if it's not one thing...

then it's quite another.

so my leg is healing well. all is good there. keith and i start walking a few miles at lunchtime, this is good. we made a pact last year that this year i'd run the dexter-ann arbor 5K since i would be in such great shape. the race is this sunday. i started running last week. nice, i know. well, i wasn't thinking when i scheduled my leg surgery, and i have never run before. although, i have to say, first time out i ran almost a mile. i've NEVER ran a mile before. i had flashbacks to all those fitness tests in school. bah. i figure, so i run 1/3 of the race. last year, i wouldn't have been able to walk it.

so after a walk the other day i notice my foot is tingly. you know, that just waking up feeling you get in limbs. no big deal. only it never went away. for days. then it started getting worse. constant tingling, almost a burning sensation. and it has started moving up my leg into my calf. i don't tell alex as i know he'll freak. but eventually i have to. he implores me to go to the doctor yesterday. and truthfully, it's starting to scare me too. so i call and make an appointment with the nurse. let's be honest, i'm afraid that it's somehow related to ms. you know?

so i go and he checks me out and there's no "reason" for the tingling. no pain in my back, no pinched nerve, nothing like that. he then informs me that it could be this "rare disease" of which i can't remember the fancy name for, that he's seen 3 or 4 times. Causes numbness in the feet, moves up the leg, can cause paralysis (FUN). but it's usually in both legs. so i'm not a clear-cut case of this. no, of course not, am i ever?

then i realize it's probably not in my chart at my pcp that i'm being monitored for ms. so i mention this to him. aha he says. this "changes everything." i now MUST get in for my follow-up mri asap. as the mri is the only way to "prove" ms. well, i knew my NO wanted me to get one, but i guess they need to be 6 months apart, so i was waiting for june. that, and i needed the regular neurologist to order it so i could go locally. i had my appointment with her all set up for the 21st. but i guess that's not soon enough.

so now it's sunday. the day of the race. see how that came all full circle?

so there's nothing i can do about my leg until they find out what it is. so i need to live with it. i don't know what i'm hoping for. if it starts in the other leg, that's not a good thing as then it would lean toward the new rare disease. if it goes away, that's fine, but if it comes back (much like the optic neuritis) that's a BAD sign for ms.

one thing i didn't ask was if this new disease is auto-immune. if so, it could be what my body is now choosing to attack, you know?

bah. i guess i just have to wait it out, as usual.