doctor actually worried about my symptoms - well crap

[mollyfin]

Saw my doctor today and he said that my left side is definitely weaker than the right and to make a neuro appointment ASAP.  Unfortunately that's two weeks from now. 

I know there are other things it could be besides a brain tumor.  But I'm freaking out pretty hard right now.  I know my worries have never been founded before, but this is the first time a doctor's agreed with me that I should be worried. 

[Cattia]

Sorry to hear that
How did the Dr establish that one side was weaker? Did he actually do any tests? It seems like it would be pretty hard to diagnose clinical weakness without proper neurological tests. Maybe your Dr just wants to be on the safe side. Could you see whether there are any cancalltions so you could get seen sooner?

[Puggy77]

Doctors will always error on the side of caution so relax just a little bit and hang in there!  Call the nueros office every other day to see if there is an opening sooner.

[mollyfin]

He did the usual squeeze my fingers, resist pressure tests and did something to my arm with the little reflex hammer thing (which didn't seem to produce any results but I don't know what was supposed to happen, and I try not to look during reflex tests because I have a tendency to move when I see the hammer coming down, which I'm guessing would throw off results, though I never thought to ask about it).  The receptionist at the doctor's office said she'd call me if there were any cancellations.  I'm not 100% if he perceived weakness in my arm and leg or just my arm - both my legs have been extremely shaky since I started wellbutrin so it would probably be hard to tell. 

I'm mainly worried about a brain tumor.  Anything else I can deal with (MS, nerve problems, no big thing - not good news but I can deal with something that will take ten years off my life expectancy...not so much with something that will kill me in a few months!)  I'll be 30 in a few months, so I think a malignant brain tumor would be unlikely (I think?  Not actually sure), but all the same, I'm scared.  Vision problems, walking problems, left-sided weakness and stiffness and occasional headaches, though not terrible ones. 

[bertybotts]

You're probably 100% healthy. Here is why.
- Doctors do not want to get sued. If you have MS and he says "meh, go home" and you ACTUALLY have MS? Holy smokes! Lawsuit potential!
- Your thinking that your left side is weaker IS going to make you subconsciously make it weaker. You don't grasp things as hard, you will display physical signs of weakness, even if your nerves + brain are perfectly fine.
- Believing something is happening can make it physically manifest.

[mollyfin]

That's interesting.  I didn't know I could be subconsciously making myself "throw" the test.  I'm still worried but I know realistically that a malignant brain tumor at my age is, while not unheard of, pretty unlikely.  And any other diagnosis I can cope with.

My doctor isn't the sort to give me a referral if he doesn't think I need it, though.  He's in his 70s and his motto tends to be "it's probably nothing; let's see if it fixes itself."  But he sent my mom to a neuro once because he thought she was having too many migraines, so maybe he is just being cautious. 

I'm definitely having some left hand issue with stiffness and painful numbness in the fingertips, but it could be as simple as carpal tunnel.  I've hurt that wrist before and sometimes it still hurts. 

[marc]

My physician friend told me that if a patient has ongoing symptoms, it is protocol
to run tests to rule out anything serious.

[reasonableland]

Yup, I agree with the above that it is more than anything just erring on the side of caution. Despite all the jokes people make about doctors being more interested in golf than patients, for the most part doctors want us to be well, they do not want to hurt their patients - they study for years to help us and they make it their lives work.

If we told someone it was safe to cross the street and they were hit by a car, it would weigh on our souls for years. The same must be true for people in medicine, the idea of sending someone away and then being wrong would weigh on them too. Doctors are not immune to What If questions just by virtue of a whitecoat. A doctor I have met worked like crazy to save a little girl, flew her to his hospital even and treated her there for months, and sadly she passed away. He still visits her family almost a decade later.

As a result, it means people might have more tests than they need, and end up having things investigated that might not have needed it, but protocol demands that this is what they do, so they do it.

Long story short, it doesn't say anything about you and your symptoms, just that when a box gets ticked they follow a protocol, and view it as better to be safe than sorry. 

[mollyfin]

That makes sense.  Wish I could stop being so anxious about it all...it's not like obsessive worrying will fix anything.

[mollyfin]

I'm also having phantom smells...argh.  I hate this.  Only lasting for one or two inhales at a time, just enough to freak me out.   I hate this, especially knowing that one-sided weakness + phantom smells + blurry vision = temporal lobe tumor. 

[ClassicNerd]

Hi Mollyfin! Don't you just hate it how the very thing you fear seems to explain all of your weird symptoms? I've gone through this many times! I don't think you have a brain tumor. My grandfather on my mom's side had one and he was quite ill. They knew something was up. He had headaches so bad he would collapse.

I have phantom smells all the time. I'm sure you're fine! As many have mentioned, your doctor is just following protocol. It could very well be something simple like an entrapped nerve. Best of luck to you and let us know how everything goes!

[mollyfin]

Thanks.  Something is definitely up - my leg will go so wobbly I have trouble standing, but I have tremors in all four limbs, just way worse on the left side, plus the weakness there.  But...I guess there are a lot of things it could be, and if it was a brain tumor I would probably, though not definitely, have more headaches than I do (just the occasional one, usually a tension headache...can tell because my neck and shoulders go stiff with it). 

I wish I could see the neurologist sooner.  The limbo between doc appointments is the worst!