Friday, June 27, 2008

Medical Tests.

Earlier this year, I was experiencing a great deal of pain in my left leg. It was diagnosed as sciatica- brought on by arthritis in my spine. Fortunately, the pain has gone away.
The doctor assures me that the pain will return.
As the sciatica subsided, a problem I have with my hands became more noticeable.
I have tingling and numbness in two of the fingers of my left hand and an area of my right hand is extremely painful.
I had two test performed on me yesterday: a nerve conduction study and an electromyography.
I'll use text from the umm.edu website to describe the tests:
"To perform nerve conduction studies, surface electrodes are first fastened to the hand and wrist. Small electric shocks are then applied to the nerves in the fingers, wrist, and forearm to measure how fast a signal travels through the nerves that control movement and sensation."
"To perform electromyography, a fine, sterile, wire electrode is inserted briefly into a muscle, and the electrical activity is displayed on a viewing screen. Electromyography can be quite painful and is less accurate than nerve conduction."
It's been observed that a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'm including a picture of the doctor and his assistant as they performed those tests on me.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I don't know what to think about this...for real.

ps how are you guys and happy 4th of July!!!

florabel