No, I Didn't Bark This Year

When last visiting the neurologist, I asked about a possible peripheral neuropathy that had been identified last year. I had never followed up on it as I was diagnosed with the meningioma that night too. At that time brain tumor trumped possible early peripheral neuropathy and provided a significant distraction for quite some time. So, now I asked about whether the peripheral and central nerve issues were related. She said no but the conditions could co-occur and asked if I wanted a follow-up nerve conduction study. I said yes. I got myself into this thing.

Most nerve conduction study descriptions refer to them as mildly uncomfortable. Come again? Maybe I'm just an outlier on the bell curve. Or possibly my admittedly challenged nervous system is to blame. But whatever the reason, I find an hour plus of repeated electrical input to my muscles to be an intensely jarring experience.

My first nerve conduction study was last year. The technician was unbelievably cool. He was skilled at the art of conversing in a fashion that felt genuine in spite of delivering electrical shocks that punctuated our chat. So, Donna what do you do for fun?  Well, before I got sick I was into the mountains  -- uugh, ow -- and playing in them especially -- irrgh, uh--.  So, how do you get spiritually fed now? Well, hmm, good question, I guess -- uugh, yeow--  You get the idea.

He did warn me before a set on the back of my leg that most folks found these particular ones difficult.  However, quite to my surprise, one jolted my head and leg off the table and it happened. I barked. Or at least a loud sound closely resembling a bark was uttered by me in an abrupt sudden fashion. The technician snapped his head around and exclaimed that in his many years doing this, he'd heard all sorts of sounds and curses but that no one had ever barked!

So, I was dreading the test this year. My pal Diane drove me to the appointment. We were laughing and creatively trying to come up with affirmations that would help me maintain during the test. However, the testing was significantly shorter than last year and much less difficult. Well, the EMG portion with the needles in the muscles wasn't too fun. But overall it was nothing compared to last year. Best of all, the doc said I'm slow on a couple of nerve responses but that he didn't see any peripheral involvement -- test normal. One less neurological concern. Now there's only two on the table. Now that's worth barking over!

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