Turn out the lights, the party's over...

I have never had a female doctor until now. My children had female pediatricians. However, until now I have never had a female doctor. It is not that I don't think they are capable; the situation has just never presented itself before now. When I moved to Ohio in 1982, I used the family doctor that my husband's family used. He helped me get past an awful addiction to Afrin nose spray (Stay away from that crap! It shouldn't be sold over the counter!!!) and from that day forward he has been my hero. He is still our family doctor and I dread the day when he will begin to think about retirement. I trust him beyond question. When my male gynecologist retired, I stayed with his replacement. My dentist is male, my previous neuro was male, even the doctor who operated on my toe was male. So this having a female doctor, it is a little foreign to me. Again, so no one bashes me about the female doctor thing, it isn't that I have refused a female doctor, the situation has just never presented itself. I have had the same gyne (the replacement) for about 18 years. I have had the same family doctor for 24 years. I had the same dentist for about 22 years, until he retired a couple of years ago and then I just used his replacement. So this is not a case of discrimination.

Women are generally not my biggest fans. I realize that is a broad statement. Sometimes the truth hurts. OK, it doesn't really hurt. I just really don't care, which is probably why they don't like me in the first place. Women dress to please other women. Women think they are putting on makeup to show off for men, but they aren't. God forbid, you should run into a woman you know when you have no makeup on. You will be scarred for life.

As I was discussing the new, yet unseen female doctor with my sister yesterday, I was voicing my inner weirdness over her being female and me never having a female doctor before and the fact that women don't really like me. Of course, she is my sister, so she likes me and probably can't understand why other women don't like me. She didn't necessarily agree with my assessment of my likability factor when it comes to other women until I reminded her that the women in our family come with a built in "flirtability". (I don't think it is just the women. I have seen many a woman swoon over my four brothers as well.) [Spell-check keeps trying to tell me that flirtability is not a word. Get over it!] I am overweight, have some "big ol' teeth" and I have let my natural gray hair reign supreme, but I can still get my flirt on if I need to. It is a gift. A gift that isn't really going to work very well on a straight female doctor. I guess I will have to map a new route!

Just so we are clear...I don't intentionally flirt. It just is. It is absolutely harmless, I love my husband with all my heart. Maybe it isn't so much flirting as turning on the charm. Although I can't for the life of me figure out how those two things are different. Whichever, it has served me well over the years and I am not about to disown it now. I own it, and I hope that I live to be 86 and still own it.

Back to the female Neuro...after all, this was supposed to be about her. I guess not only am I a flirt, but self-absorbed as well.

It was a little weird at first. She was very nice and had a wonderfully calming presence about her, which is in direct contrast to my previous neuro who was in a constant state of confusion. I don't really want to bash him. On a personal level, he was a nice guy. However, as a neuro for such an important disease, he was just a little too scatterbrained for me.

The new Ms. Neuro spent a lot of time with me. I was impressed with that and the fact that she suggested some treatments etc. that I had openly wondered why the other neuro had not suggested the same things. (No matter how I try to fix that sentence, it just won't fix so take from it what you can. That is all I am saying.)

She gave me a shot of Depomedrol/B-12 and as soon as Thanksgiving is over, I will get a course of IV Solumedrol (steroids) in hopes of turning the light off on this lesion that is still hanging on and causing very aggravating, although not unbearable aftershocks. This thing in my right leg, I am finally able to describe what it feels like. When the heat washes down my leg, it actually feels like someone is pouring a bucket of warm water down my leg. Last night it had moved up as high as my ribcage, which is how high the numbness went when the onset of this devil started in September. If nothing else, this tells me that it is likely just the same old long-partying lesion that is causing this somewhat new sensation. Will somebody please turn off the lights and tell him it is time to go home.