Brady met his new physio last week. My goodness, where has been BEEN this whole time?!?! As you probably remember, Brady’s previous physiotherapist was out of his depth with Brady, and rather than referring him out, he kind of strung him along and experimented on him. It was total crap. We paid SO MUCH for ZERO payoff, and succeeded only in prolonging this whole ridiculous endeavour. Finally, I emailed my physio, who is a wealth of knowledge. She only treats women, but she did point me in a direction towards someone she thought could advise Brady.
And she was right.
Almost immediately, she was invested. She also had a LOT of knowledge and understanding of his body and what it was going through. She hemmed and hawed over some of the theories we had discussed previously. She discussed his symptoms and went retested every single sensitivity test Brady has had at every single other office since this all began, to rule out worse things. Except one, she did slightly differently. I’ll try to describe it the best way I can.
If I understand correctly, the doctor/physio would run their finger up the outer edge of Brady’s foot, towards his pinky toe. Towards the ball of his foot, they would swerve in and trace under his toes, all the way off the edge, under his big toe. His foot would remain the same. That was fine. The new physio, however, did it slightly differently, tracing up the side, and then bringing it up between his pinky toe and the one beside it, instead of going across. When she did this, his toes involuntarily curled up. THAT is a huge cause for concern. HUGE. That is the absolutely opposite reflex a person should have. Very very concerning. She assessed everything else with similar findings and results as everyone else.
She talked about different conditions that feel likely to her. A big one is cervical myelopathy, which is the compression of the spine up towards the top, in the neck area. Its not all too uncommon. From my understanding (suuuuuper not a doctor over here) its from some kind of trauma (ie: a herniated disc) setting his spine out of balance, putting pressure on certain vertebrae, cause disturbance in the nerves. This makes reasonable sense to everyone involved, and as you may expect, IT REQUIRES IMAGING TO CONFIRM!!! *steam blows from ears* She believes strongly that Brady urgently needs an MRI, so praise the Lord, we have TWO well known medical professionals on our side, throwing their weight around the best way they know how to get Brady some imaging. But it seems there are steps that absolutely HAVE to come first.
Hence, Brady’s phone appointment with his neurologist. It was scheduled for yesterday afternoon, but yesterday morning, Brady received a phone call from the doctors office saying the neurologist reviewed his files and wanted to see him in person. Even better!!!
A third theory! Lol! The neurologist doesn’t think he has cervical myelopathy or brown-sequard. She thinks Brady most likely has a lesion or mass in his spinal column, pressing on the cord. She does not suspect a tumour, though. What everyone can agree on is Brady’s dire need for an MRI. She sent a second request on his behalf, and told him she is POSITIVE he’ll have one this week. She informed Brady who he’d see if he ended up needing surgery, and if not, he’ll go back to her. I don’t know what for. I don’t really know what’s to come. None of us do.
So we continue to wait… first on God, then on the medical system.