Today was my EMG (electromyography) test. As far as medical testing is concerned, that is definitely one of the most painful tests I’ve had to do. He started by hooking leads up to various spots, then using a probe thing to shock me at different magnitudes until he got the results he needed. Not fun. Then the second half of the test, he stuck me with a needle in five different spots (one at a time). He didn’t shock me with them, but he would leave it in a minute with the nerve at rest, then he would have me activate that muscle (so tense it up) in a specific way. That was actually okay, for the most part. The needle in the muscle on the side and base of my thumb wasn’t fun. He put it in and then said “I know, that one stings.” Apparently, I made a face? Oh well, at least he knew it wasn’t comfortable. The others were okay. He put one needle in on the back of my hand at the base of the webbing between my thumb and forefinger. Then he put one in my bicep, one in my tricep, and one in my deltoid.

Luckily, I didn’t have to wait on the results. Unfortunately, they weren’t really what I wanted. My peripheral nervous system is perfectly fine – normal function. Dang it. While that seems like good news, it means we’re now having to look at my central nervous system. Peripheral nervous system stuff can’t really kill you (or usually can’t). I’m a little freaked out, however, about the central nervous system stuff because a lot of it is really bad. Now we’re waiting for my insurance to approve an MRI of my brain and cervical spine (neck). If they MRI doesn’t show anything, then we will have to switch to a symptomatic treatment approach, which I don’t want. I want to know what is going on. Ugh.

Once again, here we go waiting for test results again.