Tag: MRI

Friday

I so need a vacation. Not even a vacation, really, just a break. Just a little downtime. It’s not happening this weekend. Tomorrow I have an MRI, a ton of house and yard work to do, a birthday get together for my father, and possibly a house painter/vinyl siding consult? A lot of the house and yard work will spill over to Sunday, though I checked the weather yesterday and it’s supposed to rain. At least that’s what it said yesterday, I don’t know what it’s going to say tomorrow.

I asked Jen if we could do something next weekend to decompress. I don’t care what. A day trip somewhere? Maybe? Just tell everyone we’re going away and then lock ourselves in the house and hide from the real world for a couple of days while watching bad TV? That would work. Literally anything, just so long as there are no deadlines or responsibilities or headaches or health issues. Just give us a break for a couple of days.

Next week at work is going to be super busy and probably pretty difficult. I’m looking forward to putting it in the rear view mirror, if you know what I mean.

I’m feeling okay today health wise. So far so good. My stomach was off all day yesterday. Today is much better. I even had a real breakfast today. Here’s hoping that my stomach stays on that course.

I want to take the camera (cameras) out somewhere one of these days. It’s still pretty cold in the mornings and that’s turning me off. Also, it’s always cloudy and rainy because it’s Spring in New England. Uh… just a couple of days of downtime… that’s all I ask for. Pretty please, universe… give me a break.

More Imaging to Come

The spot in my brain MRI is probably just a cluster of blood cells. It doesn’t look like a cancerous tumor but we will need more imaging to know for sure. I’m going to have an MRI with contrast and a CT scan at some point in the near future. I’m just waiting for my health insurance to approve the orders. I’ll also need to do follow ups in the future to make sure the spot isn’t growing.

The diagnosis also includes that this likely has nothing to do with the migraines. That means I have to meet with the neurologist at some point in the near future too. The whole point of this was figuring out the migraines after all.

So now you all can look forward to more boring, obnoxious posts about my teeny tiny little brain. Fun fun fun, kiddies.

All is Well So Far

It’s 7:43am. My exercise goal has been nearly doubled. My calorie goal is almost reached. My liquid goal is at 50%. My protein goal is at a smidge over 25%. No stomach issues so far. Also, much less importantly, I am up to date on season two of Yellowjackets. As with the previous 13 episodes, I need to ask: WTF???

I have a doctors appointment this morning. I had that MRI on Easter Sunday (I posted about it once or 100 times) and there’s something in the image that requires some investigating. The radiologist and my primary care physician both expect that it’s nuttin, honey, but I’m going to see a neurosurgeon today to get another opinion.

Am I nervous? No. Not at all. I won’t be unless this doc gives me something to be nervous about, but I’m confident that he or she won’t. I’m hoping we might get a hint on how to stop the migraines. That would be nice, right?

Anyway, I gotta go feed the cats and get ready for my appointment. Here’s hoping that all continues to go well today, both in my tiny little brain and in my tiny little redesigned stomach. Wish me luck!

Oh yeah, and even though it’s Friday and not Wednesday I stepped on the scale this morning. I figured it was worth a shot given that I barely ate anything last night. 209.8. Back under 210 Can I stay there for a while? Not likely.

Happy Thoughts Request Explaination

Okay, I’m going to give a quick explanation of why I keep asking the internet to send us happy thoughts and positive vibes.

My beautiful, radiant, amazing wife started having a couple of weird things happen on the side of her face.  At first it was short periods of numbness or tingly, pins and needles feelings.  After a while she also started having shorts periods of unbelievable pain in the same spot.

She went to the emergency room and they told her it was  a sinus infection and gave her antibiotics.  When they didn’t affect anything she went to her doctor, who sent her to an ear/nose/throat doctor who sent her to a neurologist.   The ENT doctor used the term Trigeminal Neuralgia.  That scared the shit out of us.  The condition is, according to wikipedia and a few other sources, also known as suicide disease.  On top of that it us often a symptom of other illnesses such as brain tumors and MS.

The neurologist sent her to get an MRI.  The MRI hinted at increased spinal fluid pressure, but did not definitively give a cause of the numbness and pain.  The neurologist sent her to an ophthalmologist and ordered a spinal tap.  The spinal tap relieved some of the spinal fluid pressure, which helped for a day or so.

We then went back to the neurologist who said he didn’t know what the cause of the numbness and pain was, exactly.  You would think we’d be upset about that, but we were actually happy.  For two reasons.  First, he ruled out all of the really scare things that can cause trigeminal neuralgia.  He said it was not MS, not hemorrhaging, not an aneurism, not a clot, and not a tumor.  He actually said, “its not a tumor” in an Arnold Schwarzenegger voice which gained him huge 1990 pop culture points.  He also refused to call whatever is going on trigeminal neuralgia.  He called it an unknown trigeminal nerve event.

So the reason I kept asking the universe for happy vibes was because we were either going to a procedure or a consultation and we wanted as much good luck thrown toward my beloved wife as possible.

Like I said, we still don’t know what’s causing the problem, but we have been thoroughly reassured that it is not anything dangerous.  The current theory is that she either had or has a very low level infection that was too mild to be caught on any of the tests they ran that is causing the nerve on the side of her head to act screwy, and is causing an increase in spinal fluid pressure.

At this point, I don’t care what it is as long as it stops.  I don’t want my love to have to deal with this anymore.

So if you took a millisecond or two to send a happy thought in our direction recently then I thank you on behalf of the woman of my dreams who I love so much.  It was appreciated.

MRI

Right in the other side of this wall they are using the software that I support at work. I don’t think they are happy about it. I’ve heard one loud sigh of frustration, but they figured out the problem. It was a user error.

I think I’ll just quietly sit here with my mouth shut.

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