For once, I have some exciting news to share about the health situation.

Today I met with the wrist surgeon who operated on me in February and cured my carpal tunnel in both arms. I explained the situation as best I could. Everything involving the spine surgeon, the EMG, the ulnar nerve that was suspected but not confirmed. I was terrified he wouldn't believe me. He listened fervently and made lots of facial expressions. I really wasn't sure what to think.

He said first, "okay, I'm going to choose to believe you. We do not have to do the EMG. Fuck the EMG." (yes he actually cussed! i thought it was cool) He went on to explain why he chose this. He believes after testing my arms and wrists that I do have ulnar nerve, or Cubital Tunnel as he called it. He believes he can treat it with surgery.

Important bits:

• He will schedule surgery for me ASAP. I am to expect a call today or tomorrow to schedule the surgery. I sincerely hope this won't take several weeks to schedule like it did the first time.
• Recovery from this surgery is rougher than the other one. It will take 2-3 weeks for each arm to recover. The bruises will be more severe. I need more time to heal. And once again, he will treat my right arm first and then my left arm.
• He said it's possible that this surgery will not fix the problem permanently. He said within two to three months after the surgery, if the problem has not gone away, I will need additional surgery. He said it is to "reseat the nerve." I'm not sure exactly how it works.
• I want to express right now I don't have 100% certainty that this is the real problem. If I'm wrong, this might have been a waste of time. But if I'm right, I might have something here. Still, either way, it's worth the risk.

However, there were a few things about that meeting that really felt strange to me.

• His wording when he first spoke up. Why did he say he would "choose to believe me?" Why was that even a question? I guess I am not understanding the perspective of a doctor here. Does he have to make a choice to believe me? The explicit mention of belief seems to imply that what I'm saying is absurd?
  • But I also want to mention this doctor has been extremely kind to me up until now. There's no reason why that would change now. He remembers me, my name, my face. He's the only doctor who skipped the EMG, both for the carpal tunnel surgery and for this. So I think he does still believe me in good faith.
• After I told him about the EMG, he said to me he's going to note on my chart that I "fervently refused the test." I thought that was strange, but also I nodded along. It is true that I am refusing to do the EMG. Maybe this one's just a small one.
• He did a little test. It's something we've done before. He has me close my eyes and presses against my fingers one at a time with either one pin or two and I have to say how many there are. He did this on both hands, all fingers. I got them all exactly right. I think this test is meant to measure severe numbness in fingers, but the numbness in my fingers only happens when I use my hands or arms.
  • I feel like he must have had a good reason for this. He still went ahead and scheduled the surgeries, even though I reported all of those numbers accurately. So he still believes me, I think.
• On the way out, I put on my wrist brace. He mentioned that I don't need a wrist brace because Cubital Tunnel doesn't affect the wrists. However, I did tell him I have some pain and strange feelings in my wrists and need to pop them a lot. I told him the wrist brace seems to help with this and lets me carry objects at home. He...kind of shook his head and said "huh."
  • This one's the most concerning to me. This implies that I still have some kind of problem with my wrists. He did treat me for carpal tunnel in both wrists already. That is out of the question. I no longer have carpal tunnel. So what exactly is this then?

So, overall, even though I have some doubts and some concerns, I am very excited for this. This is the first bit of progress that has been made, at all. The spine surgeon decided to not move forward without an EMG, which caused a dead end. He also didn't treat the herniated discs in my neck, another dead end. This is the only doctor who's been able to actually do something concrete for my arms in the last two months.