I thank you all who have replied for the information and suggestions in reference to my fathers situation. I would first like to say I am very relaxed and calm now. I was fed alot of information from the doctor and both my parents, then my aunt and it kind of just sent my head spinning. I know that having answers today would be good, but I now know that those answers will come in time. I can not prepare for the future by overreacting today. As far as his status, His VA paperwork will be filed soon, he had never needed to use The VA cause he had never been sick before. So he never even thought about it. My mother works for the State and her benefits were better than what the US government was offering 30 years ago when my father first starting working for the government. So he has been on her insurance for their entire marriage, however, in light of the current situation and what the future may hold, that is also getting changed.
His appt is June 18, at the University of Maryland, with Dr. Porter. He had already had an appt at Johns Hopkins but they referred him to the U of Md to get this other doctors opinion. This will be the third neurologists. They have done numerous blood labs, and other tests and are slowly eliminating diseases that dont qualify. A nerve conduction test was done, but the results of that test were abnormal, thats all the first doctor said. And carpel tunnel in his wrist which he has had for years. Other than that, the first neurologists said nothing and referred him to the Neurologist At Franklin square, who looked at the results and conducted other tests to eliminate a few other neurological diseases, such as early onset of dimmentia, parkinsons and such things as those issues. That doctor is the one who stated that she believes its MND, however told him that it may be too early to determine which type. She then consulted with the Neurologists at the University of MD, Dr.Porter who is an ALS/MND specialists. He has reviewed my fathers entire case and made an appt for late july, however told my father that he would put his name on the cancellation lists, at the top, so he could be seen asap. one person cancelled which put him in a new slot for the june 18th appt. So far I feel that everything is being done in a reasonable order, it just seemed for a while that a few of these doctors were clueless to his situation, that or they were protecting him and the family by not bring up the ALS/MND diagnosis until they had eliminated more possibilities. That I can respect.
And to TOTO DOROTHY, Walter Reed is shutting down, It was one of the installations on the chopping block for government realignment. Most of that base is gone, that hospital should be completly shut down within the next 6 months, if it has not already!
I think me and my father will go fishing this weekend, its time for us to have a few hours of bonding, we both work astronomical hours every week. Even though he wont anymore, the doctor told him tuesday to stop working so much and to conserve his muscle strength.
And Ill mention the swallowing test to the doctor on his follow up appt with his Franklin square neurologist on the 12th of april. That should have been done immediately I believe the second he second he sometimes is having trouble eating now. I got my Fiance, who happens to be a RN, in my ear too. She will be my strength through this entire process, so I can be strong for my parents and my sister. I wont have enough strength for myself. As some of ya'll seen two days ago. Thanks again for listening and replying with much needed information and suggestions.
