I just stopped at home after an appointment with a neurosurgeon. He was recommended by my primary physician. I don't have an appointment to see a neurologist until the end of July. I am so confused why I had to go see this guy ASAP before seeing the neurologist. In fact, I'm not really sure how to proceed.

So, I'm doing all of this because of these weird leg "twitches" which are more like "spasms". they started almost 5 years ago, very slowly and very steadily have become more and more problematic as they get more and more intense. To start the process, I went for an EMG & NCV, and a series of MRI's. Now, we have to see what they say.

So, I got my own copies of the MRI's and went to this neurosurgeon.

Have you ever have an experience where the experience of just walking into the office "colors" your view of how the doctor may perform? this was one of those.

Tiny, TINY reception room. Crowded. Chairs full. Young kid running, stomping, flailing around the tight space, not listening to his dad, who is half-heartedly trying to get him to stop. Magazines are old - I had to read Chicago Magazine from October 2005. No magazine was newer than February 2006. The climate is like a sweatbox. The woman behind the desk says they have a thermostat that seems to not do anything. There are signs everywhere about insurance companies that have changed diagnostic benefits or are no longer being accepted (you immediately start wondering why? Are the insurance companies continue to tighten their belts, or is this doctor being dropped from networks?) The size of the complete office can easily fit inside a construction trailer.

My huge envelope of MRI films feels like it weighs 20 pounds. I waited in one of the two exam rooms. The doctor came in, we talked briefly, and he started to go through the films.

But he's literally throwing the film sheets into the catches on the x-ray viewer on the wall. To me, the patient and uninformed viewer of the films, I don't see where he's actually checking each image. Maybe he's an expert and he doesn't need to pause because he's seen this all before and even the most microscopic pattern will jump out on him and he'll stop to pay attention. Nope, this doesn't happen, he just throws film. He abruptly stops and decides he better write something down, but instead goes across across the hall to his office to get a microcasette dictation recorder, and comes back and briefly dictates things that he does notice. He makes a comment that there's a lot of duplicate films... I try to remind him that there is without contrast and with contrast, but he doesn't hear me. In fact, during the course of the exam, I feel like he's not listening to me. He hears me, but his brain is just working the issues and I can't seem to penetrate his thoughts. "Fwapp! Fwapp!" he throws the sheets. He does see a few things that re probably already in the reports that are still in a folder on the table.

We go through a physical exam checking reflexes and Babinski's.

He sits down at the table and goes through the report, every once in a while dictating the findings of the report as his findings, as if he noticed these items in the films.

Then we talk.

Basically, he's stumped and has no clue. What he sees in the films and what I have don't make sense. He even mentions he may need a second opinion, maybe even from a university!

So, I'm supposed to go to the neurologist as scheduled and see what she says, and have her report sent to him... and then we'll meet a few weeks after that...

I think not.