[at-l] urge

[Doug Mathews]

Arthur,
Sorry about your problem and I sure hope they can get to the bottom of 
it. Let me tell you a story about me.

I had a problem that my doctors had a hard time solving. I through hiked 
in 2002, biked across country in 2003 and I do a lot of running and had 
never had a problem, other than what runners call short-term aches and 
pains. I stated having pain in my lower left calf after I would run 
sometimes and it never bothered me hiking or biking. The orthopedic guys 
had no answer they suggested a circulatory guy who told me if I could 
run 9 miles and no pain, then essentially it was old age and get the 
heck out his office as he had life and death issues with other patients.
Well, I'm not old enough to have old age problems (or that's what I tell 
myself) so I went to another sports medicine place in Atlanta who do the 
work for the Atlanta Falcons and they looked at all kinds of stuff and 
they too could find nothing wrong, so they sent me to another vascular 
surgeon and he asked about all the test I had had and when did I notice 
the problem during activity. I told him I had no issues unless I had run 
for 10-15 minutes and then it started manifesting itself. He asked me 
was this a life style issue for me and I told him it was and he said, 
well it was there job to find the problem. He said he'd like to do a 
test after I started having the pain, even though it was a test I had 
had before. So we did and after he looked at  the test before the run 
and then the test as soon as the pain showed up on the treadmill he came 
in smiling and said he had the answer. I had a 96-98% blockage in my 
left leg and it would be a piece of cake to fix and they put a stent in 
and I'm as good as new, well, my wife says not, but that's my story anyway.

My long winded point is that even though your current medical folks are  
doing their best, sometimes it take us just pushing to see other medical 
folks who have a fresh approach and maybe a little more knowledge in 
other areas that can help  diagnose the problem.  Diagnosis is still an 
art and no one ever hist it 100% of the time.  I'm sure there have been 
several teams taking a look at you and your problem but its the medical 
professions job and duty to see that they get ot eh bottom of it, it may 
be pushing harder may get you to others can find your problem.

If I had not pushed my folks, I probably would be very sedentary by now 
and eventually it would have closed up so much I might have had serious 
issues with it. Fortunately I kept at it and they did find my problem so 
keep plugging away at them and tell then o answer is no answer at all!

Good Luck

Mainframe

On 3/28/2010 10:14 AM, RockDancer wrote:
> In another month or so I'll have exhausted what my doctors can do for me, and perhaps then I'll pursue the next level of resources.
>
>