Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Pressing on....In Suspense

So on Monday I did one of the hardest things that any Jiu Jitsu players can do. I suspended my account at the gym. I didn't cancel it, I suspended it. While I am in limbo about my medical status and the permanence of my arm's wonkyness, I thought it best to not tempt fate and allow myself the chance to find a way to defeat this problem once and for all. I want to get better, hopefully regain some of the lost sensation / strength in my arm and make a triumphant return to the mats! I had to leave the gym just as the guys started warming up because it was just too much.

Tuesday I had an appointment with my normal neurologist. He is on a mission. He was more motivated than I have ever seen him. After we talked and reviewed my charts he was determined to find out what is wrong. I told him that I am seeing a cardiologist next week. It turns out that it is the same cardiologist that he sees personally. He called the cardiologist from right there in the room and told him what he wants him to look for and what he wants done to me. Basically a stress test and a bubble test (which I guess involves a camera being sent down into me to look for a clot traveling between the ventricles).

He also ordered blood work to test for anything that could possibly cause strokes in a person my age (33). The list he wrote was comically long, everything from Lupus to arthritis to insert random condition here. They must have taken a quart of blood, all in easy to extract single viles.

He is sending me for an MRI (Monday morning at 6:30) because in his words "CT scans are a waste of time and money with conditions like yours, they show damage sure but they don't show much else". I have a follow-up with him on Tuesday at 3:30 to review the blood-work and MRI, then its off to the cardiologist for that bunch of fun on Wednesday.

Sounds like a fun week huh? At least I am planning to get away this weekend. My wife's birthday is this Friday HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETIE!!! So I am taking her out of town. I'm not telling her where, but we are going to get away from home for a day or so and hopefully relax and recharge.

1 comment:

Steve said...

Good luck with your tests. Hopefully, they'll nail this thing down and figure out how best to treat it.

Have a good time on your getaway.