After a regular visit with a practice member he turns and says, "I don't know if you can do anything for this but I have lost the ability to write the letter 'E'." He'd been to two neurologists who couldn't figure it out. His name was Earl, meaning he couldn't write his name, sign checks, or credit cards.

I ask him to write his name and he tries desperately, as if the pen is glued to the paper, and begins to sweat. I check the OD, find cranials and accommodation reflex, and adjust him as he peels off a very shaky letter E.

Next month he says he practiced a few more times at home and was fixed. The neurologist kept phoning him for a while because he cancelled further testing, not believing he was better.