Thursday, February 21, 2008

Another Day... Another 50 cents

Ok, here I am another day, closer to the weekend, vacation, next year, retirement... beyond that I don't want to talk about...

So the latest... since I haven't e-mailed in a while...George is recovering... it has been 10 months since his stroke. He isn't back to work, but does chores for me around the house... This is great although, the stuff that I need to do still is not getting done...

I don't have the energy... not sure what the problem is, other than it is probably a combination of alot of things...

Last year some time, I think it was in October went to the opthamologist, and told her that I was having problems with my eyes...not wanting to stay on one thing, not being able to move slowly or scan... she did a quick test, and said I was having scanning issues... she told me to go to a neurologist, so I mentioned it to my family doctor, he said he didn't see any issues, but he had no problem referring me... on 12-10, I had an appointment with the Neurologist, she said that I should see the Neurosurgeon again... That appointment was set for the end of January... He told me to see another Neurosurgeon, that appointment was set for March 18th...

See, I have a CA, or cavernous Angioma, other wise known as a hemangioma...

I have known about this since 1996, however, it gave me trouble, noticeably in 2005, I think it may have oozed or bled before that, but not with to give me any subjective complaints. In 2005, I woke up very dizzy, double vision, and numbness on the left side of my mouth (gums and tongue)

After George's stroke, I went back to work in August... approximately 1 month later, I started finding that the left side of my mouth was numb again. The dizziness came back not as bad as before, but was worse than it had been previously since I had gotten better...

So the trip on March 18th to Tampa, is to see if this doctor thinks he could do surgery... I can tell you now, that I don't think surgery is a realist option for me right now....

Oh I forgot to mention, I am suppose to have at least 3 of these things... two that seem to be stable, and the other and one they are watching is in my brainstem... Not a good place to have one of these.... Well actually, nowhere in your brain is a good place to have one of these things, but the brainstem is control central for everything, you know the body functions that you can't be trusted to do on your own, like breath...

I have decided that I am going to make this a passion of mine... used to be politics..., now it is this... See, I think this is what killed my Dad.... I think that most Doctors, because these things are not something they like to deal with, will just ignore them, as far as acting proactively... In fact when I tried to ask them about it in 1998, they ignored me, or didn't address it at all...

There is a website, that I look at daily... http://www.angiomaalliance.org/index.html

So if anyone has one of these and feels the same frustration I am, this is an outlet for you...

I am going to hold this doctor to task, the one in Tampa... I am going to ask alot of questions, and then I want too get a feel for how he feels about this stuff....

See what happens is you get blown off by one doctor, and then you are basically get grave looks from other doctors... Your family and co-workers don't want to think about it...so you are pretty much left alone to deal with it...

Well that is fine... I will deal with it however I have to, but it will be dealt with, and I will not let this kind of stuff get me upset or exacerbate my condition... or ignore it because everyone else tends to, or it is not easy to deal with....

So that is my story....

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