When you have a chronic illness it usually means you have more doctors than your typical patient. I have more than one illness so I have more than 20 doctors and physical therapists in my Rolodex.

Tomorrow I see a spine specialist for the first time. I have had spine pain since I was 16, it has gotten progressively worse over time and as such I just got use to the slow increase of pain.

The reason I’m just now seeing a specialist after more than 20 years is because the pain was completely gone for 15 months after I had stem cell treatment. Once that 25 months was over the pain came back full force, no gradual increase just BAM!

That was the first time in my life I understood the need for heavy pain medication and how someone could come to depend on them.

I had assumed the pain was related to my MS and a lesion near that location on my spinal cord but my neurologist informed me that was not the case. On his referral I get to add yet another doctor to my file.

The takeaway from this that NOT everything is related to the major health issue and if you discuss it you may never know. Also, spreadsheets, because I can tell you for sure one small spreadsheet with doctor’s info is a lot lighter than 25+ business cards.