Tag: myelopathy


Within Normal Limits

11
September

What doctor came up with the phrase “within normal limits” to describe medical test results? I would really like to sit down with this person and ask a very important question: what does that even mean? I know it means exactly what it says…a test result falls between the high and low values for what is considered normal. It can be anywhere in that area. Well, how is it supposed to make me feel better?

Am I supposed to be cheerful that a couple of months ago my neck MRI, which was done to find the cause of myelopathy (possible spinal cord injury) was within normal limits? I still don’t have proper reflexes. I still don’t feel things the same on both sides of my body. Apparently, though, my senses are just fine.

Am I supposed to be happy that the MRI done on my spine (to find the cause of paralysis and severe back pain) on the 31st was within normal limits? Does that take away the paralysis I go through in the morning? Does it give me a pain-free day with my back?

Or how about the MRI and EEG that I had last December to find out what causes the flailing arms? It came back normal. If it’s so normal, then why has the problem occurred consistently since I was a small child? What causes it?

Why do doctors feel that once a result comes back with the notes “within normal limits” that they no longer have to look into what might be causing it? I would think if the symptoms went away, then yes, alternating the course of diagnosis is probably a fine thing to do. However, when someone is still experiencing the problems that brought on the diagnostic test, then something needs to occur so that they can find the root cause of the issue.

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Sleeping Sickness

1
July

Well, I don’t think my sleep study later this month (happy July, btw) is going to be very accurate. Now that I’m on the Lyrica, I sleep at least 14 hours a day. I’ll go to bed for seven or eight hours, then wake up and stay awake for a few hours, then go back to bed for six hours, and then wake up for a few more hours. It’s absolutely crazy making. (Like I need anything else to drive me crazy.)

Well, according to the results from the lovely MRI, I do not have anything wrong with my cervical spine. Actually, the exact words were “within normal limits”. I’m sure the nurse considered this to be comforting news when she wrote it on the card and sent it through the mail, but when dealing with potential spinal cord injury, it is not comforting to read “within normal limits”. You would rather know that things are just NORMAL. Not within the limits of being normal. What does within normal limits even tell me? What if it’s on the bad end of normal? I mean, what if there is something that’s almost a problem but it just needs to be a fraction worse? I don’t want to sound like I’m freaking out, but in a way, I kind of am. This is kind of an important body part to me. I like being able to feel things south of my head…even if I do mostly feel pain from those areas.

I must announce a sad, sad death in the family. My printer, a beloved HP Deskjet 880C, which was given to me by my cousin Eric when he upgraded to a new printer about 6 or 7 years ago has gone to the great printing room in the sky. I noticed yesterday when I was trying to print something that it wouldn’t print, so I actually looked at it and saw the light wasn’t on. After testing various cords, I find that the printer, which has survived so many horrifyingly long papers (an almost 20 page one for Social Work once) and printouts, has passed on. Let’s all take a moment of silence to remember this great machine.

Columbia House has supposedly canceled my two accounts with them. Of course, I’m still getting mail from one of the clubs. :/ This is not good. They caused me to overdraft one account by $85 ($44 of that was for the product and $41 was the fee) because I logged in to say no to a Director’s Selection 1 day too late. I apparently logged in too late by 2 days on the other account and overdrew by $50. I wrote them a curt email explaining this and they said I could return the DVDs (how nice), but I would not be getting my overdraft fees back. Personally, I think that’s wrong. They shouldn’t just send you things that you don’t order. Maybe instead of automatically sending Director’s Selections, they should automatically understand that you might have a life and don’t want the damn DVDs. Of course, that would require a brain, and I seriously doubt that whoever thought of the whole Director’s Selection BS at CH has a brain.

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I’m back, I’m back

26
June

Sorry I disappeared. I tend to do that when I’m depressed or manic or something really crappy, but I’m neither. I can’t really explain the feelings I’ve had lately, I guess they’re just run of the mill human ones that people go through on a daily basis. My mood has only been an issue when I’ve been in really bad pain or really tired.

I disappeared to start because I was reading. Then I started staying up at night and sleeping during the day. I found out, by doing this, that I was in less pain and had less of a mood issue than I did by doing the whole normal circadian rhythm stuff. (My therapist and new neurologist think this is a bad idea.) I also found out that my mom was lonely, and that she liked it when I stayed up but stayed off my desktop (the laptop is okay because she can still see me). Well, staying off the desktop keeps me from the internet, so I had to choose between my mom’s well-being and the internet…as I often do, I chose my mom. (She’s sleeping right now.)

I have new doctors and diagnoses. First, the new psychiatrist. Well, actually, this is my second time around with her. She was my psychiatrist before the wonderful people from the A&M Social Work department decided to go to that psych appointment and scare/agitate me so bad that I almost got locked up in a ward. She’s pretty nice, but she believes that my psychiatric problems would all get so much better if I lost weight. When I tried to explain to her that this was a lot more difficult than she could imagine because of my PCOS, she was like, “Well, if you lose weight, that’ll clear up.” That could be true, but it doesn’t make it any easier to lose the weight, when part of the crap that causes that is what makes me keep on the weight to begin with.

Second new doctor: new neurologist. Actually, he may be a repeat of one I saw when I was in high school and my hands were always shaking. (Before I went off the deep end.) He did a neurological work up on me, and determined that:

1. My twitches that I went to the past neurologist for are either myoclonus issues or are because I’m just almost going to sleep and they’re waking me up. I think it’s probably the former since they can happen when I’m wide awake.
2. I have myelopathy (possible spinal cord injury/problem). He doesn’t know what is causing this but he sent me for an MRI on Monday.
3. I may have sleep apnea. He referred me to a sleep specialist.

This brings me to my third new doctor, who actually isn’t a new doctor. He’s my old pulmonologist. He has me scheduled for a sleep study and from what he heard of what I said, he thinks I have obstructive sleep apnea because of my “loud snoring”. The thing is that I don’t snore loudly. When I snore, it’s very quiet. And he’s already determined that he will treat this issue that we don’t even know that I have with a CPAP machine, which is just absolute crap because I’m not going to use one of those things. I would rather use one of the alternative treatments IF that is my problem.

I’ve had to go off my Depakote. Actually, I’m doing that today. Instead, I’ll be on Lyrica to prevent my migraines. Of course, aside from the fact that the Depakote had quit preventing migraines, its ineffectiveness was causing me to twitch like crazy. I was also gaining more weight on it. (I had a time where I wasn’t gaining weight in the past few years, and that time was when I wasn’t on the Depakote.) I asked the headache neurologist to put me on Tegretol. He of course chose Lyrica instead. This will probably help the pain, which is what I should hope for, but honestly, I was kind of hoping that I’d get put on the Tegretol since I know that in my family it helps the problems and it causes weight loss for us. Lyrica tends to knock members of my family out and causes weight gain. I don’t need those side effects.

Also, because my wonderful Part D insurance won’t cover Frova when I have migraines, I had to ask for a different migraine treatment (the Lyrica is just for prevention). My doctor has decided on Maxalt, which is probably going to do the same thing that the Imitrex did…cause my face to get cold, then hot, then cold, while the pain gets worse, difficulty seeing, plus the horrifying pressure until I cry and have to go take something that causes me to fall asleep so that the pain that the treatment causes will go away. I don’t want to take Maxalt. I want to be able to take the Frova, but of course, the insurance company knows best what to put me on for migraines.

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