Monday, September 28, 2009

Not a great week - Update as of 09/28/09

Finished up with specialist #2 this morning. This was the one that caused me (and for that matter C) the most concern - neurologist. With my initial visit to him earlier this month, he also wanted several tests done (and he is also the one who wanted me to see a cardiologist), then would follow up with me at a later date. This guy was all into the "S" word (stroke) - so I had many many questions about headaches, arm pain, arm weakness, slurred speech, not aware of surroundings, etc. All my answers to these questions were no, which of course is good, but not helpful in trying to determine a diagnosis. So after the tests, C and I went this morning to hear the results....

no problems, no issues, healthy, cannot explain what the problem is...or was. One of the leading candidates when I first went to see him was a transient ischemic attack, or TIA. While I didn't have all the tests mentioned in the linked article, I had many of them and all came back negative.

So, I've now gotten an "all-clear" on the neurological front. This leaves me with one specialist to go, which if this turns out to be the culprit, isn't as critical or alarming as this last 2 possibly were.

In all the research I've been doing over the past month or so, I've come up with my own diagnosis . I have my last 2 tests on Wednesday - when (or if) they also come up negative, then I'll share what I think I have (or had) and the events that occurred in late July and August that got this whole thing started.

2 comments:

Stephanie said...

Scary business. Can they be sure you didn't have a TIA? or can they merely conclude that if you had one it didn't do any detectible damage?

love johnson said...

a TIA typically don't leave a lasting impression, like a stroke does. So it's more about what the scans/tests show (no blood flow problems)and/or symptoms that you describe (thus all the questions about slurred speech, headaches, arm pain).