Today I had my follow-up visit with my MS nurse, just to see how I'm doing with the Avonex. The first and last time I saw her, I was on Prednisone following the IV steroids, and that stuff makes me a little crazy. I barely remember seeing her the first time, although I've talked to her on the phone since then.

My guess is that most of us here have had bad experiences with unsympathetic doctors and their staff, which is why I wanted to post this. So far I've only seen my neurologist once, and his nurse practioner is my main provider. I was just very pleased with her. First of all, I was 45 minutes late because of lots of snow, rush hour traffic, and major construction all around the place; I go to the Mellen Center at the Cleveland Clinic. I called to let them know I was running late. She was so nice! She was very patient, answered some questions, gave me the antidepressant I requested, ordered bloodwork and gave me a script to have a handicapped sticker on my car (thank goodness). She even asked me about how things are at home and at work, which impressed me.

I had called her previously about poor treatment I had recieved from my boss, which has abated since, and she reassured me today that she would provide me with any letter or medical records the day I request it, if I need to reinforce my rights at work! All I need at work as far as rights go is to be able to take a sick day once in awhile, and to not have my boss quiz me to see how my brain is working. Yes, he does that! At first I participated, never missing a question, now I refuse to.

I told her that if I don't see improvement on my MRIs within 2 years, I'm switching to Rebif. She said she would support that. All in all, I'm very happy with her.