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OOOOUUUUUCCCCHHHHH
yesterday as i sat in my whitey tighty undies almost naked
in that massage chair with just my socks on
no i wasnt about to get a massage
i had that paper blue gown on
sorry former patients if ive ever had you put one of these on
how embarrassing

i was about to get my spinal tap

i right down publically want to apologize to those of you on whom
i might have done a spinal tap in the past when i was in practice
i now would be a much more sensitive provider to your discomfort

granted most of you  would now be in your 20s-40s
as most of the ones i did in my career were on infants toddlers or
young children
luckily for the majority your taps were normal
except for the unlucky child who did have advanced
meningitis from h.flu in the pre h.flu immunization days
he nowadays wouldnt have gotten the disease that disabled him
unless he was one of those whose family didnt believe in
immunizations
this patient is the reason i always was such an advocate of
childhood immunizations and why i had such an awareness of
the symptoms of possible meningitis in kids

anyway i apologize to the rest of you although probably none of
you have any recollection of the painful  procedure

ouch thats what i said yesterday
i didnt say that last time i got the tap two years ago
but as i said during the procedure
so thats what sciatica feels like
as a doctor i knew that as the needle is inserted into that
small space where the fluid is that sometimes you do hit
the nerve root that travels down the leg
yep i also thought
so thats what it feels like when they zap those cattle with
that cattle prod
i know my wife she would have like to use one of those on
me sometimes
she would love to hit my nerve root when i make her angry

but yesterday we had her all prepped
we laid her down
covered her with a blanket
and did not talk about 'it" with her before or afterwards
yes she did well yesterday
we handled her with kid gloves

wait a minute
whos the patient here

my goal  yesterday was to get my spinal tap and
send fluid off to the private lab to get my beta amyloid and tau
remeasured
i made a decision and went a different direction

you are only allowed to draw out so much spinal fluid at a time
if i sent the fluid off to the private lab i would know if my
levels had reached that abnormal level on the graph i showed
on this blog two days ago
in the consistant with alzheimers disease portion in the right lower side
instead
i opted to donate that fluid to a researcher who desperately needed
spinal fluid from a patient without significant other disease for a
possibly new landmark study for another well known disease
so
i let them have my spinal fluid for that study
knowing that i probably would not ever know if my level became
abnormal over the last two years
as i may not be getting another tap again

then
my other goal was to do my beta amyloid number two yesterday
even though i wouldnt see the results
then i planned to later this month get an amyvid beta amyloid pet scan
here in austin to tell me if i have that beta amyloid in my brain
that hallmark of alzheimers disease was present
yes
those two tests would have been the two things that would have
probably solidified my quest for do i have it or dont i

but
i decided to forgo that test yesterday and to forgo the beta amyloid
pet scan later this month

why

there are several new studies that are starting up soon that actually
are evaluating new medicines that either remove or stop the production
of beta amyloid in the brain or stop the tau destruction in the brain
these studies if they work would possibly be new treatments for
preventing or slowing down the disease

for them to be effective really effective they have to be started early
or even before symptoms or labs become abnormal

many of these studies will reject you if you have had a beta amyloid
pet scan in the last 12 months

so no fluid sent off so i wont know
no scan as i want one of these new treatments
as for now all i can do is to live a healthy life and do those things i
mentioned in my lecture and have on my slide things you can do now

the organicgreen doctor