Good news (purple stuff), not so good news (medical jargon and brain stuff)
*waves*
Hello everyone. I know I haven't been around much these days, and I apologize. I have had a lot going on with the headaches, then the moving to my new room and doing all kinds of stuff to get the new roomie in. But I am alive and well.
First, good news. I got a brand new mattress on Saturday! It was on sale and was sooo comfy,
java_fiend and I didn't want to get up from it. So I bought it. It sure beats that poor excuse for a mattress that was like a memory foam pad that I slept on the floor with. No bed frame yet, but that will come. I am at least off the floor a bit now :D
I also plan on getting a desk to put in my room so I can write and whatnot from there instead of the living room.
Oh and did I tell you, my room will be black and purple?!? I already bought some dark purple satin sheets and know where I can get a purple comforter for cheap. I really didn't have any real bedding, so it will be handy. I am so excited for the purple though!!!! I always wanted a purple room, and asked James if I could even paint the computer room a light purple and he scowled at me and said "never". But now, I get to have my purple room and I am sooooo excited! Seems silly, doesn't it? But it reminds me of how nice it is to be free and to be myself. Plus, purple makes me happy :)
Now onto some not as good news. I get a call today that I need to pick up my CT scan results ASAP (like today) and get them to a doctor to review. But wait, I thought they already cleared me?
Apparently they cleared me for major tumors and a stroke which they could easily see, but for the real in depth results, it needed to be sent off. I figured it was no big deal and I stopped by at lunch to pick them up.
I get the disc with the images and a piece of paper with medical lingo on it. Considering I was once a pre-med student and medicine interests me, I read through it.
It was mostly normal until I get down to the part that's circled. Yes, they circled it, so it must be important...
"Slight fullness in the region of the foramen magnum A cerebellar tonsillar descent or low lying cerebellar tonsils cannot be fully excluded on this study..." and so on and so forth until they say a MRI of my brain may need to be obtained.
AGAIN?!? I hate those things.
So for the non-medical geeks, what they are saying is that big hole where the brain meets the spinal cord? Well there is some fullness there. What that means? Well it could mean masses on the brain, injury, stroke, and a few other things which could have meant immediate death to me. BUT I find something else that sounds oh so familiar as I do my Google research: Chiari Malformation.
Hmm...why does it sound familiar?!? Oh that's right, several years ago...I went through some health issues that were very bad. The doctors were stumped and I was sent in for MRI's, to the cardiologist, had blood taken from me daily for very test they could think of and nothing. Except, I remember that Chiari jargon coming up somewhere, but was told it wasn't much to concern myself with. Now I am trying to remember if I had it? If I could have had it? Did the MRI say it was inconclusive? Like I said, the doctor wasn't overly concerned, so I wasn't either.
Basically, it's where the head is either too small or malformed for the brain and it causes pressure and, you guess it, fullness right about the area that the CT scan picked up. All the symptoms make sense down to the malfunctioning gag reflex (I barely have one, I can slam my finger all the way down my throat and nothing...made me popular in college...KIDDING).
Plus, it's nothing major compared to the list of other reasons for the fullness...so I'd take it. It sounds like most people just deal with the symptoms and it very rarely causes severe problems, just needs to be monitored. The surgery, if I would need to go that far, is removing a part of three vertebrae and a section of the skull to relieve pressure *shivers* But it sure beats a tumor, right?
So the moral of the story is I have no real answers since I am only a wanna-be doctor. I am getting my medical records from the MRI I had several years ago transferred to see if that shows the malformation so I don't have to undergo another if that is the case. If not? Well then, MRI, here I come, I guess. I am getting myself a primary care doctor (at last) and doing that whole grown up thing. I won't let Google diagnose me, I just like having an idea since obviously reading that lingo and seeing words that represent tumors and whatnot when speaking about my brain, well I'd like to be able to sleep soundly tonight :)
For once, my research has eased my fears instead of caused me to go "OMG! I have a freaking brain tumor!". That's a rare, rare thing, trust me.
Hello everyone. I know I haven't been around much these days, and I apologize. I have had a lot going on with the headaches, then the moving to my new room and doing all kinds of stuff to get the new roomie in. But I am alive and well.
First, good news. I got a brand new mattress on Saturday! It was on sale and was sooo comfy,
java_fiend and I didn't want to get up from it. So I bought it. It sure beats that poor excuse for a mattress that was like a memory foam pad that I slept on the floor with. No bed frame yet, but that will come. I am at least off the floor a bit now :D I also plan on getting a desk to put in my room so I can write and whatnot from there instead of the living room.
Oh and did I tell you, my room will be black and purple?!? I already bought some dark purple satin sheets and know where I can get a purple comforter for cheap. I really didn't have any real bedding, so it will be handy. I am so excited for the purple though!!!! I always wanted a purple room, and asked James if I could even paint the computer room a light purple and he scowled at me and said "never". But now, I get to have my purple room and I am sooooo excited! Seems silly, doesn't it? But it reminds me of how nice it is to be free and to be myself. Plus, purple makes me happy :)
Now onto some not as good news. I get a call today that I need to pick up my CT scan results ASAP (like today) and get them to a doctor to review. But wait, I thought they already cleared me?
Apparently they cleared me for major tumors and a stroke which they could easily see, but for the real in depth results, it needed to be sent off. I figured it was no big deal and I stopped by at lunch to pick them up.
I get the disc with the images and a piece of paper with medical lingo on it. Considering I was once a pre-med student and medicine interests me, I read through it.
It was mostly normal until I get down to the part that's circled. Yes, they circled it, so it must be important...
"Slight fullness in the region of the foramen magnum A cerebellar tonsillar descent or low lying cerebellar tonsils cannot be fully excluded on this study..." and so on and so forth until they say a MRI of my brain may need to be obtained.
AGAIN?!? I hate those things.
So for the non-medical geeks, what they are saying is that big hole where the brain meets the spinal cord? Well there is some fullness there. What that means? Well it could mean masses on the brain, injury, stroke, and a few other things which could have meant immediate death to me. BUT I find something else that sounds oh so familiar as I do my Google research: Chiari Malformation.
Hmm...why does it sound familiar?!? Oh that's right, several years ago...I went through some health issues that were very bad. The doctors were stumped and I was sent in for MRI's, to the cardiologist, had blood taken from me daily for very test they could think of and nothing. Except, I remember that Chiari jargon coming up somewhere, but was told it wasn't much to concern myself with. Now I am trying to remember if I had it? If I could have had it? Did the MRI say it was inconclusive? Like I said, the doctor wasn't overly concerned, so I wasn't either.
Basically, it's where the head is either too small or malformed for the brain and it causes pressure and, you guess it, fullness right about the area that the CT scan picked up. All the symptoms make sense down to the malfunctioning gag reflex (I barely have one, I can slam my finger all the way down my throat and nothing...made me popular in college...KIDDING).
Plus, it's nothing major compared to the list of other reasons for the fullness...so I'd take it. It sounds like most people just deal with the symptoms and it very rarely causes severe problems, just needs to be monitored. The surgery, if I would need to go that far, is removing a part of three vertebrae and a section of the skull to relieve pressure *shivers* But it sure beats a tumor, right?
So the moral of the story is I have no real answers since I am only a wanna-be doctor. I am getting my medical records from the MRI I had several years ago transferred to see if that shows the malformation so I don't have to undergo another if that is the case. If not? Well then, MRI, here I come, I guess. I am getting myself a primary care doctor (at last) and doing that whole grown up thing. I won't let Google diagnose me, I just like having an idea since obviously reading that lingo and seeing words that represent tumors and whatnot when speaking about my brain, well I'd like to be able to sleep soundly tonight :)
For once, my research has eased my fears instead of caused me to go "OMG! I have a freaking brain tumor!". That's a rare, rare thing, trust me.