Picking Things Up
Sep/090
So… what’s been going on?
The next day, Dr. Maiman called and all but apologized for the nurse. (Doctors can’t really apologize — too many lawsuits.) Dr. Maiman referred us to Dr. Linga Reddy. We saw Dr. Reddy who thinks it’s a vascular issue. We’re going through some more tests and eventually, she’ll have an angiogram of her spine done. That should tell us what we’re really looking at.
As for everything else, I’m still hanging on to the end of the rope. Nothing is getting any easier yet.
Breaking Point
Jul/090
However you want to put it, tonight I ran out of rope.
I don’t remember the last time I cried at anything that actually mattered. (I cry about stupid shit like “waiting for my real life to begin” on Scrubs)
Yesterday, a nurse practitioner from Dr. Maiman’s office called and explained that there is nothing wrong with Heather’s spine, that this is not a neurological issue, and that we should follow up with urology. Never mind the foot drop, the weakness, numbness, the pain, the burning skin, and the fact that we already followed up with urology and they told us that it is without a doubt a neurological problem.
Please keep in mind, I have the deepest respect for anyone in the medical industry. Given that: if you can’t say anything intelligent, keep your mouth shut.
It took a day to sink in, but this evening after work, I broke down with Heather and we just cried and held each other for a while. I also called Dr. Maiman’s office and demanded an appointment to talk with him and not some lackey. We’ll see how that goes.
I’m tired. I’m hurting. I can’t do this on my own anymore.
Results from Urology
Jul/090
It’s officially neurological. All her plumbing works. MRI scheduled for next week.
Multi-Purpose
Jul/090
It’s been a busy few days…
Thursday morning, Heather was doing particularly not well and we wound up in the emergency room starting around noon. The ER docs handed her off to neurosurgery, who handed her off to urology, who didn’t really help much. Thanks to some relaxing and some Valium, she seems to be doing better right now. We’ll see how the next couple of days play out. (For those of you who don’t know how visits to the ER work, we got home slightly after midnight with a diagnosis that was exactly the same as the symptoms she went in with, as well as a “come back if you notice” list also including all of the symptoms she went in [and walked out] with.)
Jason called me the other day. He’d just heard about mom. I honestly feel like I should call him back, but I have absolutely no idea what to say to him. Jason and I haven’t talked in a while and I know there some messy feelings going on, at least on my side. Even so, “not avoiding communication” is on my list of things that are making life better, so I need to find a way to connect with him.
There’s a lot more, I’m sure, but I’m not really in the mood to go into it right now…
I know you mean what you say, but you don’t always say what you think. You keep almost everything of what goes on inside you close to your chest, and you don’t let anyone see what you’re thinking unless you want them to.
Reflections on an EMG
Jul/090
Heather’s EMG went better than expected. That is to say that it wasn’t the worst thing she’s ever been through, not that it was actually pleasant. The doctor was Andrew Nelson and, like I said, he was funny and good at his job. It’s just that an EMG is a pretty sucky test to start with. At any rate, the test came back mostly normal. The only anomaly that Dr. Nelson mentioned was that there was some “old nerve damage” in her left calf. Now, as far as I could see the screen, the left calf never did show the sine-wave during the conductivity test, nor did it ever give the clear raindrops on the signal level test. I’m no expert on EMG, but that seems like more than just “old nerve damage” to me. But again, I am not a doctor. We’ll see what Dr. Maiman has to say when he calls.
Day 1.5
Jun/090
Here’s the word of the moment:
- Surgery last year officially failed. The “repaired” disk is still/re-herniated. Heather hasn’t done anything for a year.
- Symptoms don’t line up with location of the herniation.
Where we go from here:
- EMG scheduled for Tuesday at 2:00
- Pretty much no matter how that comes out, they’ll do an MRI of “a different area of the spine”
So, we’re up in the air as per what’s actually wrong and the doctor isn’t really talking. However, I think I pretty seriously respect his not talking. To give an analogy:
It’s like coding. (Sad, eh?) When you start programming, you tend to write single-purpose programs. Then, they grow into multi-purpose linear programs. After that, they grow to amazingly complex and impossible to maintain linear programs. After which you finally give up and learn OOP. The way I see it, most doctors try to solve the entire problem in one fell swoop, no matter how complex it may be. This guy is taking an OO approach. Heather has a foot drop on her left side. We’re going to find out why and take care of it. After that has been taken care of, well look into the next most important symptom and evaluate the inputs and outputs of that. I think I approve.
Day 1
Jun/090
In about a half hour, we’re taking off for Heather’s appointment with her new spine guy, Dennis J. Maiman at MCW.
As a matter of course, he seems to prefer therapy over surgery. This is a pretty stark contrast to the surgeon (James Stoll) who did her L5-S1 procedure last year. At the time, the procedure was a success. Heather regained effective use of her legs. However, right now, it’s looking like there was a distinct lack of followup care as it seems to be common knowledge that work on L5-S1 requires a regimen of exercise therapy to prevent damage to L4 and L3. We never heard of this until Heather’s chiropractor (Tim Bertelsman) mentioned that her symptoms weren’t from the surgery site. Given some more followthrough, it appears that Tim was right (as always) and there is pressure and other nastyness around L4 and L3. So, now we embark on getting that fixed.
I’m nervous.