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ok we've gotten way off topic i'm sorry harry i don't think we will agree on health care please continue with this thread it is fasinating again harry i apologize shelley

mom10789 wrote:well maybe things are better there i waited two years in oshawa

Out of curiosity, what were the circumstances behind that immense wait for the MRI?

our emergency rooms are a nightmare

One of big reasons for this in your area (and pretty much all areas) is that the public has been using ER's for the most basic of medical checks because they either don't have a family GP or they don't want to go to the walk-in clinics. It's too bad people didn't use this facility for what it was intended and that is emergency medical care.

I can remember a number of years ago going to visit a very sick friend in a Toronto hospital and I had to go through the ER dept where he was waiting for a bed. I overheard a mother and her 12 year old daughter speaking to one of the nurses ....the daughter had a bit of a sore throat!!!!

harry i'm glad you can get things done quickly but things are not the same all over ontario

I wish that were true all of the time but it isn't. Fortunately, because we know the system from Marg's working days, we can bypass some of the nonsense. But I do get tired of of having to prod people to do their jobs in some cases....it's a delicate balance...complain too much and they make you wait longer!

Take care.

Harry

I work in an emergency department as a nurse in Australia and i get so infuriated with people coming in with ridiculous complaints that should be seen by a local doctor.

I will never understand why intelligent people will bring children or themselves in to the ED at 3am with a sore throat, sore finger, and itchy rash etc etc.

Of course then they will complain all night because it's taking so long to be seen.

Seems like it is a world wide problem.

Elly

I tried reading the pages before to see the last on-topic response, and when I came back, there were 3 or 4 more posts and I lost my train of thought. so here goes at getting back on topic.

I would pose the question regarding different strains of MS as "or is it that we are still diagnosing a number of different medical conditions as a single disease?" Historically, groups of people who were previously being diagnosed with MS, have been found to actually have some other medical condition that newly gets a name.

oo

Lyon wrote:....I don't think any evidence has ever been produced that would justify thinking that MS is different but similar illnesses or even the same symptoms produced by different processes...

I think history has proved otherwise. There is Lyme disease for one, and that other condition (cant remember the name) where they found around 2-10% of people diagnosed with MS actually had condition X and 90% of people with condition X were originally diagnosed with MS.

I personally was diagnposed with another AI condition for 10 years. And even now, I havnt had a LP. I was diagnosed based on 10years of history, an MRI and peripheral nerve conduction tests (as well as a number of different tests for differential diagnosis, on my own accord eg B12 deficiency). Also there was another active member here called OddDuck that has come with a new diagnosis.

i went to an intern and because i had numbness on both sides of my body i did not have ms therefore i did not need a mri right away at the time it did not bother me because they thought my husband had cancer of the spine now he had a really quick mri

oo

Lyon wrote:I probably disagree that misdiagnoses happens as often as you seem to think it does.

huh? how often do I think it happens?

Lyon wrote:...say 100 people diagnosed with MS and if you did painstaking testing to separate whatever percentage really should have been diagnosed with something else....I guess what I'm saying is that I feel that the legitimately diagnosed cases of MS are all of the same mechanism.

I think you may have missed my point. I am not saying that people have necessarily been "miss diagnosed". My point (and I can see how I wasnt clear) is that I wouldn't be supprised (as in its just a half baked idea) that MS will turn out to be more than a single illness. There has already been a history of additional differential diagnosis's added, and I *think* that will continue.

There, clear as mud full of parasites.

oo

Lyon wrote:I'm getting the idea that you are of the opinion that when the other diseases are separated there will be nothing left to call MS?

No, not at all. But then again, never say never...