Health Update

/ diotimasladder

So I just wanted to post a quick update on the results of the MRI…

I’m okay! No brain tumor, no MS!

(And yes, I did just pass up the opportunity to say, It’s not a toomah, a la Arnold.)

A lot of you know that I have been dealing with constant dizziness for months now. I’m finally at the end of all the tests to figure out what’s wrong with me.

Now they’re sending me to the balance clinic to retrain my brain (of which I was hoping they’d send me a picture, but they have not). They’ve ruled out everything else, so the default diagnosis is that it’s some kind of virus that has affected the inner ear. This feels kind of like when the doc says, “It’s inflammation”—who knows what that really means.

In any case, I’m eager to get on with it. I’m publicly declaring that I will be good about doing whatever tedious exercises they throw my way. Hold me to that.

29 thoughts on “Health Update”

  1. Glad to hear that. 🙂 I was thinking about what your results were yesterday. I hope your recovery is quick.

    I can totally relate to the nebulous doctor diagnoses – there seems to be so much they aren’t clear about. I had a platelet issue a while back that they tested me like a lab rat on only to say that I had “essential thrombocytosis” which the doctor said basically means that they ruled out all other causes and aren’t really sure what is the real cause.

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    • Thanks for thinking of me. I feel loved. 🙂

      Wow, they sure have fancy terms for “I don’t know.” I thought philosophy had some pretty fancy terms for simple things, but apparently not as fancy as the medical field.

      I just looked up thrombocytosis and noticed that the symptoms sound similar to what I have: lightheadedness, temporary vision changes, numbness in the hands and feet…it must be really hard to make a diagnosis when everyone complains of the same things. But then with that there’s also headaches and other things. I’m so glad I don’t have to deal with that one. Headaches make life pretty hard to deal with.

      The site I’m looking at says it rarely causes symptoms, so I hope this was the case for you and I hope all is well now.

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      • Yeah, I’ve been totally fine for about 5 years now and they checked my platelet level twice a year for a few years, and now once a year and it’s been in the good range. It was a bizarre event where my platelets went way off the map (1000 when they should have been below 400) and then they took almost a year to come back down. My hematologist said it isn’t much to worry about, but it could possibly show up in the future. I did have the numb hands and feet thing but she didn’t seem sure that it was even related. The whole thing was a lesson for me that even though medical progress has been phenomenal there are still many things we have yet to learn.

        You’re right about the fancy word thing – I joke that “essential” basically means “yeah, we have no clue”.

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  3. I wasn´t aware you were going through that, but I am glad everything turned out ok! Except for the exercises and all… but we know it must be done, so it must be done! I will totally hold you to that and remind you here and there, about the exercises. Just remember that when you get annoyed at me saying it over and over again…lol…J/k, it won’t be that bad. Best Wishes!

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  4. I’m glad to know it isn’t a tumor! And yeah, doctors come up with all kinds of nonsense when they don’t know something. I had a mysterious foot injury come out from nowhere during the winter holidays, and after a couple of x-rays and blood tests, all they could do was say it was “inflammation” and give me some hydrocodon. Thankfully that fixed the problem, but I was like, “What the hell should I do to keep this from happening again?” Oh well, at least it seems that what’s ailing you isn’t fatal, so I count that as a victory!

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    • There it is again! “Inflammation.” I swear that’s code for “we don’t know.”

      Glad the hydrocodone fixed it. These things always seem to happen over the holidays, don’t they? Right when we need our bodies to work.

      But as you say, I’m still alive.

      Which reminds me of:

      I will admit to playing air guitar over this solo. I will also admit to having a soul that resembles a thirteen year old boy.

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  6. I did just pass up the opportunity

    Oh no you d’i’in!

    (I mean really, you didn’t..) 😉

    “Fancy words for ‘IDK'”… Haha. 8)

    … Glad they ruled out the terrible things, and best wishes for a full recovery.

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  7. Wonderful news! Hope the clinic is able to help with your trouble. Did they show you your MRI images? That’s the fun part 🙂 I remember looking at my hippocampus or something and thinking in dissatisfaction that it was not very attractive and shouldn’t have that shape LOL.

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    • Thanks! I finally got my rehab appointment for Feb and I really can’t wait to go. I might be able to pick up my brain picture since the radiology building is across the street. I’m definitely gonna seek it out. It’s not every day that you get to see your own brain.

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  11. Scary stuff. I had a similar experience with a mole that suddenly started bleeding and continued bleeding for like a week. Luckily, it turned out to simply be a mole that my (overly heavy and stiff) shirts were continuously re-irritating, but that week of thinking I had cancer was pretty sucky.

    Glad you’re okay.

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  13. YAY! No brain grape!! 😀

    Interesting thing about “inflammation”… it’s an underlying mechanism responsible for a whole lot of hurts. Here’s a quote from an email sent to be recently by a friend with celiac disease:

    “And it turns out that the immune system interacts with the brain quite a bit and a great deal of mental illness (and especially depression) is the result of inflammation- the body’s foot soldiers whose job it is to recognize what is self and not-self and fight infection. In fact inflammation is at the heart of most modern diseases, from skin conditions to heart disease and obviously autoimmune diseases like diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and celiac disease. The soldiers are just doing their job but like in any war, there’s collateral damage to tissue and when it’s prolonged- disease occurs.”

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