As of Monday, April 7, 2008

Type of Doctor: Neurologist
New Symptoms: N/A
Diagnosis:

Bilateral Saphenous Nerve Impingement/Entrapment. My good friends and brothers and sisters in Christ, after 5 weeks and countless imaging studies, blood tests, and physical examinations, I have been diagnosed! AND! it is NOT cancer or autoimmune! What is “cool” about this is that according to the most recently published textbook on nerve entrapment syndromes, I am the 3rd person ever documented to have this condition (because, according to my Neurologist, most entrapment syndromes are in the back of the leg)!

A Bilateral Saphenous Nerve Impingement is the crushing of the Saphenous Nerve (a main nerve that runs in the front of the leg) by my thigh muscle due to the nerve slipping out of its sheath. There is no definite diagnosis as to why this happened and there is no guarantee that this will stay “healed” after it is fixed. BUT! It is neither life-threatening nor life-altering. Praise be to God for that!

The treatment for this problem is high doses of steroids designed to flush out the inflammation of the muscle that is entrapping this nerve. I also am now on nerve pain medication (which, apparently is why narcotics didn’t work: constant pain while on a level 3 narcotic is diagnostic of nerve pain) which is designed to put my nerve into a “coma” of sorts. With less inflammation and a “comatose” nerve, it should slip back into its sheath. If this is successful, I will simply wake up one morning and be completely pain free!

However, this process is not guaranteed to work. If I complete my course of medications and have yet to experience relief, there is a more complex process that will need to be done. I will need to have an EEG of my left leg to pinpoint the exact location of the entrapped nerve. Once they locate it, I will receive routine local anesthetic injections designed to make the muscle “fall asleep.” When that happens, the nerve should slip right back into its sheath. If that is unsuccessful, I will have to have surgery on my thigh. The surgeon will shave away a small portion of the area of the muscle that is entrapping my nerve. This will enable the nerve to slip right back into its sheath!

I have a long road ahead of me, and that road is riddled with intense medications that will alter my demeanor significantly. Once the pain is gone, it will also be necessary for me to embark on physical therapy so I can learn how to walk again. But if all goes as planned, I will be walking (pain free!) in 2.5 months! What an answer to prayer.

I believe that my meeting this specific Neurologist was not by accident: I truly believe that it was ordained by God (as is everything else). Here is why: after getting my version of the history of this ordeal, the doctor reached his hand next to my hip and told me he was looking for my pulse. From what I have heard, only children get their pulse checked in this manner. Secondly, there was no medical reason for him to check my pulse. God-thing, in my opinion. Furthermore, while checking my pulse in that area, he noticed that I flinched away in pain whenever his hand touched my muscle. I had never known that I was in pain in that area until he pressed there. He immediately looked at me as though he had found his inspiration. He then proceeded to take out a needle and poke my left leg in different areas. It was brought to my attention at that very moment that I had lost sensation in certain areas of my left leg: some parts of my leg did not feel the pain of him poking me with a needle. Again: God-thing, in my opinion. He then left the room and returned with two books. One of those books had the two documented cases of what I have. Once more: God-thing, in my opinion!

Had it not been that doctor and had he not checked my pulse and had he not had that book, I would have been sent to an endocrinologist, which would continue to point to a very serious problem. I believe it is because of the prayers of all of you that I have been diagnosed. Thank you all for everything you have done for me: from your prayers to your words to your simple smiles when I roll into your presence. You all are precious to me, God-sends, good gifts from above. I love you all.

I feel the necessity of adding a disclaimer: due to the extremely rare nature of my condition, my doctor did caution me against taking away from this appointment a 100% certainty that I have what he says I have. He believes that he can say with 90% certainty that he is correct. Due to the 10% of doubt, he drew more blood and is testing for a complete autoimmune disorder panel. If those come back negative, he is right. If not, well, we take it from there.