I've never been called THAT before

Tuesday morning my husband drove me to Seattle for a brain MRI to be followed by my semi-annual appointment at the MS Center. You see, I've had multiple sclerosis for 25 years. I'm fortunate because I've been fairly stable since I started one of the MS drugs. Unfortunately things have been changing. I have been slow to admit it but with my MRI pending knew I'd have nowhere to hide.

In the afternoon we met with the nurse practitioner. (I rotate between the neurologist and NP every six months) When she entered the room the first words out of her mouth were, "What's going on?". I assumed she was asking the general "how are you" kind of question. I started to tell her the changes I've noticed when she excitedly said my MRI showed activity; lots of activity (5 new lesions). She thought the lab mixed up the report. She reiterated the fact that I've been stable. What's going on.

She asked a ton of questions to see if there was something obvious that caused the change. Nope. She said I might need to change medication. My husband asked if I'd be a candidate for a treatment of steroids. (I've done this many times in the past when an exacerbation strikes) Yup. She was so taken aback by the change on my MRI she blurted out, "You're an outlier".

A what? I had no intention of telling her I had no idea what "outlier" meant. She told me she would order the steroid treatment and that once the IV was set me husband could administer the infusions.(hooray!) Then she mentioned she was going to discuss the radiology report and MRI with my neurologist (the head of the Neuro-Science department) and she wanted to see me back in 30 days. She also said that I'll have another MRI in 6 months (oh joy).

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So, can you guess what the first thing I did when I left her office? Did I cry or shout that this wasn't fair? No.I whipped out my cell phone and opened my trusted Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

You learn something new every day.