As most of you know, I spent the last four days in the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda and it was a great time, well, as great as it could be. For those of you who don’t know, my left foot quit working the way it’s supposed to almost two years ago. At first the doctors thought it was ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), but I’m still alive, so it’s not ALS in it’s traditional occurrence. And there’s no family history of it, although that isn’t much of an indicator.<\/p>\n
So the doctors wanted to run a butt-load of tests and they invited me to spend the week with them so they could run them. Some of you might remember that I was very critical of the admin people at the old Walter Reed and I predicted that would change when they moved to Bethesda, and that prediction was borne out this week. The troops who end up there are finally being treated like they should have been all along.<\/p>\n
Before I was admitted, the doctors laid out for me an elaborate scheme of the tests they hoped to accomplish. I figured, based on previous experience that I’d be laying around waiting for four days, but that wasn’t what happened – it four days of real medical investigation.<\/p>\n
The room they put me in was one that would make many patients envious. A private room with private bath, room service meals, and the Red Cross came by constantly to make sure I was entertained.<\/p>\n
The nurses were polite and helpful. The doctors were efficient and explained every step of the analysis. The enlisted folks were just as amiable and proficient. Even the people at the desks of the various clinics were polite, something I criticized the old Walter Reed for constantly. I felt that there was an actual team of medical professionals working towards finding a solution and treatment for my ailment.<\/p>\n
I never had any complaints about my treatment by the doctors at Walter Reed, but now it seems like they’ve finally made all of the support people at the hospital as efficient and proficient at their respective jobs.<\/p>\n
Yesterday, I gave a presentation of my condition to about twenty neurologists so they could all consult with each other and figure the problem out. Because with ALS, there are no tests for the disease, only the elimination of everything else. I haven’t heard anything back from them yet, but I’m confident that they’ll be able to arrive at a conclusion among all of those brilliant minds. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"