Friday, June 4, 2010

"If I Only Had a Brain..."

Contrary to popular belief, I do have one.  About a year and a half ago I was having some trouble with things like breathing and staying conscious, so I had an MRI.  The doctors told me, at the time, that I had an "incidental finding."  Translation was offered by one incredibly pompous neurosurgeon resident, that if he took several people, at random, they would find this same finding.  I did need to follow up, however.  He did not think that these findings had anything to do with the problems.  I had my C1-C2 fusion with plates to keep my brain in my head and things got better.
Fast forward to a few months ago and a couple of doctors later, I find out that I have two spots of capillary bursting in my brain deep in the brain stem.  To have two areas is not "incidental."  I am not sure I understand all of the ramifications of this.  One is over the breathing center in my brain.

Interestingly enough, when I went to this particular neurologist, I was actually trying to play down the fact that I had EDS.  I believed that this was no big deal.  When the doctor came in he read through my paperwork and was surprised to see that I had EDS.

"You will never guess where I was yesterday." was one of the first things he said to me.  He went on to explain that he had just given a talk about genetic reasons for strokes and one of those reasons was EDS.  He was really excited, I was nauseous.

There is a really sickening look that doctors get when they find something "interesting."  I realize that a good doctor is a good scientist and a good scientist gets a charge out of an anomaly, but I could go for a plain, boring day.
He went on to explain why my case was so interesting.  I really did not understand what he was saying.  He asked if I had any questions and if I was okay with this news.  He said that he wanted my blood pressure down to prevent further bleeding in the brain.  I just looked at him and asked if I had to worry about it in the next 5 minutes.  When he said no, I was finished.

Please pray that I can keep my brain from exploding from the inside out and that my girls do not suffer with the same symptoms.

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