I've never met a doctor that took his failure to cure a patient personally. Until now. After getting to know Dr. B a little better in the last 2 months, I can say with a certain amount of confidence that the whole "we like seeing patients less and less" mantra wasn't a sales gimmick taken out of Billy Mays 101 (may he rest in peace). No, Dr. B seems to really mean it, and you'll see why.
After seeing Josh and Dr. B on Friday, I stayed in Nevada City over the weekend and saw Dr. B on Monday. My cells are still hollow, which means chronic inflammation. In fact, 80% of the cells were hollow. He said "You're operating at 70% efficiency." Funny because that's where I put myself too. He said the key is to find repeating patterns in biograms, which can show up as structural issues or not, not so much any individaul biogram. My repeating pattern is definitely the head and jaw. Dr. Allen keeps coming back to this as well. Dr. B said 20% of the lyme patients have serious jaw issues.
I got a SEG (segment electrography) to find disturbance fields that he might be missing. My diaphragm showed up again. Normal electrography measures are usually below 1.0-1.5. My diaphragm was at a 3.5-4.0. Josh put that together with my potential cranial flow (he said I have the most potential cranial flow he's ever felt) and deduced that there's a definite blockage in my head-to-toe circulation and we need to get that cranial flow distributed efficiently to the rest of the body.
Dr. B expected me to have a dramatic shift in symptoms already based on he improvement in my blood, but I got about 10 more pokes in my fingers as we re-hashed my blood over and over again, looking for what he believes to be the missing piece. Once again, I started having momentary doubts if it was me, not the disease. I brought those up to him this time because I was just feeling uncomfortable trying to match his expectations. Dr. Allen also said he expected the nervous system regeneration to take more time. Dr. B might believe in tortoises, but he's used to seeing hares once he pushes the right buttons. I emphasized that this disease doesn't serve me in any way, and he emphasized back, "I've never had a patient lie to me. Even the ones that do lie eventually crack. No you're driving me crazy, but it's nothing personal."
In fact, it was so un-personal that Dr. B spent about 4 hours on Monday trying to figure me out. Of course, it has less to do with me as a person than my disease posing a real challenge to him. He takes the impasse personally, and I'm beginning to see that he won't rest until he figures me out. he said "80% of cases I can do blindfolded. 20% take some work, and out of that 20% 5% really give me issues." I think I'm officially part of his "pesty" file, but he said if he ever figures me out, my case is really gonna pay dividends for future CFIDS cases. I'm not sure how old Dr. B is, but his sciatica is killing him, and he's uttered mentions of retirement here and there. Despite that, at the end of the day, he was the one wearing a smile of absurd size and exuberance for a man that spent the day trying to ignore his own pain and pulling what's left of his hair out. "We're gonna figure you out." I'm not sure if he was trying to convince me, himself, or both of us, but he disarmed a world of disbelief and doubt off my shoulders either way.
I'm getting a second opinion from the only doctor Dr. B trusts to do neural therapy on himself. I can't post his name here because he prefers to sidle under the radar. That appointment's tomorrow. Time to put a muzzle on this puzzle damnit.
After seeing Josh and Dr. B on Friday, I stayed in Nevada City over the weekend and saw Dr. B on Monday. My cells are still hollow, which means chronic inflammation. In fact, 80% of the cells were hollow. He said "You're operating at 70% efficiency." Funny because that's where I put myself too. He said the key is to find repeating patterns in biograms, which can show up as structural issues or not, not so much any individaul biogram. My repeating pattern is definitely the head and jaw. Dr. Allen keeps coming back to this as well. Dr. B said 20% of the lyme patients have serious jaw issues.
I got a SEG (segment electrography) to find disturbance fields that he might be missing. My diaphragm showed up again. Normal electrography measures are usually below 1.0-1.5. My diaphragm was at a 3.5-4.0. Josh put that together with my potential cranial flow (he said I have the most potential cranial flow he's ever felt) and deduced that there's a definite blockage in my head-to-toe circulation and we need to get that cranial flow distributed efficiently to the rest of the body.
Dr. B expected me to have a dramatic shift in symptoms already based on he improvement in my blood, but I got about 10 more pokes in my fingers as we re-hashed my blood over and over again, looking for what he believes to be the missing piece. Once again, I started having momentary doubts if it was me, not the disease. I brought those up to him this time because I was just feeling uncomfortable trying to match his expectations. Dr. Allen also said he expected the nervous system regeneration to take more time. Dr. B might believe in tortoises, but he's used to seeing hares once he pushes the right buttons. I emphasized that this disease doesn't serve me in any way, and he emphasized back, "I've never had a patient lie to me. Even the ones that do lie eventually crack. No you're driving me crazy, but it's nothing personal."
In fact, it was so un-personal that Dr. B spent about 4 hours on Monday trying to figure me out. Of course, it has less to do with me as a person than my disease posing a real challenge to him. He takes the impasse personally, and I'm beginning to see that he won't rest until he figures me out. he said "80% of cases I can do blindfolded. 20% take some work, and out of that 20% 5% really give me issues." I think I'm officially part of his "pesty" file, but he said if he ever figures me out, my case is really gonna pay dividends for future CFIDS cases. I'm not sure how old Dr. B is, but his sciatica is killing him, and he's uttered mentions of retirement here and there. Despite that, at the end of the day, he was the one wearing a smile of absurd size and exuberance for a man that spent the day trying to ignore his own pain and pulling what's left of his hair out. "We're gonna figure you out." I'm not sure if he was trying to convince me, himself, or both of us, but he disarmed a world of disbelief and doubt off my shoulders either way.
I'm getting a second opinion from the only doctor Dr. B trusts to do neural therapy on himself. I can't post his name here because he prefers to sidle under the radar. That appointment's tomorrow. Time to put a muzzle on this puzzle damnit.