A Long Trip

Tuesday we went on a long trip. To the University of Minnesota Medical Center Clinic at Fairview in Minneapolis. Far Guy had an appointment there. As most of you know he has Trigeminal Neuralgia..not a fun rare disorder to have. I felt that as his advocate he needed to be evaluated for Surgery. To find out once and for all if it was an option or not. Surgery is NOT an option, and could actually make him worse..not better. Most of our questions were answered with kindness and understanding. We spent about an hour and a half in the evaluation. We are going to try a different medication, and see if it makes the constant pain more tolerable. It will be quite a process to wean him off one medication and onto another. A Nurse Practitioner will be following up with us by phone and email during the transition. This is not the outcome we had hoped for..but you must play the hand you are dealt.

I have been really discouraged with Far Guys Neurologist in Fargo, ND. I have to call three times to get one call returned. Presently I have been waiting for ten weeks for him to return my last call. The last time I was able to talk with him he got a bit defensive, when I asked him for the Medication Master Plan..he told me " YOU don't need to know anymore than what I have told you, if you want further instructions you will have to call me." Well, that frosted my drawers. Far Guy said "Fire his ass"..well I did not want to burn any bridges. So what did I do when I could not reach the Doc when Far Guy was in extreme pain? Enter Doctor Far Side..I had an arsenal of Tegretol to work with... slow release, chewable, time release..the medicine cabinet is full of Tegretol. I added a time release and low and behold Far Guy got some relief in a couple of days. So basically I gave up on the numb-skull in Fargo. I did explain to the Nurse in Minneapolis that I took it upon myself to adjust his medications..her only question was where did you get the medication.. I told her they were left overs from previous Tegretol prescriptions. I am hoping that someone is not coming to arrest me for dispensing Pharmaceuticals without a license.. but hey you do what you have to do.

Far Guy was not real happy with me when I insisted on going to Minneapolis. He whined, he made excuses. He nearly drove me nuts.. "Who is going to drive..cause I am not." "Do they allow Dogs in that Clinic cause I am taking Chance?" Then when I got really sick, he kept telling me he was going to cancel because I wouldn't feel up to driving. He finally made me bawl, and then sob for the better part of an afternoon...then he finally stopped whining.

I drove in the Cities, I hate the traffic, we got in a traffic jam, I got lost..but only because Far Guy told me I was lost. I was on the right road just not far enough on the right road. I finally just pulled over in a parking lot to figure it out. It was a good thing that my sense of direction was really good on Tuesday. Finally we got to the Clinic..and hallelujah for Valet Parking! All in all it was a twelve hour trip for us, it was a long day.

Hooch's Mom took care of Chance for us, so he had a fun day. It is great to have good neighbors that will dog sit on occasion!

I was very pleased with the care that we got at the U of MN. However I don't want to go back anytime soon. Far Guy drove out of the cities..he had no traffic whatsoever. Two country bumpkins off to the big city, where you could not pay me to live ever. I don't know how all those people do it.

So we are back to one day at a time with Far Guy and his rare disorder..he wrote about our adventure on his blog..check it out:)