[Adventure] in Finding Answers

[Adventure 79]

I have a host of symptoms that are concerning, but apparently have not been concerning enough to my doctors to give them serious consideration until now. 

First, I saw my primary doctor and talked to her about my worsening migraines, trips to the ER with the worst headaches I've ever had coupled with slurred speech and left side weakness (and ensuing ct scans which showed I was not having a stroke each time). Those migraines come in full force once a month, but lower grade many times a month. The left side weakness doesn't seem to ever get completely better. I also have migraines that are positional - when I lay down the pain is less intense, but upright, I'm incredibly ill and in indescribable pain. I also feel like someone is stabbing me between the shoulder blades. 

My primary physician referred me to a neurologist. During my appointment, he asked all the right questions, going far beyond any questions I'd ever been asked in the emergency department or by any other doctor. He immediately took me off one medication that, if I am indeed having hemiplegic migraines (the type that resemble strokes), could actually give me a stroke. Delving deeper, he told me that he was also ordering a brain MRI and MRA and c-spine MRI and referring me to a neurosurgeon. 

I recently had the MRIs and MRA and am awaiting my appointment with the neurosurgeon. There were many possibilities presented to me as to what's going on -  I could have one or a combination of things: multiple sclerosis, aneurysm, brain tumor, chiari malformation, hemiplegic migraines, cerebrospinal fluid leak, and/or spinal stenosis to name a few. Preliminary results don't show anything major, but my neurologist wants to see what the neurosurgeon thinks. 

The neurologist also referred me for cervical nerve blocks, which proved to 1. not help at all and 2. end up in a trip to the emergency department. Just another adventure in finding answers.

If the neurosurgeon doesn't have any answers for me, we're back to square one and the adventure begins again.