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Feeling like I'm the Quack or the Doc I just saw is!

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 7:59 pm
by Barndog
Hi All,

I'm going to make my very long story as short as possible in hopes that some of you bright individuals can help me more that the so-called Neuro did. I have been presenting with symptoms for over 10 years but have only had two neuro exams. One for after a roll over car wreck and one last week. However, I have seen my PCP on several occasions about the issues and he has referred me to an ENT which diagnosed Menier's in 2008 because of the vertigo and tunneling noises I was having. I don't remember much about that other than I had to get these tubey things down my ears and listen to noises along with an MRI of the neck and some other tests. In 2007 I saw my PCP for all of the same symptoms that I'm having now and he ordered an MRI of the brain and Spine at that time. Both MRI's came back normal except for issues with disc degeneration and bulging discs. I completely forgot about the MRI's when I went to the neuro last week and therefore we had no base line to work with. This neuro was an absolute jerk (putting it mildly). He was supposed to spend one hour with me and he spent 20 minutes. He fired off so many questions that I didn't have answers to and then became agitated with me for not knowing what he wanted. I had made a very extensive two page list of all of my symptoms for the last 10 years along with a time-line indicating when they started and stopped, if they stopped at all. I figured that would be enough. I'm certainly not going to bore you with all of them but I can assure you that almost every one points to MS.

Little more background on this. The hospital that he referred me to wanted $3500 for this MRI and I had a $5000 deductable. Since both of my parents work in the health care industry they advised me to go to a facility that was off-site from a hospital. I found one that offered the same MRI using the same machine and strength as the hospital and it was only $575. I chose to go this route as I figured there would be more MRI's to come but if there wasn't, I would only be out $575 rather than $3500.

I had my MRI yesterday and was given the report which indicated some abnormalities. I faxed the copy of my old reports along with the new one to my doctor today and this afternoon I received a message from his nurse that said my MRI is just fine and I should see an ENT for my vertigo. All I can think is that he read the report from five years ago because it was from the facility that he referred me to go to and he didn't pay attention to the date. I think he just saw the hospitals name on it and figured that was the one. Not sure, but this is all I could come up with. He had originally said that if we didn't find anything on the brain MRI we would move to the neck and spine. His nurses voice mail also told me that he said I didn't need to come back to his office again as it could just be fibromyalgia (it could be). What happened to moving on to the neck and spine?

Here are the results from my MRI from yesterday. Just giving you the impression.

1. Questionable very small subacute infarct versus artifact accounting for the questionable restricted diffusion in the left side of the pons. This is not substantiated on any other sequence. A follow-up study may be of benefit.

2. Elsewhere, a few small foci of T2 prolongation are seen in subcortical white matter tracts in the cerebral hemispheres. These are non specific foci that could be associated with chronic migraine headaches in the appropriate setting. Microvascular disease of other etiologies could also present in this fashion.


I, of course checked all of this out with the help of the www. and it seems to me that the Microvascular disease could be either mini-strokes or it could be MS. Why would this doc absolutely just disregard this information? I never once told him I had migraines, so why would he just ignore this. If I hadn't received this information I would have just assumed that everything was ok and I was just "imagining" symptoms as he thought. What are your thoughts on my MRI results?

BTW....This doc apparently has an awful rep in the area. After I met with him I sat in my car and cried for 45 minutes because it was such an horrible experience. I then started asking around about him as I have friends and customers that have MS and Parkinson's. I have three separate incidences of pretty much the same exact experience. I usually do all of my research before I make a decision but had I even paid attention to his reviews on-line I would have ran for the hills.

I had no intentions of returning to this guy but since he was paid to help I figured I would get his opinion. Have another neuro appt at the end of the month.