So, I got out of the Krankenhaus here in Berlin last Friday.

I was in the Charité for 3 nights; three very long days and very boring nights. Pretty tiring, as all hospital stays can be. Tiring and washed-out dull but not unduly distressing. There was quite a bit of staring out the window (see above).  The food was pretty reasonable as hospitals go – although my last meal was a small fruit pudding preceded by a large fruit pudding. The vege menu had clearly been exhausted…

I won’t bore you with all the details of all the tests I went under. I’ll just say that they were extremely thorough. I have had MRI scans before of course, and there were another two carried out here. There was also the not-as-bad-as-I-feared lumbar puncture (or in American, spinal tap) – 30 seconds of sharp pain and then no bruising, so fair enough.  It was also a good test of my (very poor) German…

Anyway, on Tuesday we went back to the hospital and saw the neurology team assigned to me. They confirmed what we all suspected they would, which was a diagnosis of remitting MS. I was prepared for this, as my last scan in England left the neurologist in no doubt.

What remains now is to figure out with my neurologist here the best course of treatment. I’m seeing the neuro on Montag for an appointment, so I’ll write again after that. My only thoughts on this have been wanting oral treatment such as a daily pill, as opposed to injections. keine Nadeln! keine Nadeln!