neurologist visit

This was a follow-up from when I saw Dr. AbdelRazek in September (which was the first time I'd seen him). We discussed my test results, in the course of which he told me that there were no earlier comparison images for the thoracic spine MRI. I knew I'd had that done since moving to Boston, so it should be in their records; I told him I'd look for the date when I got home. It turns out to have been May 2016, so might not be significantly more useful than the one he could find, from 2014, which I think he'd forgotten about when he started that conversation--but that MRI should be in their system, the test was ordered by a Mt. Auburn doctor and done in their radiology department. I have sent him the info, in any case.

Other than that, he's basically happy with what these MRIs (cervical and thoracic spine) showed, The odd blood test results from the Mayo Clinic turn out to be testing for a few obscure diseases that can mimic MS, and he said he does this with all his new patients.

However, based on one of the other blood tests from September, he wants me to increase my vitamin D dosage, because while my current blood level of 46.6 ng/mL is within the normal/healthy reference range of 30-100, for his MS patients he wants it to be at least 50. So, I'll try 4000 IU of vitamin D a day (instead of 3000) and we'll check again in four months: he asked how soon I wanted to come back, and I'd been thinking that every six months might not be frequent enough, so we'll try this. My Washington neurologist saw me every four months; Dr. Apatoff, back in New York, every three.

The visit ended with a little low-tech neurology: moving pegs into and out of a pegboard as a test of dexterity, and a pattern-matching one that assigns random symbols to the digits from 1-9, then presents you with the symbols and asks you for the numbers. Dr. Katz's office did these with pen and paper; Dr. AbdelRazek had it on a tablet computer, so touch-screen.

I also mentioned having gotten a hepatitis B booster vaccine after Carmen noticed that the tests he'd ordered didn't indicate immunity, despite my having had three doses in 2011-21. He asked why I wanted that immunity ("do you work in education?") and I said no, it's something one of my partners asked for. He also said that he wouldn't be surprised if the booster made no visible difference, and I said that yeah, if one more dose of that vaccine doesn't do the job, I'm not going to pursue it further.

carrot cake ice cream

JP Licks' "carrot cake" ice cream is excellent. I tried it this afternoon after seeing my doctor. They are giving out tastes/samples again, so I asked for one and then ordered a "small" cone, using my annual "happy birthday, here's some free ice cream."

The ice cream has walnuts, raisins, brown sugar, cinnamon, and (per the JP Licks website) shredded carrots. It doesn't contain cake, which pleases me because I don't generally like like cream that contains cake or cookies. It also means the carrot cake ice cream is gluten-free, so if you are (or know) someone who is avoiding gluten but misses carrot cake, you'll probably like this. (

JP Licks is a local chain, so this recommendation will be useful mostly to people who live or work in or near Boston. But hey, if you're going to be visiting... They say carrot cake ice cream is "available for a limited run," but not whether that's going to a few weeks, or several months.