I really liked this one.  She was easy and comfortable to talk to and was great when they thought that lump on my ovary might be  A Problem.  I don't want to start over.  *whiny Bree*  Gonna get yelled at today by my Gyn too, in all the confusion and resorting of life and focus on Nikki, I sorta forgot to get a mammogram done, adn since I'm 44 now they want me to be doing these things.  *headdesk*  Sometimes I am a bad Bree. 

So Nikki and I are looking into finding a new regular doctor, there is one in Bluffton that is a D.O. we're considering.  We like them in general, here's hoping she's a good fit.  For those that don't know, that stands for Doctor of Osteophathy, and what it means is that they did a lot of extra training and are required to do continual training for the life of the time they have that title, but that they handle everything(up to major surgery general, really big surgeries require a lot of practice).  We used them until our last one moved to Florida when her army husband got relocated, and she was wonderful.  I didn't need a small army of doctors.  Bree usually has to have a general, an asthma specialist, an allergey specialist (as my body keeps chagning how it decides to react to things), a gyn, and a neurologist for the language center thing to make monitor the defect.  And I might need a podiatrist, starting to have symptoms like my aunt when the bones in her foot started to grow randomly into little spikes.  X_X

Having one doctor that reliably cares for all of that (and has no problems referring to second opinions either), is wonderful.  The problem is doctor's aren't one size fits all, whether it's a surgeon, regular doc, therapist, whatever.  I hated my surgeon last year, his surgical skills were really good, but his ability to take my questions seriously and aftercare not so much for example, and I went to my regular doctor to deal with the side effects.  (and I had picked up a nasty infection in the incision as well as back pain like I can't describe from the abdominal clencher brace I had to wear post surgery). 

I'm already shy with authority figures thanks to my upbringing, and Nikki's worse, so it's hard to find one we can actually talk to and be comfortable enough to answer embarassing questions.  I know nothing medical should be, but my silly brain feels what it will feel. 

Dear Briannah, Nikki and Veronica,

When I developed viral encephalitis, my mother spent $10,000 for 25 doctors and tests to find out what was wrong with me.  Personal computers even at the library was new then, and we did extensive research based on my symptoms.

Learned that people with epilepsy went UNDIAGNOSED anywhere from 5 to 25 years!

How relieved we were when we learned not only I had epilepsy but Post Encephalitis Syndrome!  Didn't mean we had a cure but we did learn I wasn't crazy!

Your friend,

Monica

It's actaully not that uncommon for epilepsy to be undiagnosed for a period of time.  There isn't really a specific test for it, epilepsy is a diagnosis of exclusion. When everything else is ruled out, and that is what is left, that is when you get the diagnosis.  If it's not a severe case that rarely triggers, even decades isn't that surprising. 

I know what you mean, my parents just accepted that my dietary beef issue was something 'in my head' and I was a hypochondriac, no one had looked at my diet and figured out it was dietary.  Once the mystery was finally solved it was really a huge relief.