The Gimp Chronicles: Shade-Stealing Crips: January 2009

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

What a difference an MRI makes...

Hey gente--

things have radically changed for me, and not in a puerile political catchphrase way. I had been winding down in energy for while now, since last October, and right after my final probationary evaluation (yay, I did well),. I just about fell out of work starting Dec 1. Vertigo, walking weird, blurry vision, incredible fatigue... my neuro here had me take some MRIs, and number 1- I had a bulging disc in my neck pressing on my spinal cord and 2- I had "christmas lites (lesions, spots) in my brain. He advised me, "If you were my daughter, I would take these MRIs and go to Scripps or Barrow in PHX and go into the emergency room. It will take too long to get referrals and there's no way it can be handled right now in Yuma. We don't really have all the specialists."

So go I did, and had a lovely 8 day hospital stay, six days of which was for testing and testing and MRIs and CTs.. and had neck surgery on day 6 of all that. That went well, then I was told to come back 3-4 weeks later to see both my neurosurgeon AND a neuroimunologist. Sheesh.

Long story short-- cadaver bone and plate in neck is good, but I don't have RA, I have relapsing remitting Multiple Sclerosis. This might be why I was so low on energy, had hard time focusing, and could have cared less about the news the last part of last year. I dont' even wanna THINK about politics riht now, because frankly, a lot of it seems short term crap to me as we speak of it in this country now, and not discussions of real systemic change.

So perhaps my foci will change now (change I need!), but undoubtedly I will be snarky and cranky and not a true believer (tm) in the Great Tan Hope. I wish him well, I wish he would have said "Biracial" a few times, and hope the fact he would never be able to fulfill the needs of all the people voting for him does not come as a surprise to anyone.

Oh yeah, and the Ms seems to have affected my typing, spelling, and speaking a bit. fun to aphasia when you teach english!

Anyway... paz y feliz ano nuevo to mi amiga/os out there. There's always Spain....

TC

Your humble gimptastic blogger:

Dx with RRMS on January 13, 2009-- interestingly, also one of my brothers' birthday. I'm in (*was in) a clinical trial for Ocrelizumab at present, and have had the first two infusions (August 2009). Before that, I spent 6 months poking myself with an Avonex needle and learning to cope with side effects the first two months. I probably have had MS for about four years, and was diagnosed at first with RA in 2007 , summer. Luckily, in Nov 2008 I hit Vertigo City after asking for a pain management referral, got a neurologist who dared to give me valium and meclizine for vertigo and got me a MRI. I so remember he called me soon after the MRIs were taken, asked me to come in, and explained that the radiologist reading the MRI had panicked and called him, saying 'You have to get her back in!'. He was pretty sanguine, but also told me, "If you were my daughter, I would tell you to take this [MRI] disk and go to the emergency room at Barrow or go to San Diego." I looked at him and basically asked, "Really?" His contention, and I believe him, was that my little podunkia county could not get the team he thought it would take together in less than several months' time, whereas Barrow had everything in one place. He let me know he didn't think it was cancer, that maybe it could be MS, but oh, "you also have a disk protruding right... there." Joy.

Long story short, I went the next day with bear and proceeded to have every bit as exciting and frustrating a diagnosis process as the TV show "House" presents. I believe I had seven doctors in several specialties trying to dx me-- a neuroimmunologist, a neuroncologist, an infectious disease guy, a neurosurgeon, a rheumatologist, and at least two other neuros. Two wanted to biopsy my brain (AHHHH!!), and luckily my hero-MS-doc held them off while I was tested for every conceivable disease. I swear. In the end, after eight days I had one diskectomy in my neck, had given lots of blood, but went home for Xmas. I had to see them four weeks later, and two things happened-- my neurosurgeon said the neck was looking good, and my hero-MS-doc gave me my official diagnosis. Sis, hubby, and myself were there. Thus began the real drama in life.

In regular life I profess English (figure it out), have a large family of four-legged ones, and fiddle on computers. Texas is my home, though I presently am in Arizona exile and really am not fond of the place*. I am grateful in the extreme for Barrow and the docs and staff there, and I don't even mind the 350 mile round trip drive up there. I will not reveal names, but lemme say that my MS doc and his trial coordinator rock the box!

And there you have me.
*Note: this loathing of Arizona is just getting worse (May 2012). **Better note-- I don't live in AZ anymore!