The beginning of the worst week(s) ever…

Monday, Sept. 22, 2008

11:30pm – just sitting around playing with the new settings on my cell phone, when my vision suddenly ummm…went away. you know how when you rub your eyes, they go kinda greyish but then your vision returns? well that’s what happened only my right peripheral vision never returned.

now, this has happened before only it lasted about 5-10 seconds. After about 10 minutes when it still hadn’t returned, I finally went to wake the husband up and let him know what was going on. He attributed it to the migraines I’d been having. So we decided to give it till morning and see what was up.

Morning came and still no vision. Off to Dr. Garcia’s to find out what the hell is going on.

(these next 5-6 posts are being written after the fact, so please bare with me as I try to remember everything that has happened over the past week.)

Responsibilty sucks

Today hasn’t been a great day. I believe that the lack of sleep over the past several days has finally caught up with me.

I hurt. I feel like I have been beat with a sack of soap and left to die. Everything. Hurts. My back hurts, my hands and fingers feel swollen and are tingling, my legs feel like I’ve walked for miles, and I’ve got a headache from hell. Though I should be thankful it isn’t a migraine. And this all started before 6am and is still going strong.

But like the good girl I am, I went to work this morning anyway. I have found that if I keep myself busy I can keep my mind off of the hurt (at least that’s what I tell myself anyway.) That little jedi mind trick didn’t work so well today though. Believe me when I say, I would have much rather had stayed home today.

Well, isn’t that special

The main reasons Dr. Garcia had me do another MRI and referred me to a neuro was because of the results of my last MRI and the symptoms I am/was currently exhibiting.

My last MRI showed what they called “non-specific white matter disease” (basically lesions on my brain). I was told then that the lesions were “probably” caused by all of the years of migraines. They did not at the time, though I was offered the option for further testing, believe it was MS (multiple sclerosis). I guess MS shows in what they consider a pattern and mine did not have this. Seeing as I wasn’t exhibiting any of the symptoms I am now, we chalked it up to the migraines.

Anyway, Dr. Garcia wanted me tested again. Most of my symptoms mimic MS though so does Lupus and Fibro. But I suppose it’s better to test and rule out than to not test at all.

Oh, by the way, do you know how freaking scary it is when you’re doctor says she wants you tested for MS because you’re exhibiting all of the symptoms and then sends you on your way saying everything will be okay, you’ll be fine. I freaked. (Though in all fairness, I do that a lot anyway.) For close to a month I had this possible diagnosis, this black ugly cloud, hanging over my head. I was not a happy camper.

Anyway…

Today I went to go see the new neuro and get the results of the MRI. Let me just say, I did not like this doctor. He was extremely hard to understand (and not because of a foreign accent), just very bad communicative skills. When asked why I was there, I started with the migraines and proceeded to list the rest of the symptoms. His focus: the damn migraines. Screw everything else. Let’s spend most of your appointment discussing the migraines you’ve had for close to 15 years. Doesn’t matter that your exhibiting hells of other symptoms, we’re just going to talk about the migraines. After 30 minutes of this crap I was like look, Dr. Garcia wanted me to have this MRI because she felt there was a possibility of MS. He looked at me like I was stupid. (I had brought in my previous films and he had the readings from both tests, but yet he hadn’t even looked at them.) GAH! His reaction was to tell me that no, from what you’ve told me, you don’t have MS. What? From what I’ve told you? You’ve only focused on the damn migraines, you haven’t asked me about anything else!

It was only after I listed the other symptoms again did he do any further testing. You know, the balance test, the strength test, etc. I failed the balance test miserably. Everything else he seemed to be ok with. Whatever. When I asked him what he thought was going on, besides the freaking migraines, he was all like…I have a few theories, but I need further tests. Umm, ok. You care to elaborate on those theories? Apparently not, because he sent me on my happy way with a date to have my brain electroed. Something about testing my eye/ear to brain stem responses. Who the hell knows. All I know is I have an appointment next Friday to have this done.

Joy Joy

Lovely day for a MRI

Woke up yesterday morning with a blistering headache and nauseous as hell. Lovely way to start a day isn’t it. The bad thing about it was though is I had to go get my MRI done. There’s nothing like having your head stuck in a noisy ass metal donut for half an hour while you’ve got a raging headache and feeling like you’re going to hurl at any moment. Oh, did I mention I also had diarrhea? No? Well, there was that too. Apparently they had an order to get the test with and without contrast. Well, they didn’t get it with the contrast. Screw that. I have issues with contrast as it is, I did not want that crap making everything 100 time worse. They had no issues last time reading the MRI without contrast, so they are just going to have to deal without it this time too.

I should find out next week what the results are. *crosses fingers*