Earlier last week I had the Ver-Baer test at Dr. Doglover's office. The same woman who did my EEG did this test also, but she got her hair re-done and it seemed to calm her down.

The first part of the test....

is done by hooking electrodes up to your head and having you look at a dot on a computer screen around which the images - a checkerboard pattern- move. The way I understand it, this test measures how long it takes the information to get to the right part of your brain. If you have a demylinating disease, the optic nerve is often one of the first places it shows up.

The second part of the test is done with a series of clicks - same thing with the information getting to the audio part of your brain.

I found the first part very difficult. It was hard to concentrate on the dot. I had to keep blinking, I felt like my eyes were watering and felt mildly nauseated. The audio part of the test was no big deal, just that it sounded like some guy with a jackhammer trying to drill through my skull.

Maybe they do that if this test is "inconclusive". Just kidding.

I could tell that the test wasn't going all that well from the tech's body language and some of things she said. ("Come on! Concentrate, concentrate, concentrate!") So, I asked her what she saw.

She hemmed and hawed a little, for the sake of propriety, I guess, and said all the usual stuff about how Dr. Doglover will know for sure, but finally said, "It's not pretty. I mean, the wave forms on this test, they're just not real pretty. They're not bad. Sort of borderline. I mean, I have seen a LOT worse. If you do have it (MS) then you're just in the early stages of the disease."

Well. Nobody thinks I'm in the late stages of the disease.

When I was there seeing about the possible seizure I may have had, Dr. Doglover listened to The Hub describe it and asked a lot of questions. He said that it certainly sounded like a seizure, but he was reluctant to take away my driving rights without knowing what it was "for sure." I guess I could have epilepsy and MS at the same time. Sort of like ice cream with pie, only, of course, not nearly so pleasant. The upshot of that whole thing was if it happens again in the next 6 months I'll lose my right to drive until I'm seizure free for 3 months. The idea of being dependant upon other people for transportation sends chills up my spine.

That's just a metaphor. Not a symptom.

I guess I'll know more when I see Dr. Doglover again on the 25th of this month. In between now and then I guess I'll just go from day to day doing the best I can...which, I guess is what I've been doing.

A lot of life has a lot to do with keeping on keeping on.