No.158. Countdown to diagnosis (1)

Chris had been limping for quite a few months. I would tease him about it in between nagging him to see the doctor. People were commenting on it. Late one Sunday evening in February 2014, someone came to the door to say we had sheep out on the road. Chris went out to fetch them back. When he came back in he was quite upset as he said he could hardly walk up the lane as his legs were like jelly.

I made an appointment for him to see the doctor the next day. 

On February 11th 2014 Chris visited our GP. I thought he would comeback with a diagnosis of arthritis or something similar. He said the doctor told him he had a dropped foot and did a blood test to check muscle function. She was referring him to a neurologist, I thought that didn't sound good and alarm bells started to ring, though I kept my fears to myself. Chris had also been complaining about weakness in his hands and had been having some terrible cramps in the back of his thighs and his stomach. He had also started to slur his speech a little. I Googled the symptoms...top of the list was Motor Neurone Disease. Oh my God no I thought, not Chris. please let it be some thing else.

A few days later Chris had a phone call from the GP. He was being referred to a Rheumatologist now. OK, thank goodness I thought, it must be something else. I had also noticed his body was twitching a lot now too.. all the time. My gut feeling was not good.. Please let me be wrong. 

Two weeks later he had an appointment arrive to see Dr Endean, the Rheumatologist, on March 21st 2014 at Treslike.

Now the waiting began.