DCN: Department of Clinical Neurology

Last week I was in Manchester at the NHS Expo. On the train my phone went and I saw it was the hospital calling- all calls that come from them show up as the same number no matter the department. Of course I just assumed it was respiratory because who else would be calling me. I was shocked to say the least when I didnt recognise the voice and just heard neurology.

Anyway my GP has been concerned by the symptoms I have been having in my foot and I had apparently said something that raise warning flags so she had been right on the phone to the on call neurologist who then called me.

Long story short they wanted to see me in clinic (which is you have ever been to the WGH it is a flipping nightmare to find)

The outcome of the outpatient appointment was not too bad. There is no magic fix but it will heal (even though the neurologist did say it will be slow and will be painful). Essentially there are a few things happening but the main one is peroneal nerve paralysis due to injury. The injury being the lines I had in my femoral.

I was feeling sick to my stomach during the day and waiting in the waiting room in DCN. When I attend outpatients normally I am relaxed, because it is somewhere I know and to be honest there is not much about asthma I don’t know. This however spooked me totally. I know nothing about neurology, I was not expecting to find myself in DCN because to me I didnt think I had a neurological issue, in my head I was thinking it was vascular and part of me was expecting to be seeing someone there not neurology.

The neurologist I saw was really good and very thorough. She did a heap of tests and I was poked with pins and stuff to see how I reacted and what I felt. The oddest part was getting the feeling in the bottom of my feet done. I have such tickley feet so was bracing myself, the left I pulled away almost as she started but and the right I was getting ready to do the same thing but the feeling never came. It is a very odd thing when you can see someone touching your foot but you don’t feel it, but also being told to do certain movements which you think you are doing but there is no movement taking place. It is like my leg stops below my knee.

The outcome of the appointment is physio. I am going to be a participant in a study though looking at this kind of injury and seeing if intensive physio is more beneficial than weekly physio. It is exciting to be able to be part of a trial. Since my asthma has got really bad I am basically excluded from all clinical trials because I have been in critical care or because I am on long term oral steroids so I am stoked to be able to get on a trial. I will keep you posted on how it went.

I am determined to get myself moving forward and make progress. The good thing is that I cannot do anymore damage to it so I don’t need to rest because quite frankly I have done enough of that. The bonus I have is Ghillie. He forces me out walking everyday which will build my muscles and encourage the blood flow (which is compromised due to scarring from all the access I have had).

Once again though the NHS has been fantastic. My mum had been very concerned about my leg, more so than I was. To me it was just really annoying but once my ankle started swelling as the day went on and then the skin became mottled I knew I needed to be seen. My GP acted super quickly and to be honest I wasn’t sure what I was expecting perhaps a physio referral but I cant thank the NHS enough for once again being there to help me overcome more challenges my body throws at me.