another go at the brain.
Though I didn?t fall asleep this time (at least I don?t think I did), I was my usual good patient and the MRI tech was a little bit surprise that I could stay calm and still and we didn?t need to re-shoot any of the series. I kind of surprised myself that I was able to keep from swallowing for a couple of the four and seven minute sets of scans. That was a first for me.
Upon entering the MS center itself, there were hugs and kisses on cheeks. Greetings like old friends meeting for a drink rather than patient and medical staff were the order of the day. I was introduced to new staffers and generally chatted up like an old friend.
Not an unlike scenario played itself out a couple of weeks earlier when I visited my diagnosing neurologist?s office for some paperwork and to get copies of my medical records.
It was when I was on my way to the orthotics lab for my final appointment (fitting for a new leg brace) that I began to realize that I was an old hand at this stuff. I?ve lived with a diagnosis of MS for over eleven years now and I?m just used to the stuff that might make a newbie fret. My docs e-mail me and I have their addresses. It?s not uncommon to run into someone from the clinic (or from any of the MS centers around Seattle) at events (MS events or just in the grocery).
I began to realize that, while I still don?t think of myself as ?sick?, I am definitely comfortable working myself through the medical system. I trod the well-worn paths from appointment to appointment to follow-up to pharmacy.
?Sick? might still be something I care not to think of myself as. Maybe I?ve just become something of a ?professional? patient; well, at least an ?expert? patient. If I were a pro, they?d have to pay me!
Wishing you and your family the best of health
Cheers
Trevis
Don?t forget that you can also follow me via our Life With MS Facebook page, on Twitter, and our new group on MS Connection.org. Check out our bi-monthly blog for the UK and look for our Very Special new monthly blog for the National MS Society.
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