Suzanne Calling

Last year, when I got the new (and arrogant) neurologist, she sent me out of the office with prescriptions for three 'just in case' medications. The fact that vertigo had returned after ten years of playing nice was enough for her to think that it would not lay dormant anymore. For the most part, I feel like I carry a little Vera bag in my purse that takes up space and sounds like maracas. I had a couple of major vertigo episodes that were enough to convince me that hey, maybe that little bag of medication isn't such a bad idea. Let's just say that when you triage yourself to the doctor, she sends you to 4 specialists because she doesn't want to agree, and two of those doctors come back with the EXACT same diagnosis you'd triaged, you don't really put a lot of faith in their abilities. In the past few months, I've had a fair bit of low level 'spinny' spells that weren't fully ramped up and started taking the meclizine I was prescribed. ...

I met with the neurosurgeon and his resident today. The fact that I had the appointment meant that they'd reviewed my MRIs and found something significant enough to warrant their attention. The good news? The Chiari malformation, diagnosed in 2009, has not changed at all in three years time. Yes, it causes me problems, and those issues *could* be a problem, but the current pain is more likely caused by the compression of C5-6 in my spine. The doctor described what is going on in my neck as 'ugly', and I would say that is a most apt description. That circle in the center of the image is my spinal cord. To the left, the white 'arm' you see is part of the spine, and you should see another one on the right side, hence calling it ugly! However, some of the symptoms I have indicate problems lower in the cervical spine, and they are the reverse of where they should be, so this means I had to get some xrays, need to repeat the lovely EMG and nerve conduction ...

Due to a lack of either a. time or b. money or c. fear that he'd tell me I needed immediate surgery, I've put off the annual neurologist appointment for a while-like I'm a year overdue. The issues have not gone away, in fact, now that I keep track of them on a regular basis, I can see that things have gotten worse than when I first saw the neurologist three years ago for my chronic issues. Unlike my vascular surgeon, though, I don't have a direct line to the doctor or nurse practitioner, so I had to take 'first available', which was July 10th. Thankfully, after several phone calls, I was able to get it moved up to July 5th. I'm not sure whether I'll be sent downstairs for the MRI or I'll have the MRI and EMG scheduled for another day soon, but I do know that I'll be asking for a TENS unit, since most of the therapy options he prescribed a while back are not feasible for a Chiari patient. Answers would be nice...