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.