Doctor Updates

Sorry I haven't been posting as much lately. To be honest, I have trouble getting inspired about much of anything when it's so dang hot. I've heard of a disorder called SAD. Apparently, people get it in the winter, when the days get shorter, when there's less sunlight. For me, it's the other way around. I start feeling lethargic when the sun is out for hours on end, beating down on everything with unrelenting heat. Ugh! Give me fall & winter anytime! I mean, heck, you can always put on more clothes, ya know what I mean?

Anyways... I now have the updates for you on my numb feet. In case you missed my earlier post, my feet have been going numb when I work out at the gym. It happens every time I get on the treadmill, or the bike, or the crossramp machine. Not painful, but annoying just the same. Well, I went to the Sports & Orthopedic clinic first, where he asked a lot of questions, then ran several blood tests. The tests all came back normal, including the one for diabetes. When he called me with the results, he said he was stymied. He had no answers, and said maybe the neurologist would figure something out.

My neurology appointment was yesterday morning. The doctor performed a nerve conduction study. The doctor was great, but I definitely wouldn't recommend the test. First, they send electrical shocks into the nerves in your legs, to check that the nerves are properly conducting impulses. The shocks near your feet aren't so bad. But as they go further up your legs, the nerves apparently get deeper, because he kept turning up the power on the electrocution machine. With every shock, you involuntarily jerk and yelp. After a while, I started laughing, just because I felt so silly squirming all over the table! Part two was the needle torture. For this part of the test, the doctor takes acupuncture needles, and inserts them into various muscles in your legs. Then, he wiggles the needle around, as he listens to your muscle. Finally, he asks you to flex your muscle, as he wiggles the needle around. Big ouchie!!! At the end of the testing, he said that I did better than a lot of people. He said many people tell him to stop, and actually leave the office without completing the test, saying that it's the worst pain they've ever felt.

Final results? He teased me that I'm obviously just crazy, since I (that is, my nerves & muscles) performed better on the tests than about 95% of the population would. He said he's seen other cases just like mine, where no cause is ever found. The answer is to just deal with the numbness, and be really thankful that the experts didn't find anything, since if they did, it would probably be "really bad". So, there's my answer. There is no answer. But hey, I'll definitely take that over a "really bad" answer anyday!