Leave it to a Fryer/Hamilton

Mom has made my blog again. This past Thursday, her and I went to the "Secondary Stroke Prevention Clinic" in Kitchener. The purpose of this clinic is to assess whether or not a person has had a stroke, and decide what measures can be taken to hopefully prevent another one. I was present as a "witness to the event".

What makes this blog worthy is that the doctor, a stroke specialist and neurologist, is not sure what happened or is happening to Ladyfingers. He is sending her for more tests in London, as well as an MRI and ECG.

When a doctor needs to make a diagnosis, all of the information that you can provide the doctor with is helpful...or so you would think. After he finished his neurological exam on mom (actually, he appeared to be torturing her), I thought that I should let him know about the tests that I performed on mom the evening of the "event" and the following day.

I told the doctor that I performed a "fine motor skills" test. I asked her to hold her hands out in front of her face and connect her thumb and index fingers in the shape of an "O", and repeat this action. She had difficulty executing this with her left hand. As the week went by, this action improved (and the subject kept practicing!).

So the doctor left the room to summarize his evaluation of Ladyfingers, and when he returned he looked at me and said, "So what is it that you do?". I replied, "I'm a kitchen designer". He sure didn't expect that one!

Ok - so the fact that mom has issues on both sides of her face, pain behind her left ear, and yes, decreased motor skills with her left hand means that she likely did not have a stroke. The combination of all these things at the same time is "interesting", and somewhat unique. So the more information the doctor had, the more difficult it became to diagnose.

Considering entering the medical profession,

Emily

P.S. Don't worry, I did tell the doctor that I have MS, and am therefore familiar with neurological testing.