The Brain Scare & Dates of it All

It's now New Years Day..Happy News everyone! I am praying that 2012 is a better year than this last health wise for me.

Here's what has happened the past two weeks...

Dec. 12th- Saw OBGYN Lively...basically harped on me for being fat and told me I needed to go and see a bariatric doctor about surgery. I went in to see him because I had been having a horrible period since November 7th...off and on.

Dec. 15th--That afternoon sitting in living room and thought I had a glazing of mucus over my eye..went to bathroom and nothing was there. Come to find out I had become blind in the half peripheral of my left eye.

Dec. 16th--Went and saw my optometrist (regular eye doctor). He dilated my eyes and found nothing wrong with my eyes. Said I must of had been having an optical migraine to go home and rest and it should go away in a few hours. Low and behold..it did not go away the whole weekend.

Dec. 19th--Went and saw Dr Mayans (Opthalmologist) He also dilated my eyes and said he did not find anything wrong with my eyes either but said it's definitely not a migraine..must be something neurological. Referred me to Dr. Gurru ASAP.

Dec. 19th--Saw Dr. Gurru Ran a Vision field test and scheduled me for MRI for next day

Dec. 20th--Went in for MRI...could not do the closed MRI..freaked out so ended up doing the CAT scan instead with IV iodine. Took 7 vials of blood for testing.

Dec. 21st --Back to Dr Gurru--Told me it was possibly PsuedoTumor Cerebri that he does she a tumor/mass growing putting pressure on my optic nerve causing the blindness. Still has not ruled out Multiple Sclerosis.

Dec. 23rd--Saw Dr. Patel (Internist) for high blood pressure. Got full physical on body. Let me tell ya..it was FULL physical..poked prodded EVERYWHERE..ha Put on new blood pressure medication.

Dec. 27th--Red blood blister type circles show up on my face--doctor assumes it is stress. Open MRI done (successful) wasn't bad when put on Xanex. Didn't think I was claustrophobic until put into that situation. Thought I was being shot by a machine gun..hammered with a jack hammer at other times...and going to be vibrated to death ..just very annoying.

Dec. 28th-Saw Dr. Gurru again--Said found nothing on MRI except swelling on my brain. There is no tumor/mass. Too much bone around the eyes to tell the first time with Cat Scan. Says that I will have to have a Lumbar Tap (Spinal Tap) done in Midland. If too much pressure on brain they will relieve it by taking out some of the spinal fluid.

Dec. 29th Day- Saw Dr. Van Riper (Another OBGYN) Period still hasn't stopped or slowed-I went in and without him introducing himself or anything he said..oh you are very obese and have you ever talked to a bariatric doctor? I guess with everything that had been going on over the past week or so..I just lost it. seriously lost it. I just sat and bawled. Thank God my mom was in there cause I didn't hear much after that what he was saying. He did an exam and said that my lining was thinning to spare you the rest of the details and that I should be stopping pretty soon and sure enough I finally stopped that evening. PRAISE GOD!! After having a period since November 7th..I seriously thought I was bleeding to death. I know I know TMI! But it was horrendous with having to deal with that on top of everything else. I finally settled down..but was pretty stressed the rest of the day. I was so sick of doctors telling me that i was obese that I needed bariatric surgery...and Dr Van Riper nor Dr Lively were nice about it at ALL. I mean..there are nicer ways to tell someone they are fat. It's not like I don't look in the mirror everyday. Besides..all this started happening when I've been losing weight..so it's really hard for me to understand it all.

Dec. 29th NIGHT-About 10:30 at night I was sitting on the couch and not feeling right. I started feeling kind of panicked. My chest started pounding..I felt like something was sitting on my chest. Very bad headache..jittery. I thought maybe my blood pressure was up..so I went to take it and I couldn't even sit still enough to let Mike take it for me. I basically ripped it off of my arm and said we have to go to the ER. My Mom and Dad were already on their way to take care of Zoee..but that's a 30 min. drive and so Mike just grabbed Zoee out of her sleep and we bolted out the door. I thought I was having a heart attack really. I was in the ER for 5 hours and still not settled down. They gave me two big shots and I was still jittery time I got home. I finally got to sleep around 3 am...then had to be up again to do the spinal tap by 10:30. By this time..I was sooo exhausted and weak.

Dec. 30th-Spinal Tap day-We traveled over to the RadIology dept in Midland to do the Spinal Tap. I waited for an hour for the Radiologist tech to come out..he came out took me back and checked my weight..we came back out and he said..I'm sorry we are not going to be able to do it. YOu cap the weight capacity for our table for the flouroscope table for the lumbar tap. I said you have got to be kidding me. So what am I going to do?? He said he was going to talk to Dr. Gurru (who happened to out of town because of the holiday) and talk to the Radiologist and get back to me to wait back in the waiting room. I was so pissed off. Like seriously..nothing is made for overweight people. He came back out and said no they weren't going to be able to do it. That they are going to go ahead and start the treatment with the IV steriod drug. I have to go for three days from about 6 pm to 8:30 pm to be hooked up to a drip. Let me tell ya..this is no cake walk. This steriod is no joke..it's strong and unrelenting..especially at night.

Dec. 31st--Round 2 of IV treatment of steriod 6-9 this time. This steriod makes me hungry, thirsty..jittery..heart to palpitate funny..race.. forget sleeping when you are all amped up..I have had a constant headache even though I'm on migraine medication. I would hate to see what it would be like if I wasn't on medication. The next day my hips, legs, and knees hurt..basically joints. It also leaves the most nasty taste in your mouth during and after for about 3-4 hours like you've been sucking on a metal.

Jan. 1st--Round 3 of IV treatment of steriod--hopefully this is my last night of this. I'm sick of being stuck. I've been poked and prodded everywhere. I will be seeing Dr. Gurru again sometime this week to see about further treatment. Not sure if I will be going somewhere else..if they have a machine big enough for the fluroscope procedure to take this pressure off..if not I might have to get a shunt put in either brain or spine to take it off. That is scary cause that means surgery.

Christmas 2011

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Christmas Snow

On Christmas Eve, we received a wonderful blessing. SNOW! This is actually the second one of this season..which is totally crazy for West Texas. It snowed a whole lot and Zoee, Mike, and I enjoyed stepping out in it and playing for a little while. Mike and Zoee frolicked around and we took some adorable pictures. Zoee loved it and she liked opening her mouth and letting the snowflakes fall in her mouth. She also liked that Daddy had a snowball fight with her. She is so sweet in these pictures.

She was chunking one at me..ha ha

My two cuties!

Semi-Diagnosis

I titled this Semi-Diagnosis..because that's exactly what it was. I went to see the neurologist the next day and was so upset, worried, all of the crazy emotions you could imagine having when getting a diagnosis. My blood pressure was 175/105..that's how nervous and hyped up I was. I sat down and started crying when the nurse came in and was asking me questions. And it wasn't a small cry..it was a sob. It took him a while to come into the room (of course) so I straightened up a little. He told me because I was not able to get an MRI in the closed MRI machine, that I was going to have to go to Midland and do one in their Open MRI machine. I asked if I could be sedated..apparently that isn't an option around these parts...so I told him he has to give me something for anxiety cause I would not be able to do it, if he doesn't. He prescribed me something and scheduled it for Tuesday at 5:30. Who makes people wait all day for this thing?? REALLY! He said he got a look into what my brain..but not good enough to determine a final diagnosis and supply a treatment plan. He said that I do have a tumor/mass growing behind my left eye pressing on my optic nerve. Right then at that moment--I thought of Zoee..what would happen if I wasn't around to see her grow up? I thought of Mike having to take the responsibility of living without me and raising her. I thought of my parents possibly having to bury one of their children and couldn't imagine that being a Mom myself. I thought that this could possibly be my last Christmas to spend with my family. I thought that I am forever going to be labeled.

I will find out the final diagnosis on Wednesday. I will find out what it is..if it's cancerous/benign, I will find out if it has lesions --meaning Multiple sclerosis, I will find out how big it is, if it's operable and what exactly the game plan. Of course, I already want to go for a second opinion. I'm not too fond of my neurologist when he told me he didn't care what my blood pressure was. You should of seen my Dad's face when he said that.

On Friday, I went to see an internist. He gave me a full body physical. And when I say full body..I mean FULL BODY! They took some more blood to run the blood work that the neurologist didn't run. He put me on a different blood pressure medication..which seems to be helping me feel a little better. I do get headaches on my left side..which is understandable..and I'm still having period problems. Hopefully they can figure all that out this week and put me on something different to regulate it..cause what my OBGYN gave me last time did not work. I write this not only as some details for family and friends, but also as reminder for myself in this whole process. Here's hoping that everything goes smoothly this week and I will find out what is going to happen. I am praying that God will help me through this and guide me in the way he wants to. It's very hard to understand why these things happen..but they do!

Health--NO BUENO

I am basically falling apart. I wished I could say I am ending this year on a good note..but sadly, I'm not. It all started back in about November. I wanted to get healthy, so I started this Fat to Fab Challenge with some of my close friends. We weighed every Monday and took our measurements. It was a fun way to get our kiddos together to play and to enjoy each other's company while making it a friendly lil' weight loss competition. We did this for 12 weeks...ending the week of Christmas. Crazy, I know doing a weight loss challenge through the holidays..but it actually worked really well. I lost over 15 lbs and almost 20 inches off of my body. This is where it all went downhill. Because I was eating better and feeling better, I wanted to work out. So I joined the YMCA and had a friend of mine go with me. We were working out in the water Monday through Friday. We did this for almost a month when my foot started to hurt. Hurt is actually not a good word..killing me to walk on it even is a better phrase. It's hurt on and off for about two years..I chalked it up to me gaining so much weight after having Zoee, but I had enough after starting to work out and it just killing me..even getting out of bed or getting up from rest. So now, I'm stuck in a boot I have to wear for six weeks to stay off of it. I had been having an abnormal period too..which was driving me absolutely crazy...literally. My hormones are so out of whack all together. I think because of my PCOS, I'm having a hard time getting back on track and then with losing a few pounds, it messed them up even more. This leads me to the major problem going on.

On December 15th, I was sitting on the couch playing with Zoee. All of a sudden, I got this glaze over my left eye. I thought it was one of those gooey eye boogers you can get over you eyeball..so I went into the bathroom cause it wasn't going away just me messing with it. I looked in my eye and there was nothing there. I thought..that is so crazy cause I was unable to see out of half of my left eye. So the day went by and I was freaking out even more. Because it was a late Thursday, I made an appointment to see an optometrist for the next day. I was surprised they got me in so quick. I went in and the optometrist dilated my eyes, examined really well, and said..I don't see anything wrong with your eyes. You must be having an ocular migraine, by what I described to him. He said go home and rest and it should go away in a couple of hours. So I did...nothing was changing. I still could not see out of my left peripheral of left eye. I made an appointment to see an opthalmologist on Friday..cause I didn't want to have to deal with this over the weekend. He did the same thing..dilated my eyes..looked really good in them and said he sees nothing. He told me it's definitely not a migraine if there has been no improvement. He told me it has to be something neurological. I told him I probably wouldn't be able to get in to see a neurologist for a while, huh? He said..No, he was calling and making an appointment for me cause this could be very serious. That's when I started to have different feelings about everything. I was able to get an appointment on Monday for a neurologist. I did not know what to expect, not ever having to go to one of these types of doctors. He did an exam on me, ran a vision evoked potential test, and ordered an MRI. He said it definitely has to be neurological. Tuesday the MRI was scheduled. I went in I laid down (not a great place to get an MRI..they explained nothing) She stuck ear plugs in my ears, pushed these really hard rubbery things up on the side of my head, and then stuck this halo-like cage thing on top of my face (I could literally feel my breath). She gave me a button thing to push if I freaked out. Needless to say, I never got to use it..cause I freaked out before even getting all the way into the MRI tube. I didn't think I was claustrophobic..but apparently I am when it's in that confined of a place. I never wish that on my worst enemy. IT WAS HORRIBLE!!! I told her I could not do it. She went and called the doctor and he said he wanted to go ahead and do a Cat Scan. It wouldn't be as good of a test..but he could at least tell what is kind of going on in my brain.

They took me directly across the hall to the Cat Scan room. Asked me a whole bunch of questions and said she needed blood work. She hooked up the IV and took my blood at the same time. She needed 7 vials. By this time, I was quite whoosy and not thrilled to say the least. She at least explained the procedure and believe me, I asked a ton of questions. During this particular Cat Scan, they put me in the machine..took a bunch of before pictures and then they injected me with Dye and then scanned some more. The dye procedure was very awkward. You become very warm all over your body and you feel as if you pee your pants, but you don't. It's so weird. They got the pictures they needed and I couldn't get out of there fast enough.

Well Christmas has Come and Gone

Oh my..Christmas has come and gone. My intention was to do the 25 days of Christmas for you guys..but my poor health got the best of me and I was unable to do it. I will share many pictures with you that I have taken the rest of December though. So Enjoy when I get them posted!

"Day 10" of 25 Days of Christmas

We had our MidessaMommies Christmas party tonight at Casa Ole'. I had a lot of fun laughing with the girls and getting away for a few hours tonight. I gave the girls some candy in this cute lil' tin from Hobby Lobby. I resigned as Events Manager the night before so I will no longer be heading up events for MidessaMommies so this is like my last hoorah for events.


We met Jennifer (on left) tonight for the first time ..she's sweet and beautiful!

"Day 9" of 25 Days of Christmas

We didn't do much today but lounge around in our pajamas. I made a wreath (probably my last one for this season..maybe). Zoee LOVES her new Hello Kitty Backpack. We bought it for her the other day so she can take it with her when I start back working out in a few weeks at the YMCA again. It's really cute! :)

December Delights

Although the title of this is December Delights..this is actually just randomly thrown in so I put it first up...but needless to say it's NOT a delight to wear this boot. I have to wear it for 4-6 weeks and see if my pain goes away by staying off of it as much as possible. I have two HUGE spurs on my left foot and plantar fasciitis. NOT FUN! It's extremely painful..especially in the morning or when I've been resting for a while. Very hard to just get up and go and take off walking.

Zoee enjoying her some eggnog..All grins!
I love this face of hers...it's the "I really am innocent, Mom"!
She looks just like me in this picture..crazy! She is of course pestering Gizmo..poor dog!

Thanksgiving Pictures Found!

This is hilarious! The turkey set in on Thanksgiving and Dad took a lil' siesta right at the table. HA HA! You know when you are getting older when you take a nap sitting straight up! :)

Here are some pictures I found on my phone today from Thanksgiving. I had mentioned that I didn't take any pics..but I guess I did take a few with my phone. Here is Ethan with his new cool cut. It was very traumatizing for Jillery and I..and I bet just as equally for him. We should of done it early in the day and not waited when he was tired. But it turned out SO adorable!

Here's precious lil' Lillian Joy... She's so sweet and beautiful!
Mike really really loves Lillian..he just loves babies! He wouldn't let her go this night..and Zoee helped feed her..which she is slowly warming up to her more and more.
HA HA..So funny!