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We met with a diagnostician today who normally works out of New Jersey, but he
flew down here, because he’s an apparent avid reader of this site, and is
fascinated by Nick’s case. Nick laughed when he heard where he was from, but
he wouldn’t tell us what that’s all about. He promises that his laugh is not a
symptom, and that he had genuine reason to find the news humorous. The
diagnostician was inclined to believe that, though he does not believe him
about much else. He has to operate under the assumption that Nick’s belief
that he’s from another universe is a part of this mysterious disease. If
that’s true, then he’s had whatever this is for several months now, which
would make his decline all the more sudden, and all the more alarming. He’s
scheduled a bunch of lab work and scans to perform over the course of the next
few days. Today only involved a comprehensive examination. It included
everything you get from your periodic physical exam, plus a whole bunch more.
He had him hold his arms out to his side, and try to keep them still, which
Nick found difficult. He had trouble walking in a straight line, and reciting
simple prompted phrases from memory. Now that I write it all out, I realize
that it sounds like a sobriety test. But obviously that’s not the cause as
Nick doesn’t drink. The diagnostician had him walk on a treadmill, and ride a
stationary bike. They weren’t measuring stress, or anything. This all seemed
to be about his motor skills. So far, the doctor can’t come to any conclusion,
which frustrated Nick, even though he understands that this was never going to
be a quick or easy fix. It’s only the first of several tests. The doctors and
techs have to start at the beginning, and move forwards from there. Even if
one of them doesn’t diagnose the right disease, it will give us more
information than we had before. We need to be patient. After a couple of hours
of this, Nick was tired, and ready to go home, so it was good that we were
done for the day. I drove him back to his apartment, and made him some dinner.
His former personal assistant ate with us, and told us how the work has been
going at the jail. They have kept the spirit of his vision alive, and are
making real progress on their prison reform ideas. It saddened him to hear it,
since he expected to be there working on all that himself, but he’s pleased
that the project is still very much alive. I think the dinner gave him a boost
of positivity, even if he would never admit it. I don’t know Jasmine very
well, so after I tucked him into bed, she and I stayed up to get to know each
other a little bit. We have more tests to get to tomorrow, so I turned in too
before too long.
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