One year ago today, I was cancelling an appointment with Myrna, my psychologist. I had managed to move my December appointment at the MS Clinic to a day that week. I left her a message and she called me back because she could hear I was in a lot of pain. She told me it was inhumane to leave me at home alone in pain. She suggested I get some help but I had no idea about where I could get help because I had been so unsuccessful with neurologist #3 and I had been into ER on the weekend and they just gave me drugs. I told her that it would be just better to put me down because we put animals down when they’re in that much pain. She asked me for my GP’s number and called her. Then she called me back and told me to get into a cab and go to my GP’s office because they were going to admit me because of a risk of suicide. To be honest, I wasn’t quite suicidal yet but I couldn’t see how I could get out of pain. I was trapped in my body and had nowhere to go.

At my GP’s office, I had several bouts of electric shock pains up to the top of my head. I fell to my knees sobbing and screaming. My GP asked me which hospital I wanted to go to. I thought about VGH first but then realized I had an appointment at the MS Clinic at UBC the next day and it would be easier to just go to UBCH. That’s what I did. I got in a cab and went all the way out to UBCH and hoped that somebody there would be able to help me.

I was afraid that nobody would believe me but I couldn’t function and I was in so much pain. At this point I was not too keen on hospitals or doctors considering I had been laughed at, dismissed as a psychiatric case, treated as though I had an eating disorder, and even told by neurologist #3 five weeks beforehand that I did not have MS.

It was at UBCH that things finally turned around for me. I had the great fortune of meeting Dr. Perry who was interested in pain. And he had the good sense to call a neurologist to assess me, instead of a psychiatrist. Dr. Silke Cresswell made a persuasive case to admit me there at UBCH and fortunately, Dr. Perry had a bed available on his ward. He graciously gives Dr. Cresswell all the credit as my ‘ray of hope’ for her thorough and professional assessment.

Their support made a huge difference and they were our first rays of hope in our traumatic struggle to get answers. Not all neurologists are created equal.

Thank you Dr. Cresswell. And thank you for calling me a “pleasant patient” in your report.