CEREBROSPINALECTOMY
Answering service, 2:14 a.m. Service: "She says her legs feel weird." Me: "Weird how?" Service: "It just says weird." Me: "What else does the note say?" Service: "That is the whole note. My box holds forty characters." Me: "So does my differential." Overnight triage for neurologic symptoms. What separates a radiculopathy from a peripheral neuropathy from a cord lesion is distribution and time course — which fingers, which toes, how fast, and what changes it. Strip those out and you are not left with a smaller history. You are left with no history. Send this to whoever is holding the phone tonight. Send this to whoever is carrying the pager tonight.
EXPLAINED (ACCURACY-CHECKED)
The localizing value of a paresthesia history rests on distribution and time course (which dermatome/nerve territory, onset tempo, positional triggers); without those, 'numb legs' does not distinguish radiculopathy from peripheral neuropathy from a spinal cord lesion.
Established clinical neurology — localization of sensory symptoms by distribution and tempo is core bedside neurology (Blumenfeld, Neuroanatomy through Clinical Cases). No PMID needed; claim is non-controversial.
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