The MND specialist had the unenviable task of telling Paul Foreman that he had contracted motor neurone disease after examining him in April 2023. Paul had been involved in a motor accident a couple of months earlier and thought the problems with feeling in his right hand was due to the accident and he was initially diagnosed with nerve bruising. When he failed to recover Dr Gaddas sent him for a more specialist assessment which resulted in his appointment at Weatherfield General.
With friend Dee-Dee Bailey accompanying Paul for support, the specialist told the shattered young man that he had a variant known as limb onset motor neurone disease and answered his first question about his life expectancy by saying that with some people it was three years but longer for others. More assessments would lead to greater clarity regarding Paul’s specific case. Unable to deal with the enormity of what he had been told, Paul all but fled the room.
Just over a month later, Paul had a follow up consultation with the specialist just after he had told his loved ones the news following a period where he contained it to himself whilst trying to come to terms with the diagnosis. He was therefore far ahead of them in mentally accepting what the future entailed. His mother Bernie Winter was at the beginning of that process and she looked for any words that the specialist could offer which would give her hope. Paul had read up on a new treatment called Tofersen which only worked with those who had a specific gene, and which manifested itself in any member of a family who had previously suffered motor neurone disease. As no one in Paul's family had ever succumbed, they were told by the specialist that there was practically zero chance of the treatment being applicable to him and Paul had to shout his mother down when she tried to discuss the semantics between the term “practically zero” and zero.
On the first visit to the specialist two months later, this time alone, Paul met fellow patient Shelly Rossington who was further along the line of decline than him, but who impressed him with her positive attitude towards her condition.
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2023