Morning, friends
Saw the neurologist yesterday. The progress report is: I am overall doing worse (yep). He ordered more blood and wants me to come in to the office to see a neuromuscular specialist, who will likely move my EMG/NCV up. He didn’t say this, but the post-visit summary/report has that listed as “Myasthenia Gravis consultation.” which is the closest anyone has had to a specific guess so far. I googled it (duh) and… I mean, it sounds like it could be treatable to some degree and I could regain some function, so that’s something. I had a foster dog once with MG, though, and it was one of the saddest diseases I’ve ever seen in a dog. She lost her bark and drooled a lot, then got weaker and weaker in the back (she did have a period of doing better, but I can’t remember why. Pred?) and started regurgitating her food (it causes megaesophagus in dogs, which is basically what it sounds like. If you’ve ever seen videos or pictures of dogs eating in special dog high chairs, it’s because megaesophagus dogs can keep their food down if they stay upright while they eat and immediately after) and eventually became weak in the front as well. She was too weak to sit up and so couldn’t stay upright for feeding. And she was like a two-year-old coonhound, which just made it worse because she still had all the energy and curiosity of a young dog, but couldn’t run or play for long. The vet specialist had some possible treatment that might work, but would take a long time to have an effect and also might not work, and… since we’re a lot kinder and more merciful to dogs than we are to humans, we put her to sleep. The vet specialists asked us to donate her body to science, which I didn’t really know was a thing for dogs, but I guess they thought she might be able to tell them more about the disease. Ruby was her name. She was a good girl.
Anyway, so that’s yesterday. I was going to skip PT for the day for the neuro appointment and ask his opinion on continuing PT or pausing it, but he didn’t want to really say anything at all til I see the next guy. I’m supposed to get a call to schedule the appointment “very soon, at least before the end of the week,” which means I’ll probably call them Friday or Monday. He made it sound like this was something that needed to/would happen ASAP, so… we’ll see. I know how this works and will not be surprised if they’re like “okay, well the next available appointment is in February 2024, so we’ll just put you down for that…” In the meantime, I figured I’d better schedule my next week’s PT appointment because skipping a few weeks isn’t really the best idea and I have no idea when I’ll see this next doctor and they were like “we have an opening this afternoon!” so I went.
Still have to get the blood drawn. Since it was a video visit, there was no convenient phlebotomist and I will have to locate one. Google says there’s a place nearby, but I’ll still have to find a ride.
Next steps also include figuring out the whole process of filing for disability. Going to call vocational rehab again today as a last ditch. If there’s any way I can work, that’s what I want to do. I have a friend who is a paralegal for a personal injury lawyer (who also, apparently, does lots of disability cases) and she keeps telling me to call them for a consultation. I suppose I can do that, too. Hiring a lawyer sounds really expensive, but I know it’s supposed to be the best way to go. But… expensive.
Roommate and kid are going on a float trip for the next few days, so it will be quiet here. Oh, how I’ve missed quiet. I wonder if I can get someone to come over and help me clean the house (slash mostly do it for me) because this feels like my one opportunity to maybe have my house clean for fifteen minutes without immediately having toys strewn everywhere and dirty dishes and beer cans suddenly reappear all over the place and clothes and trash all over the floor like a game of filth whack-a-mole.
I’ve written or co-written many of the other training docs in the department and the ones that are used for training inventory clerks in other departments, so I know that I’m capable once I have it down.
The link in my post above goes to a rare public post on my FB page - I mostly do Friends Only - so if you want to friend me, that’s the place to do it. But you might want to send a PM so I know who wants to be my friend. 
