Uncoordinated Confusion (part 2)

With the frequency of my episodes increasing and my trip overseas approaching, I was anxious to get answers. Since I didn't have a primary care physician that I saw regularly, I wasn't able to get an appointment right away to see a doctor as a new patient. However, a medical practice that I was interested in had a Nurse Practitioner that could see me before I left on my vacation. She was very nice, understanding, and listened attentively to everything I shared with her. She ordered a full set of labs but also suggested that what I was experiencing might be symptoms of anxiety due to planning my trip and the increased stress at work. It didn't quite seem right to me since I'd never had issues with anxiety previously, but I took it into consideration and tried to introduce stress-relieving practices into my life. The only thing that came back abnormal on my labwork was that I was iron anemic, so I started on an iron supplement. The Nurse Practitioner had told me that she wouldn't be surprised if I didn't have any episodes on my trip overseas. Unfortunately her prediction was wrong. My episodes continued throughout my vacation, but I didn't let that deter me from enjoying my travel experience.

When I returned from my vacation I was having about twenty episodes a day, which frightened and annoyed me at the same time. I just wanted to figure out what was causing them, fix it, and move forward with my normal life. I didn't have time for these things to continue interrupting my life at random! About a couple weeks of being home, I had another appointment with the Nurse Practitioner I had seen previously. The look of shock on her face when I told her that I had counted an approximate 20 episodes each day was slightly startling. Obviously it wasn't anxiety causing the episodes, there was something more to it. It was then that she really got busy. That was also the first time that the idea of MS was seriously introduced to me as a possible cause for my symptoms. She ordered more blood work to rule out other things like Lupus, Lyme disease, and HIV. She persuaded my insurance company to approve MRI scans of my brain and two sections of my spine when they were originally only going to approve a scan of my brain. They scheduled the MRI for the following week and also scheduled an appointment as soon as possible with a neurologist. 

*this is part 2 of a 4 part series