Sorry my phone is acting weird and doing things I don't want to like post when I wasn't finished.
The neurologist took the list of my symptoms that I gave him and without even looking at it crumpled it up and threw it in the garbage. He then looked at me and asked if he could examine my left hand. I replied "No", gathered my paperwork and walked out. I have had several other Dr's actually try to walk out of the exam room when I would try to tell them more than one symptom. Except for the one dr who actually suggested that I should see someone at the memory clinic (this is the same dr who tried to walk out of the room on me a couple of days earlier when I tried to tell her my symptoms. I think the only reason she about faced and actually listened to some of my symptoms is because I brought my sister into the exam room with me and she didn't want a third party who she didn't know to see how she was treating one of her patients.) that she would make the referral immediately and mark it urgent. Since that one time when a dr has actually done what they get paid to do, I have been the one to do the suggesting of what the next step should be, what specialist I need to see, even down to what tests should be next. The only other dr who has been doing his job is my Gerontologist. He is the first dr who has fully listened to all my symptoms. It was supposed to be a 4 hour appointment with him and by the time he was done, we had been there 8 hours. He was the first dr to actually witness a full blown serious vertigo episode along with all of the visual disturbances that occur randomly , all three headache types, a severe photosensitivity episode that not only caused the muscles around the eyes to tighten harder than needed which then set off every other facial muscle to spasm and tighten up harder than needed. He was also able to witness an episode of almost full sensory input overload ( the skin was the only sensory organ that wasn't sending the brain extreme and weird signals). My brain felt like it had stopped working. I couldn't think, talk well, see properly, hear things due to the loud buzz in both ears, everything tasted horrid and all I smelt is an overwhelming burning smell. The visual disturbances got so bad at one point that I wasn't able to complete very many of the memory tests as nothing I was seeing made sense to me. This the first dr that I haven't had to suggest that we need to do more in-depth tests. By the time we left 8 hours after our original appointment time, I had a possible working diagnosis, a brain scan appointment and an appointment with the neuro-phscologist for more cognitive testing. I have even had to find my own ENT and get my family Dr to refer me for the unpredictable and so far uncontrolled moderate to severe vertigo episodes (4 different versions with each version having its own completely different movement sensation) that have lasted 30 minutes (the shortest) to 3 days (the longest one so far) and that to this date, 9 months after the first symptoms were noticed by co-workers have yet to be investigated by any dr even though I may have had or been experiencing them when I saw the dr.s. I finally had to be the one to ask for the referral to the ENT to start the investigation into the vertigo episodes. So I know what you are feeling. The only reason I have needed a dr so far is to make the actual referral to a specialist or tests and in my case fill out the forms that require the signature of a medical dr so that I can qualify for the disability benefits from my work and both governments (Ontario and Canada)