I woke up with a headache in the middle of the night last night, and it’s never really gone away today no matter what tricks I’ve tried. Boo.
Lili took me to see my PCP. We stopped and got the MRI report on the way. Everything is basically the same. The measurements: 2.4 x 2 x 2.2 cm in February, and 2.4 x 2 x 2.4 cm in June. So, not the no growth I’d hoped for, but could be within the margin of error or something.
I’ve got a new med for nausea, and stay on everything else. She agrees that stopping the keto for the new diuretic makes much sense, and to not be too worried about a seizure while on the anti-seizure meds because they are just now up to the effective dose.
I took a xanax and am headed to bed.
Tomorrow is going to be a better day.
Sounds like you are assembling a good team there. Incl. Your wonderful friends there. It also strikes me that your neurogist sounds like he knows his stuff. i like my neurologist here too. My most recent MRI showed that the stenosis in the C5-C6 are of my cervical spine. She further recommended that I see a neurosurgeon in San Francisco, at UCSF or Stanford, so that is what I did. I ended up with a Stanford Neurosurgeon found for me by Nicholas. I am having surgery next week. He will clear out the bony protrusions that are growing into my spinal cord and fuse the affected vertebrae. I am to be in a hard cervical and collar for 8 weeks
The difficulties in healing afterward are minimized through the use of minimally invasive surgical technique–there will be two small incisions on the front of my neck. Going in from that direction has the advantage of avoiding having to cut through muscles or any significant amount of bone. For some reason, when my brother had similar surgery recently in Madison, they went in through the back of his neck and he has said that most of his post-surgical-pain has been due to the muscles and bone that had to be cut through.
About three years ago, I began to have balance problems, not being wing able to simply walk without tipping over. So before we left NH, I got with a neurologist at DHMC an she put me through a battery of testing and with the MRI explained what was going on with the stenosis impinging on my spinal cord. The neurosurgeon is here deemed it too early to operate. I questioned that. My new philosophy on such things is get aby indicated surgery now, on the spot, rather than wait to do it until symptoms become really debilitating. So on the 5th it will be done.
Our oncologist friend down in LA has said that if blood supply in or through your tumor is a problem, there is likely to be a way of sealing those off with the use of radioactive seeds, thereby making safer to operate and remove the
tumor. I do not know if that has been suggested as part of a solution to your problem but I do respect his thoughts on the topic.
I offer those thoughts to you and hope that they help in pointing you toward the best possible solution to your difficulties.
Your photos with the birds are lovely. It sounds like you are in as perfect a place to find peace, healing, friends, healthy air, food water and of course raw primal beauty. It sounds like you are plugging into all of it.
Think too, with the change in diet and adding diuretics, you will get rid of a whole lot of water being held not just inside your head but all over your body. That stuff is heavy and I am convinced that excess water being held inside of us can become quite stagnant, holding a lot of acculating toxins and if it doesn’t get expelled, it becomes s source of any number of symptoms and illnesses. I know from my own experience that you will feel much better, lighter, more able to take in and make use of all the fresh and clean material and more ephemeral resources all around you there.
Your Senator, Maudie Hirono,is herself being operated on about now for a tumor on her kidney. She has been outspoken in her opposition to appealing the ACA.
I shall be heading down to the Bay Area today, staying with Nicholas, for various pre-op appointments.
I told him of your situation and he told me to tell you that he hopes everything goes well for you.