HACKER Q&A
📣 unsupp0rted

Is it ever worth traveling across the world to see a medical specialist?


For over 5 years I've had a gait abnormality that neurologists and orthopedic docs can't identify.

Have any other hackers found success by identifying a specialist somewhere in another country and traveling there for a diagnosis?

When walking my left foot turns inwards, and I often stub my left foot on the ground. I have a video of it, but I guess it's the kind of thing a doctor would diagnose only in person?

• A couple years back it got better for 1 year and then returned a month after I changed my footwear.

• Zero pain, then or now. Normal sensation in the feet and toes. I can jump off the ground on one foot for 30 seconds easily, either side. Just bad walking.

• MRIs of the brain (with contrast), thoracic and cervical spine MRI came back normal, as well as MRI and EMG of the left leg, also normal. Neurologists don't think it's Parkinsons, MS or ALS. They pointed out they see this problem in people with foot prosthetics, not in average people like me.

The first 500 ~ 1500 steps seem fine (!) and then the gait problem starts and gets progressively worse.

I don't understand why there's no obvious neurological or orthopedic diagnosis by local docs wherever I've lived. I've heard everything from muscle weakness of the calf to primary dystonia to "you're not getting enough blood to the foot after walking for a while".

I found a gait specialist in the USA, but it's on the other side of the world from me.

Is it worth traveling there? Are all (developed-country) doctors basically going to be flummoxed, regardless of which country they trained and practice in?


  👤 smt88 Accepted Answer ✓
What country are you in? Seeing a US specialist really might help, but there are thousands here and sometimes we have to see more than one to get an answer.

You may have more luck in a cheaper country with nearly-as-good doctors.