Nerve conduction study

[unixronin]

I had a nerve conduction study this morning, at New England Baptist Hospital.

So, just in case any of you ever wondered ... "nerve conduction study" is a medical term meaning in large part "stick a bunch of needle electrodes into your leg and shoot electrical pulses into them while wiggling them around."  You know how about ten or fifteen minutes after you get a really strong cramp in your calf, you have a deep ache where the muscle cramped that feels like a horse kicked you in the back of the leg there?  Pretty much my whole left calf felt like that by about an hour after the test.  Fortunately, about fifteen minutes walking around when we stopped in Tilton loosened it up (though I could barely stand when I first got out of the car).

The good news is the preliminary verdict (pending full analysis of the results) is that while there's plenty of evidence of past damage to both my tibial and perinial nerves, I have in general good nerve conduction and good muscle recruitment in both.  (Not as good as the undamaged right, though; I could quite easily tell the muscle contractions in the right calf were stronger.)

This bodes well for being able to finally fix my ankle up a bit better and make it last this time.  (A fix has been attempted before, but I lost a lot of the benefits because my knees just plain hurt too badly to be able to complete the PT.  My artificial knees are a lot better in that regard.)

Comments

[hugh_mannity]

Yay! I think. Sounds like not a lot of fun, but if it leads to better overall mobility and function then, it's worth it.

[cymru]

Yeah but it involves way too many trips down to Boston/Waltham.

[merlinpendragon]

I'm sorry you're having to go through this - since I've been down that route myself. I've had 2 prior nerve-conduction studies - to document my claim that nerve damage was done (at the entry point) in a botched heart cath exam. I know that they are no fun, and personally think that they were developed by CIA interrogation specialists!

However, I'm glad that it opens the door to further care that will improve your quality of life. That is a very good thing. I'll be keeping you in my thoughts.