Tag: MRI


A Pain In The Head

20
January

On Wednesday, I went back to the neurologist, after the office called me Tuesday afternoon and told me to show up at 3:45 the next afternoon. I got there at about 3, since my dad had a physical therapy appointment an hour earlier at the building right across the street. Being there forty-five minutes early wouldn’t have been a problem if I had been called back to a room sometime before 4:15. Of course, since it was a doctor’s office, it wasn’t humanly possible to be seen on-time. No, I didn’t go back until about 4:45 or, maybe even, 5:00.

After going to the exam room, I waited…and waited…and waited. Finally, the doctor came in. First, he apologized for having been too sick to see me before then. (I didn’t know he’d been sick.) Then, he went over the results.

He said that the MRI had revealed 5 white spots (aka: white matter lesions) on my brain. He said the radiologist report said there were 10, but that he’d only seen 5 legitimate ones. (The other five were apparently blood vessels and other anatomical parts.) He said that these were normal, especially for people with migraines. He told me, after that, that my EEG had some abnormal electrical activity, which seemed to be related to migraines. I asked him about my myoclonic jerks being worse lately–again, I was told it was the migraines. The dystonia is apparently due to the migraines as well. So, he basically told me that migraines are all powerful, evil problems that cause a hell of a lot of pain and torment for people.

While he was telling me about the results, he told me that he would’ve had the MRI results sooner except that, according to him, his computer just suddenly started writing other files over the disc the hospital sent him. This resulted in him having to get another disc. I’m not exactly convinced, but…who knows?

Anyway, I am now scheduled for a “BOTOX evaluation” because he said that he didn’t think that just treating me with pain medicine was going to cut it anymore. Apparently, I need something more permanent or long-lasting. (From what I’ve read, there is no conclusive data about the level of permanency of BOTOX injections when used to control neurological conditions.) I don’t know if my insurance will cover BOTOX. (I’m now on a Medicare Part C program.) So, I don’t know if I’ll be able to have it done or not. If I do have it done, then I can tell people I’ve had a nose job and BOTOX. Fun, fun, fun.

3 comments » | Confessions, Sickness and Health

Unintended Anxiety

7
January

My head hurts. Actually, the back of my neck and the very top part of my back is the part of my body that really hurts. I was hoping that by now I might have a full-fledged answer for why I was hurting. I was hoping that maybe the test results would be in, and the neurologist would know for sure what the hell is going on with my head, neck, and back.

I had the appointment last week to find out the results, which turned out to be a dud because the doctor had the hospital emergency that he had to deal with. He was supposed to call that evening. He didn’t. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and didn’t call the rest of last week. I even waited until halfway through this week, just in case he was out or backed up because of the holidays. But a couple of days ago, I got tired of waiting and made the call.

I got a call back this afternoon. It was his nurse. Apparently, he was looking at my chart, but hadn’t gotten my EEG results back until late this week. I thought that was strange because of the appointment from last week being scheduled and me being told that my results were in that day. The nurse today couldn’t tell me what the results were, even though they finally had them. I wasn’t really worried about the results until I talked to my mom.

My mom was able to trigger my inner health-related panic attack voice. She said that if the nurse couldn’t tell me the results, then she must not have been able to read the EEG. She then said that that would be due to the EEG being abnormal in some way, so I started getting nervous. I don’t think she meant to trigger that anxiety, but I have this tendency to think the worst when she makes that kind of suggestion (because she is generally right about it) and I was sitting at home by myself in a bit of a panic. (My parents left for the grocery store right after I got the call.)

When they got back, I mentioned how nervous I was. At this time, my mom said it was probably no big deal and that she didn’t mean to scare me. I don’t know that my mom understands just how much this kind of thing worries me. I’ve talked about it in therapy multiple times before, and my therapist has told me to tell my mom not to make the comments because of the heightened anxiety it causes, but I don’t feel that it is fair to make my mom stop saying random things because I have an inability to deal with the comments rationally. It isn’t like my mom is trying to upset me or hurt me or anything. If anything, I think she may be trying to prepare me.

So, now I am going to try to forget about the whole panic-related stuff and have a relatively relaxed weekend. I bet that won’t happen, though. The neurologist is supposed to definitely call by Tuesday, so I hope that that does happen. I’m not holding my breath on it, though.

Oh, and, in a somewhat related note, my mom made a list on the first of all of the things that the neurologist (or, in one case, a different neurologist that used to treat my headaches) has diagnosed me with. I was kind of surprised at the length of the list. After she made the list, which is below, she told me why she made it. Apparently, the next time that my aunt starts in on how horrible of a person she thinks I am, my mom wants some sort of proof that my life is a bit more difficult than my aunt seems to realize. I mean, my mom and Nana have both tried to convey the physical and mental stuff I deal with, along with the stuff I have to do and (sometimes) choose to do, even though I have very little energy and always feel like crap or hurt. I think it’s basically her version of a wake up call.

The List

  • Migraines (actually, 3 neurologists dx’d this)
  • Chronic Daily Headache (2 neurologists dx’d this, including 2 of the three that dx’d the migraines)
  • Dystonia
  • Essential Tremors
  • Myoclonus
  • Vertigo
  • Tarsal Tunnel Syndrome
  • Degenerative Arthritis of the Lower Spine
  • Absent reflexes in parts of my legs

I think that is everything, but I might have forgotten something. Anyway, my mom seemed shocked at the length of the list, even though I’d told her about each of the things when the doctors would tell me what I was “suffering” from. And some of the things, i.e. the tremors and the myoclonus, are things that I was told I had quite a while ago. I think the tremors were diagnosed in middle school; while the myoclonus was diagnosed a couple of years ago, even though it had been going on since I was a very, very small child.

So, now I wait to find out if that list is going to be edited…

Comment » | Confessions, Family, Sickness and Health

The Battle Has Begun

3
January

I am in an epic battle with my sinuses.  (10 points to Gryffindor for the proper use of epic, please?)  They’re not only filled with gross mucus crap (sorry for the visual), but when I get that stuff out I start getting not only the dried blood, but lots of not-so-dried blood, too.  (Again, sorry.) I don’t know why they have suddenly decided to intensify the crappy feeling, but they have.  It may be that I’ve been without my Flonase for around a month now, which I could probably remedy by calling my family doctor (or my allergist or my ENT doctor), but I haven’t done that and I’m not sure if I want to do that.  Well, I would like to have my sinuses not feel like crap, but I’m not sure if fixing that feeling is worth the anxiety of calling any of the doctors.

I still do not know the results from EEG and MRI.  I do need to make that call today.  I was going to call yesterday, but I am pretty sure that the neurologist wasn’t there yesterday and I was asleep for most of the last twenty-four hours.  (I took 2 Flexerils at 4 AM yesterday, then took 2 more at about noon yesterday, and doing that kept me asleep most of the day and night.)  I would probably be asleep right now, but my iPod had reached the red section of the charged bar, so I needed to recharge it so I could listen to music instead of having bad dreams.

It’s pretty damn cold today, which shouldn’t be surprising since it is winter, but it is kind of shocking to the system since I was running around in shorts and short-sleeved shirts last week.  Right now it is 21°F (or -6.1°C) outside (unless you’re in some parts of Madison County where it is 9°F or -12.8°C), so I had to change from my warm weather clothes to my cold weather stuff. I wish that I wore socks right about now because that would keep my feet a bit warmer, but I don’t, so no socks for me.

Oh, I had a weird dream yesterday. It was one of the few bad dreams that I think that I’ve gotten while doing the listening-to-music-the-whole-time-I’m-sleeping thing. I’m not exactly sure how it started, but apparently, different parts of my family actually had money in the dream. My parents and I were living in this huge house in an affluent neighborhood, and the house was right across the street from Deb, Nana’s first cousin who was raised by Mama and Papa (Nana’s parents) after her mom died. Apparently, in the dream, Deb’s husband was involved with an organized crime organization, which would never happen because he is way too nice and too good of a person to be involved in a crime enterprise. Deb had apparently found out and gotten him to turn someone in, and when the group found out, they made him choose between his life and hers, so he basically ordered a hit on her. She was killed in the house my family lived in, which I apparently witnessed, but couldn’t remember because I had some weird form of amnesia. Anytime anyone would bring up her name or what happened, I would start crying or saying that it didn’t happen. It was very, very, very strange.

I had planned on making icons everyday during 2012 for my icon/graphic community, but I haven’t made any so far.  So, I need to make some today.  I was planning on doing some Colin Morgan on the 1st, Kate Bosworth on the 2nd, but I don’t remember who I planned on featuring today.  I guess I could make the first two and do some others today, as well.

Ugh, I need to not pay attention to Rand Paul making his dad sound like this über-cool guy.  I don’t like or trust either of them, don’t get the appeal of either of them, and don’t want either of them involved in decisions of the government.

Comment » | Confessions, Family, General, Like So Totally Me, Sickness and Health

Let Her Cry

29
December

I’m not exactly sure how to structure this post because there are so many things I want to talk about, so if it is a little more flighty than usual, then I apologize.

I guess first of all, I should talk about Christmas.  My parents and I had our Christmas meal with Nana on Christmas Eve so that my aunt didn’t have to see me or threaten violence against me.  I cried almost the entire three or four hours that my parents and I were there.  I managed to almost have an asthma attack because of the crying and I messed up my internal system by getting so worked up.  (My temperature shot up, I started getting sick, etc.)  So, it wasn’t all that pleasant.  I felt bad for my grandmother because she’s almost 80 and she’s got a lot of health issues going on, so having to have separate Christmases was tough on her physically and mentally.  (She has a lot of anxiety issues, so this whole situation has upset her quite a bit.)  I also felt bad that I couldn’t even fake a smile or a good mood while we were there.

When my mom talked to Nana about how Christmas Day went with my aunt, uncle, cousin, cousin-in-law, and cousin’s son, she said that it wasn’t a really festive occasion.  Apparently, my cousin’s son went through Nana’s house looking for me and was sad that I wasn’t there to play with him.  I almost cried when my mom told me this.  I missed him, too.  He’s the one person that I have missed every second of this whole non-communication between my aunt and me thing.  He’s just so awesome and thinks differently and is so smart and creative, so being around him is always fun.  I feel like he’s a kindred spirit.

Nana said that my aunt asked how we handled Christmas without them.  When Nana told her that I cried almost the whole time, my aunt said that that was good because I hadn’t made any effort to apologize to her.  Okay, that isn’t true.  First of all, I actually did write a “letter” via Google Docs and sent it through my uncle’s email address with a note for him to please give it to her.  While the apology isn’t a complete acceptance of the alleged wrongs that I’ve been accused of committing, it is an apology for what I did do; a request that she cease this anti-Janet “campaign”; a request that she learn a little bit more about the physical and mental health problems affecting my mom, Nana, and me so that she could understand the context of the posts I write; and questions about why she made comments to my mom suggesting that I should be kicked out of my house, that I was a bad daughter, etc.   Anyway, the apology is the best that she is going to get.  I would’ve sent it to her personally on Facebook but  she blocked me from sending her messages after I sent the message chastising her for not contacting her sister (my mom) after the June 2011 hospitalization or any of the hospitalizations/surgeries.  I can’t do it via the phone (fear/anxiety issues), face-to-face is out of the question, I don’t have her personal email address, and I just don’t think sending a letter is practical.   I would post the apology letter on here, but she doesn’t actually read this site, so it wouldn’t do any good.

On Christmas, I wasn’t just upset about the downfall of that particular relationship.  I was also upset that my maternal grandfather’s only surviving sibling had unfriended me on Facebook, as had one of his kids.  These were two of my favorite people in the family, so being unfriended saddened me.  And part of me wondered if my aunt had anything to do with it.  I hate being paranoid, but it was weird how they unfriended me shortly after she had posted something on each of their walls.  That thought/paranoia, plus the knowledge that she keeps badmouthing me to Nana and (when my mom calls her) my mother, made me very frustrated because some of the key issues with being Borderline are the fear of abandonment/rejection and intense and unstable relationships.  I think anyone who knows me in any way, shape or form could cite any number of examples that I will go to a near breakdown state whenever things change, relationships end or near an end, I start feeling unappreciated, and when I feel alone, unloved, or unwanted. So, when I was crying on Christmas Eve, I was thinking about the familial implosion, possibly killing myself over it, and how I was somehow a horrible human being.  That’s not the kind of thinking that one should have at any time, but it is especially bad during the holidays.  And that thought process and the pain that it caused makes it harder for me to come up with a way to apologize over any of this or keep quiet about how I feel.  I don’t want to excuse my (sometimes) bad behavior, but I want my family to understand where it comes from.

(BTW – When my aunt tried to lay all the blame on me for this, Nana wouldn’t have any of that.  She told her that she [my aunt] was to blame, as well, and that she was the one who wanted the family split up. She’d also told her off on the 23rd when Nana mentioned that she had to fix the table for our lunch and my aunt told her not to worry about it with us because we “weren’t used to eating at a table” anyway. )

Aside from the Christmas tear-fest, I was going to share whatever the results were from my MRI and EEG.  I went to the neurologist’s office yesterday, but (after waiting an hour and a half) I was told that the neurologist had just left to attend to an emergency at one of the hospitals.  In a small way, I was upset over not finding out the answers, but I would rather not know what was wrong with me than know that my neurologist might have wasted time with me that he could’ve spent on someone who was truly in need of his help at that moment.  (And I know that neurologists are not exactly doctors who have soft-fluffy-type emergencies.)  Anyway, my neurologist was supposed to call me sometime later in the day yesterday.  He didn’t.  He still hasn’t called.  I could call them, I guess.  The only thing I do know from the appointment yesterday is that I had lost another 6 pounds, in addition to the ~50 that I’d lost in the last year.

Oh, I finally had my T4, TSH, LH, and FSH tests done yesterday afternoon, over a month after they were originally ordered.  The woman who did the test asked me if that was my husband in the waiting room.  I silently gagged and told her that that was my father.  She told me she was glad because she had been mad when she thought he was my husband because he should know better than to be with someone so young.  In a way, I understood what she meant, but it was kind of weird to have someone say that kind of stuff.  I mean, she doesn’t know me, so what was she going to say if she had been my husband?  How would she have gotten around her disgust?  And is saying that kind of thing a good idea when you’re sticking a needle into someone?  (It could cause someone to tense up and cause veins to ‘disappear’ in someone who, like me, is a hard-stick.)

Comment » | 10 Years of Madness, Facebook, Family, FPS-Related, General, Holidays, Mental Health, My Family's Weirder Than Yours Is, Sickness and Health, So Damn Special

Beneath the Chandelier

2
August

I went for the MRI this morning. They ended up not doing the contrast, which made me quite thankful. I forgot that before they did the contrast that you have to do a form where you report certain health conditions, including kidney-related stuff. Instead, I got the w/o contrast MRI and then had an X-Ray to compare.

When I came home, I was feeling absolutely horrible, which I think is the combination of massive pain and this horrible heat that Alabama is so blessed to have this time of year. Even though it was only 10:15 when I got out, it was still hot as hell outside already.

Right before 1pm, I got a call from the hospital’s lab. Apparently, they didn’t draw enough blood, or didn’t order one of the tests with the blood they took. (From the immunoglobulin labs my allergist ordered.) They need me to come back in to have another blood draw for one test. All of those tests were ones that go to the Mayo Clinic and take 2 weeks, so by the time that the labs get back, it will have been 1 month since the initial labs were done. So, that sucks.

Comment » | Sickness and Health, So Damn Special

Let Yourself Go

2
August

I have to go have my cervical spine MRI in about 3 and a half hours. I am really not looking forward to it. I don’t mind MRI’s generally, but I don’t know how to explain the dye issue to the tech. I guess I’ll figure it out.

I’ve been up all night, and most of yesterday. I would’ve gone to sleep last night, but I was afraid I might sleep through the alarm. So, instead I make codes for the fanlisting for me and a 30 Day meme for Fuck Yeah Eric Northman. (Sometime in the next few hours, FYEN will be available at ifyouknowoldswedish.com.)

Yesterday, I put a new layout up at likesototally.me and the LJ Community for the site. LSTM is my graphics journal/fan-site thing.

Comment » | Internet, Sickness and Health, Tumblr

Send it On

28
July

Well, the doctor that I saw today is my mom’s doctor at the clinic. I also saw a med student who was muy bueno, in both the looks department and the listening skills. The nurse screwed up BP cuff again, so I showed a high reading of 153/95. I explained to the medical student and he got the proper cuff and checked. It was 120/82, which is much better. There was the typical 2 minute neuro check, and it was interesting because most of the time the deficit is on my right side more than left. Well, today, my left side had deficits in touch and in the ability to do some of the strength stuff. (The strength part is esp. odd since my left arm is my strong arm.)

The doctor is sending me for an MRI, which will be my 6th one. I didn’t realize until it was scheduled that it was for one with contrast. I’m supposed to me more careful with those now because of the Creatinine/BUN levels. I’ll have to tell the tech at the Med Mall on Monday. The techs there are nice. I just hope that they have the A/C fixed in the MRI room this time.

When the results come back, I get to go to a neurosurgeon. I’ve never seen a neurosurgeon. My mom has. My grandmother has. My great-grandfather saw one after he got hit by the car. I will be the first from my generation to go. Of course, this isn’t something that I’m happy about.

My mom went with me to the appointment today, which is odd, because for the past year she hasn’t gone with me to appointments. Of course, she likes to butt in when I’m back there, which is okay because part of the time I feel less sure of myself with her there. She wanted to go after I told her that the pins/needles had advanced to full-blown numbness in my hands.

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