Return trip to doctor and a single to hospital please. 15th June 2005

On the Wednesday I went back to the GP's surgery. I saw a different doctor, who repeated the tests as before. I couldn't do the finger to nose then pen thing with my right hand. I asked if it was early-onset Parkinson's, Lyme disease, Huntingdon's , MS, or a stroke. She said it had come on too suddenly to be any of them, and was most likely to have been an aneurism, that had now burst (blood-vessel in my brain). She said I should go in to hospital that day. She rang the hospital, but there wasn't going to be a bed available until that afternoon, so I was sent home to wait for a "patient transport" ambulance. The hospital rang that afternoon to tell me that a bed was coming available, but that I would have to wait another hour and 1/2 for the ambulance. About 10 minutes later, a full paramedic ambulance turned up and the paramedics barged in when the door was opened! I was stood there with my bag packed, and they were all dressed up with nothing to do!
I arrived at around 4pm, in the Medical Assessment Unit of Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport. I was tagged, and had a canula shoved in my left arm, from which they took a blood sample. I never heard of that again... A nurse had to fill in a form covering everything I brought with me including describing everything and describing its colour!
A very astute registrar nade a neurological examination of me. I had to take my jeans off, and I did the finger to nose then pen test again with both hands; running my left heel down my right shin then vice versa; patella hammer on my knees and elbows; the soles of my feet were stroked with something sharp, then soft; my legs were dabbed with something sharp then soft, then something cold; I had to identify whether I could feel a struck tuning fork against my limbs; I had to name the indicated parts of a watch; I had to hold both arms out horizontal with my eyes shut; I had to resist pressure put on my arms held thus; I had to identify with my eyes shut whether my big toe was being held up or pushed down ..... if there were any other tests, I have forgotten.
This was the only person who was willing to tell me anything. He asked me if I had any suspicions as to what my condition was, and when I said I suspected MS, he said that did seem a likely candidate. It probably wasn't a stroke, or burst blood vessel. I was relieved it wasn't something requiring immediate surgery. But I did have to stay in.
My partner went home and I sat and waited for whatever came next.
At about 9pm they told me I was being transferred to a ward. I was finally moved at around 11:30pm, by being dragged backwards in a wheelchair so I couldn't even see where I was going. I could just see all these side rooms in darkness. I went to bed in Ward A1, which turned out to be rheumatology - surely that wasn't where I was supposed to be?