The Neuropathy Group

After much deliberation and procrastination, I finally narrowed my choices for a support group to attend down to a women’s support group for single parents, a neuropathy support group, and, as a last resort, an AA meeting if one of the other two didn’t work out for me. All of the meetings were on Saturday, nearly the only day that would work well for me schedule-wise.

As instructed, on Friday afternoon I got on the phone to confirm that the meetings would indeed take place at their appointed times on Saturday. My first choice was the women’s support group, listed as meeting in Tate Page Hall on campus at Western Kentucky University at 1:00. I looked for a phone number for Tate Page Hall but couldn’t find it, so I called the general information number for WKU. After telling them about the information that I was looking to confirm, I was transferred to some place in Tate Page Hall. The lady that answered had never heard of the group but asked around a bit. No one knew anything so she transferred me to the Psychology Department to see if they knew anything. I received the same answer from the second lady who then transferred me to another person. Again, no one had ever heard of the group so this lady recommended that I call the Daily News, the paper that the listing had come out of, and inquire of them if they had any additional information. I decided that I had inquired far enough and would rather pursue another group.

My second choice was the neuropathy support group. The group was listed as meeting at Barnes & Noble in the meeting room at 10:30. This listing didn’t have any contact information listed so I called Barnes & Noble to see if they had any information. The lady that answered the phone said that she is not allowed to give out any information about the group. I pressed her a bit but, no, she would not give any information. She did confirm that they had booked the room for 10:30 on Saturday morning but, other than that, there was no information that she would give. This time I resorted to calling the Daily News because I really didn’t want to go to the AA meeting. The lady at the Daily News said that what is in the paper is all the information that they have. I decided to take my chances and show up for the neuropathy meeting.

This morning, I arrived at Barnes & Noble around 10:20 and I couldn’t find the meeting room right away so I went to the cash register to find out where it was. I was waiting for my turn in line when an elderly gentleman behind me asked, “Are you a Western student?” I confirmed that, indeed, I was. “I believe that I sat right in front of you at the Western Symphony Orchestra performance the other week when I attended with my granddaughter." How astonishing! He had held a lengthy conversation with Kris the evening she attended the concert with me. He encouraged me to continue on.

I asked the lady behind the counter where the meeting room was and she pointed me in the right direction. Another employee overheard me asking about it and escorted me to the room.

I entered a fairly large room with tables & chairs set around, all but one of the tables being empty. There were five women sitting at the table and the oldest-looking lady, Edna, asked me if I was looking for the neuropathy group. I said that I was and she invited me to pull up a chair and join them. I got my chair and, as I pulled it up to the table, I explained that I am a Western student and that one of my assignments was to attend a support group and write a report on it. I asked if it was okay for me to use their group as my assignment and Edna said that it would be fine and that I had chosen a good day to join them because Judy, a nurse practitioner, was joining them to be their speaker for the day. It turned out that I was sitting next to Judy and she said that she had attended WKU and had obtained a bachelors degree in biology and a bachelors degree in nursing. She then went to the University of Louisville and got a masters degree in adult health.

Two more elderly couples came after I arrived and then Edna called the meeting to order. She introduced Judy and let Judy have the floor. Judy spent approximately 20 to 30 minutes explaining the central nervous system and what causes peripheral neuropathy.

From what I could understand, peripheral neuropathy is when the nerves in the extremities are damaged, usually over a period of time, resulting in symptoms like numbness, tingling sensations, and muscle weakness, just to name a few. There are some medicinal and therapy treatments available but not a cure.

Judy emphasized the necessity of getting plenty of vitamins and minerals. Judy, a relatively young person, takes two of GNC’s Ultra-Mega multivitamins three times a day to combat the future degeneration processes. She said that the amounts of vitamins and minerals that a person receives from One-A-Day brands are not nearly enough. After Judy was finished with her talk, she opened it up for questions and there were various questions regarding treatment options and types of medicines.

The meeting lasted about an hour and after it was over, they again asked me about my reason for being there and were very interested in what I do, etc. One lady asked me what I had learned from being there and I told her that I might need to start taking a multi-vitamin. They found that rather amusing. As I was leaving, I told Edna about the difficulty I had trying to obtain information and she was quite indignant about it.

After I left the meeting, I had been planning to go to the mall anyway, so while I was there, I stopped by the GNC store to see the wonderful Ultra-Mega multivitamin pills. They were just as I expected them to be: horse pills. They cost $29 for 180 day supply and that would be if you take them the way they recommend. The way Judy takes them, she said it costs her $54 a month.