I was nervous looking at my calendar and realizing I had an appointment with The Great Scott yesterday.

I always have this irrational fear that I'm not doing my MS quite right. I used to walk out of that office feeling like a failure when TGS would ask me, "When was the last time you walked a mile, Maribeth?" It took everything I had in me not to burst out laughing, not in a good way, and then lunge across his desk and go for his throat. I'd leave feeling like a failure. I should be doing this whole MS thing better. Getting myself checked into the hospital as an in-patient while TGS was off on vacation felt like the ultimate failure.

The thing is, though, without me noticing,  The Great Scott and I have started a more productive phase of our relationship somehow. He has finally gotten to the point where he knows I'm no push over and he also knows that nobody wants me to be better at having MS more than ME.

I think he's pegged me for the chronic over-achiever I am. He seems to finally understand how much I hate this entire thing. I hate it from beginning to end. Being in the same place has allowed us to move on to  a new phase of our relationship. The one where he stops trying to bullshit me about walking a mile and starts talking to me straight about more realistic things.

I got taken into the inner sanctum early by a nurse, and I had left my bag and my phone out in the lobby with my nephew who served as my ride and support for the day since I am not driving-ready just yet. I still get too dizzy when I'm moving around to trust myself behind the wheel of my car. So I just had to sit there, in the sterile room, quietly with my thoughts while I awaited the appearance of TGS.

I steeled myself for the lecture. I wondered how he would react when I freaked the hell out when he asked me when the last time I walked a mile was. That quiet time had me all balled up and anxious. That was probably the longest I've ever been separated from my phone in…years.

A soft tap on the door preceded his grand entrance and the first thing I noticed was that TGS was tan. He was looking all browned up and healthy and I suddenly got a mental image of him wearing madras shorts on some fancy Caribbean beach somewhere sipping a mai tai and I almost giggled.

"Well, there she is," he said while ushering in two other doctors. "I'm running a little behind, Maribeth, so Dr. A and Dr. B here are going to talk through the progression of events that brought you to the hospital and then I'll come back and we can talk next steps."

Dr.'s A and B were very kindly young men. I had to go through the whole progression of events from my first Ocrevus infusion in May…then on to my landslide in June resulting in my short stint on high-dose oral steroids, and my subsequent slide into feeling slightly off balance and thinking maybe I needed a cane and/or physical therapy, to the fateful day when I woke up all wonky and sick that landed me in that hell hole they call a Level One Trauma Center for four very long and miserable days.

Then I had to explain how I was discharged without so much as a strip of paper or any directions on what to do next. I also explained how the three different neurologists that I saw in the clink had three different theories on what landed me there.

Dr. A explained, "The doctors in the hospital checked you for stroke, which this clearly was not. They diagnosed you with vestibular neuronitus not a relapse of your MS. I'm not sure what I think about that, but we will see what Dr. Scott has to say." And as if on cue, after a soft tap-tap on the door, in walked in Malibu TGS looking relaxed and friendly.

They all conferred, all of my many doctors, and The Great Tan Scott looked at me and said quite matter-of-factly, "So the doctors in the hospital who saw you said you have vestibular neuronitus. I disagree one hundred percent. Those doctors were wrong."

I said, "Well, respectfully, my first reaction to hearing that news today was…how dumb. When you hear hoof beats, think horses not zebras. It made zero sense to me."

I actually made TGS laugh!

"I was about to use a similar analogy but yours works just fine. This is obviously an ongoing relapse, Maribeth. You've had a rough time. But I still think the new goo is going to help you," he said.

"I feel like this whole thing is one big blur of really bad timing," I said to him. And he agreed with me again! I am now officially in crazy town. Vacation must agree with The Great Scott.

"I think once you get beyond this vertigo, you'll start getting back to a better place but this is a rough patch. Nearly 40% of my MS patients experience this kind of thing. A lesion the size of a pin prick could be present in your brain stem in the region of the vestibular nerve (since you already have so many lesions in the brain and C-spine, this is the obvious conclusion). The lesion could be the size of a pin prick, not visible on your MRI, but that doesn't mean it's not there. Or as you put it, horses for sure and definitely not zebras," said TGS.

Other little gems he dropped on me during our brief visit (in his words):

To me…"Vertigo can be stubborn. It can last weeks, or months and even years. You can't do anything about it but wait it out. If you're not feeling better in  few weeks we may consider an outpatient stint at the Vestibular Rehabilitation Unit at Allegheny General. But that shouldn't be necessary." (Good christ on a cracker…a few more weeks of this?!?! I am in danger of losing my mind if I cannot get back to my life sooner than that. I think the look on my face conveys this reaction completely, therefore I do not verbalize it.)

To the other doctors… "Maribeth here has progressed a bit more rapidly than is usual for a newly diagnosed MS patient. She's still in the thick of it and is struggling with a higher than normal disability level than is usual for a newly diagnosed patient. Hence our aggressive approach to her therapy." (Yikes. He never said that out loud to me before, but knowing he thinks the same things I've been thinking somehow made me feel validated.)

To me again…"You've had a rough time. I am confident the new goo is going to be great for you. I remain fully optimistic that we did the right thing. Your disease is just a bit more active than usual so it's going to take you a little longer. Usually new patients level off within five years or so. So it's coming for you, the feeling better part, it's just that you have no choice but to wait it out." (FIVE YEARS NOW?!? Jesus. I'm going to feel better when I'm 55 years old?!?? Good lord.)

To the other doctors again… "What is the mechanism that makes Ampyra work Dr.A?" And Dr. A clearly had no idea because he was literally stuttering, so I piped up, "It's a potassium channel blocker. It smooths out the electrical signals between my brain and my legs. It only works for 30% of patients who try it but it clearly works for me since when I don't take it, I cannot walk." The Great Scott looks at me sort of surprised, like, and says, "Well, you're exactly right. Are you looking for a job now, Maribeth?" (He made a joke! A funny! Malibu Scott is a lot more mellow than pasty not-tan Great Scott. Also I think Dr. B may be mute because I've not heard him speak this entire time.)

Back to me again… "There is no reason for us not to continue to be optimistic, here, Maribeth. I know this has been discouraging. Hospital visits are not fun. But if we're patient, I think the new goo is going to get you to a new normal that you can manage. Listen, today, fewer than  10% of newly diagnosed MS patients end up in a wheelchair. The therapies are so much better now than what we had to work with in the past. A wheel chair used to be a forgone conclusion but it's now very unlikely. I know you are discouraged. But I remain optimistic on your behalf." (Well, at least one of us is. I guess I'll take it.)

On the topic of PT…"Let's give you time to heal and get back to your office first. You need to take this slow. Do not prolong the situation by pushing yourself too hard. Rest and time are the only things that are going to help this situation. I suggest you try and give yourself plenty of both." (Wait, WHAT?!? This, from when-did-you-last-walk-a-mile-guy? I am so surprised I am rendered speechless. A rarity for me. TGS seems shocked by this as well.)

And SCENE.

My nephew and I went and had lunch after my appointment. Being a passenger in a car was not great for me. I was super woozy. All of that walking around in the outside world, where I've been absent lately, turned out to be a bit much for me. I realized I had a raging head ache. And I was feeling even more nauseous than usual. After my nephew helped me with a few small chores and many laughs (that kid…he cracks me up), I planted myself in my living room chair – the one that I feel might swallow me whole one day since I've been spending so very much time sitting in it. My chair and me are becoming one. I try to look at my computer to answer a few work email, and I realize it's no good. I am going to be sick.

I drag myself through my kitty chores, get upstairs and put on my jammies and prepare to lay flat on my back until the sick feeling goes away when another more powerful wave of nausea hits me. I dig in my bedside table for the handy puke bags I stole from the hospital, and you know what happened next.

I felt immediately better. I lay down. I read a short three chapters of my next book…and I go to sleep. It was just starting to get dark when I put my book down. I didn't care.

I'm following doctor's orders. When The Great Scott tells you to rest and take it easy, you rest and take it easy. I am going to try and cultivate his infectious optimism and hope that I am back in outside-world-form within a few weeks. I know it seems like a really long time. Because it is a really long time. What MS has taught me this week is that I really have no true notion of what a long time really is. A few weeks that feel like a lifetime? It could be worse. It could always be a whole lot worse.

One more tiny piece of news.

When we got back to my house after our post-doctor appointment lunch, I had a few packages on my front porch. One of them was marked with the words "fashionablecanes.com." My nephew grabbed it up and was like, "Yo, let's see if this cane is really fashionable enough for you, AB." And we laughed. We opened the box and we met my first cane.

I'm calling him Stan. He is rather basic, but reliable. He isn't flashy but he will help me when I'm no longer unable to drive, but I might still need some support to keep from holding on to walls, buildings and random strangers whilst walking around downtown Pittsburgh.

I still need to get the hang of walking with Stan. Somehow, I feel less awkward drunk walking around town grabbing on to random stuff than I do when trying to walk with Stan around my living room. I'm sure I will get used to him.

I'm a loner, we know this, but sometimes you need a little help from a friend named Stan. And Malibu Great Scott. I'm going to miss his tan when I see him again in November.