Tuesday, October 25, 2016

More results to try to twinkle through...

As mentioned in my post yesterday, I have had a great deal of tests done on me in very recent history.
After my full Pulmonary Function Test, I was sent for a CT scan of my chest. It shows that I have a small hiatal hernia, and a T5 vertebral body hemangioma. I am not exactly sure what this even means.

I had an x-ray of my cervical spine, which shows mild thickening of the wall of the right maxillary sinus. Suggests chronic sinusitis- but I just had this surgically removed, so I don't know what the heck is going on with that now...
There is a small rounded calcific density in the soft tissue of the submandibular region, probably in the left submandibular gland- so I have to ask if that means my salivary gland stones are back...

MRI of the lumbar spine shows slight straightening of the lumbar lordosis. That statement seems a bit backwards, so I am a bit confused by it.

x-rays of the right shoulder: normal glenohumeral cartilage space with a vacuum phenomenon. Slight hypertropic change from the undersurface of the acromion. 2 rounded calcifications over the subcutaneous soft tissue of  the upper left arm "calcifications suggest prior injection granulomas" but I never had an injection in my shoulder at the time of the x-ray.

MRI of the C-spine:
C2-C3- minimal posterior disc osteophyte complex
C4-C5- mild posterior disc osteophyte complex, mild central stenosis, minimal bilateral neural foraminal stenosis
C5-C6-  mild posterior disc osteophyte complex, mild central stenosis, minimal bilateral neural foraminal stenosis
C6-C7- mild posterior disc osteophyte complex, minimal left neural foraminal stenosis

Prominent posterior epidural fat in the visualized upper thoracic spine. This mildly narrows the cal sac space.
Several levels of mild central spinal stenosis and minimal foraminal stenosis, on top of cervical spine degeneration.

Basic Meta is decent though....

Carotid Duplex- No evidence of hemodynamically significant disease in the left or right carotid artery.

The sleep neurologist said that my study showed that I am a very difficult case. They tried me on CPAP and BiPAP during my study and I had SOME minor improvement with them, but sometimes my breathing got even WORSE on the BiPAP. He wrote a prescription for a special machine that is something of a combination of things, and now I have to wait on insurance approval, then for them to tell me a company to supply me, etc. Then we shall see if it works. I am very nervous, but I hope that it will work.

I am STILL without my CGM (continuous glucose monitoring) device, thanks to the supplier being super flaky, and the same company is making it so that I am almost out of supplies for my insulin pump as well. This is a very scary prospect. Several calls and e-mails have been made by many people, and no progress as of yet. It has been about a month now. It is nerve-wracking.

Had another small test today. Tomorrow I start back up with vestibular PT.

The stars can't shine without some darkness, right?

Maybe that is why I have always been drawn to the night sky, even though I am scared of the dark- that little glimmer...who knows?

It has been a very tough couple of years, medically speaking. I had sinus surgery in March, which I think I wrote about. The healing process was very slow and painful, and I am honestly not sure if it is over with or not at this point, as I am still having issues. I am doing my best to stay on top of things though.

After all of that, I had an MRI of my brain, with contrast. (This was in May) it shows a few tiny foci of increased T2 signal in the cerebral white matter, and a small retention cyst in the left maxillary sinus, and the bony coating over the left superior semicircular canal appears thin. Great.
This doc also ran tests for syphilis and lyme antibodies- both negative, thank heavens.
He sent me for vestibular testing and I was diagnosed with vestibular neuritis/labyrinthitis, and I have to go to see a vestibular physical therapist about once a week to learn exercises to train my brain to not think that I am dizzy/falling all of the time. It is getting a bit better, I think, and my VPT says that I am showing improvement, so that is good. my level of vertigo/headache/stability realy varies day to day, but I do my best, and try to keep up with my exercises at home.

My coughing and ENT weirdness continues, and I remain in debilitating pain, so I get sent for more and more tests. I have been exposed to so much radiation over the past month or two, it is insane. I did have a basic meta done in early October and the results were mostly in range, so that is good. Creatinine SLIGHTLY high, which is to be expected of someone with kidney disease, such as me, but only ever so slight, so actually really good.

I had a full pulmonary function test last week, and it showed that I have mild obstructive ventilatory deficit and mild diffusion defect, which apparently means that I can neither breathe in nor out as much as I should be able to. 

There are many more tests to go over, but I am too tired to type any more right now.
I will try to be better at updating this, but no promises, haha.

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Dizzy, my head is spinning- like a whirlpool, it never ends....

...and it really freaking sucks!

Do you know what it is like to be dizzy all of the time? Evenn while you are sitting down or lying down? To filly "twitchy" at very frequent intervals and have no damn clue why, but to be scared out of your mind because you don't know when one of those twitches may send you toppling over onto a third rail, or into a busy intersection or make you drop a sizzling pan, or any such thing?

I do!  I know exactly what that is like, and I have no idea why and it is so scary! I hate it!

I am shaky all of the time. I sometimes seem to the outside world to be fine, but then I will have some sort of coughing attack, occasionally puke from it, and feel like hell. It sucks. It is so scary. I know. I said that. Whatever.

Friday, May 27, 2016

The mystery remains, but still I try...

Here I am again, trying to update this thing. I have been through the wringer so many times over the past several years but just over 2 years ago, I had a fall. A very bad fall. I shattered my left elbow when exiting a cafe. I did not see the step and there was uneven ground/rubble, it was just bad. My elbow was shattered, yes, but I suffered a lot more injuries and nobody looked at them because of the obviousness about the elbow. I had two surgeries on the elbow and now I have a torn rotator cuff and tendinitis in my arm (on the left, at the very least) and am in a lot of pain in many places.

I have also had episodes of random loss of consciousness since September of 2014 (since immediately after the 2nd elbow surgery) and constantly have dizzy spells, headaches, and vertigo. I suffer from chronic coughing and worsened asthmatic type symptoms over the past couple of years too.

I had sinus surgery in March of 2016 and have had a terrible cough, trouble breathing, pain, vertigo, and basically being in debilitating pain/having spins has remained and gotten worse.

I had an MRI with contrast on my head, and do not yet know the results, and am going to have extensive vestibular testing done in the next week. I am a nervous wreck, but still hopeful that I will get some answers and figure out what is going on.

I still suffer from unexplained edema and it is frustrating and painful, but my kidney function has been stable over the past couple of years, thankfully. My A1C spiked slightly after my sinus surgery because I have been fairly homebound due to worsened dizziness, headaches and vertigo symptoms. The headaches have been debilitating. I feel dizzy even while sitting down sometimes, but I am doing all that I can to "get back out there" so to speak, and move around as much as I can, and the A1C has started to come down again (and it is under 8, so that is really good)

I have a lot of trouble getting around via public transit lately because of the dizzy spells.  I have a GoFundMe page that I set up last year when my dear Missy passed away, and it still remains that I need to take my cats to the vet, and I need money for moving, but now I am absolutely desperate for money for transportation and for paying off my bed, which was in fact very much medically necessary for me to get. If I can get it paid off in the next week ($600, to make the $1000 paid in full) then I am done. If not, then I will owe $1600 with the ridiculous interest and such. Its a pretty time sensitive situation. The page is my GoFundMe page and I would appreciate any and all help received!

Thank you.