Okay, I’ve written before about how I am very familiar with the downtown campus of the Henry Ford Hospital. Both my Mom and I are. I think she’s a little more familiar though! Neither one of us had EVER been to this part of the hospital. It was a culture shock! It was on the 12th floor and the hallways were extremely skinny! That’s not difficult if you are one person walking through the clinic. But I am kind of a lot in my motorized chair with my legs extended.
I made it through all right though. They had me go directly to the x-ray room. I’ve never had x-rays on my feet like this before! Toni, was excellent though! She held my feet as the pictures were taken because it was obvious that I can no longer control my feet. All of this was immediately intimidating because the hallway was so skinny and I cannot control my feet at all! I was ashamed at how pronated they were and it made me sad!
Once I was taken back into a room, we talked with the in-take nurse and I noticed this poster on the wall which is an extremely sad commentary on our part!:
A female doctor came in and asked what was going on with me. She was pleasant with me and had me take my compression socks off (my Mom did that!). That was so strange! Although I was barefoot during my appointment, my feet did not turn purple but they did not feel comfortable either!
Dr. King was extremely young! So was his counterpart! She had her name tag on but I could not read it very well but I saw that her first name was Chrystina with a Y?! I have never seen that before but I liked her because she also graduated from Michigan!
Dr. King has known many people with MS and he said that it is strange how it varies so much! He stated a man that he knew was diagnosed when he (Dr.King) was four years old and the man stopped working when Dr. King was about 35. So, he looks a lot younger than he is! I told him that I thought it would be like that with me but it’s not!
Well, one thing that I really liked about him was that he explained to me what he normally does with Botox and Orthotics and stuff but I explained to him that I’ve only been down that path a while ago. He then, paused and looked at me. He recommended a therapy and rehab place in Grand Rapids:
Grand Rapids is more than just a hop, skip, and then jump from me and as we spoke, he kind of understood that this is where I am. I have explained how if certain therapies were available 15 years ago then I might try them out but I got the impression that he understood that I’ve had MS for a very long time! He didn’t say it to me but he kind of understood that this is how it’s going to be for the rest of my life without saying it to me. I think that I really appreciated that!
Because we were in downtown Detroit, my Mom stopped off at the Tamaleria and I had a fresh and warm tamale! Or, better yet 2 1/2 fresh and warm tamales! They were DELICIOUS!!!