Dear Friend,
well, I drove into Manhattan all by myself yesterday! I was only supposed to drive to the Upper West Side, but I wound up driving to Midtown West by accident. I put in W 168th street to my google map, but I have to use this invulnerable iPad cover because I've dropped and ruined ... a few ... so far. It has a thick sheet of plastic over the front and it's hard to get it to always sense your touch. So instead of "168th Street" it took me to "68th" street. So, that was lots of fun. But at least I did drive in to almost the bottom of Central Park. And Manhattan is WAAAAY easier to navigate than Nashville!
Anyway, called to say I'd be late and they said no problem. So is signed in at 3:25 instead of 3:00. Not too bad in my world! But then, the receptionist didn't enter me into the system! And she never took note that all these names under the list had been peeled off of the list, but my name was still sitting there!! So it was TWO HOURS after my appointment time that I finally saw the doctor.
I was impressed with both him and his resident. One question he asked me was if I had balance problems. I said not really, but I run into things constantly, like door frames and beds and chairs and counters and car doors, etc! Then I realized that I do get wobbly sometimes and have to reach out and touch things. He's going to bring in a nephrologist to consult because he thinks there may be a connection between my kidney problems and this autonomic nervous system (ANS) problem. He said done things that make it sound like a kidney biopsy is in my future, and won't that be fun with no local anesthesia! I had three breast biopsies with nothing but my husband's hand, but it actually wasn't nearly as bad as the prolotherapy injections. Maybe they have toughened me up enough that this won't be too bad.
Regarding the idea of whether I am producing antibodies to attack the neurotransmitters is a real possibility. He said it's pretty rare, but so is angioedema, Ehler's-Danlos Syndrome and dysautonomia! That would explain why my inflammation levels are so high, also, and why I can't get it down by avoiding all of my food allergies.
They also did a general neuro exam. Apparently I've got some neuropathy started in my lower legs, and I don't have an ankle reflex at all.
By the time we were done, the desk had closed down, so they didn't give me my parking voucher so I had to pay $29 to get my car out.
But I got home safely and didn't even run out of gas!
I did some more looking last night at churches in the upper West Side of Manhattan. Turns out First Baptist Churxh is there, where I went to by mistake. It was founded in 1740. I called today to see if they had a woman's Bible Study and they don't. They don't even have couple's Sunday school classes. It's all split up and men meet separately than women, largely so women who are coming without their spouses won't feel awkward. Apparently they are a pretty small congregation, but he suggested I call a different church and, sure enough, they have NOT ONE, NOT TWO, BUT THREE women's Bible studies a week!
So, I'll be checking those out soon.
Cheers!
Lisa
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