Life is full of changes. Once we think we have an inkling of how our blocks are stacking up, they can topple down any moment. That has been my experience in the last six weeks. We set out of an journey to go and 'rescue' our youngest daughter at her request, and after making sure that this was something she really and truly wanted, we set out to drive across the country. From Arizona to Maryland, to get her, then to make a trip to Minnesota to see family and our Great Aunt Velda who is now in a Skilled Nursing Facility, and then back here to Arizona.
The trip did not go as we thought it would.
I myself, have no memory of past the point of dropping our beloved dog Jake off at a friend's house Saturday morning, until we got to some place in Wisconsin, and I only knew it was Wisconsin because of the roadsigns that said so. I sat there in the car, wondering why we were in Wisconsin, and the only thing I could come up with was that we must be there to take Sarah to Winona, Minnesota to go to college, as she had been wanted to go there. I also noticed that my left arm was feeling heavy, and my whole left side was weak. I had a really bad headache also. Marty drove us straight through to the Winona Emergency Department. They treated me for the migraine, did a CT scan, which showed brain swelling linked to the migraine and said the the amnesia was also from the migraine, something called transient global amnesia. The radiologist also said he saw an area of an old infarct (an old stroke) less than 1 millimeter. There was no way to tell when that had occurred, maybe last year when we were in California. At that time I experienced one pupil being much larger than the other one and it would not dilate right even when Marty used his pen light on it. They gave me some meds for the migraine and I left the ER walking and talking almost normal one again.
There were other issues going on at the time with our daughter, the normal ups and downs that we have gone through with her for years, dealing with someone who has a mental illness and who refuses to get counseling. This is not the place to talk about that although it is our belief that these issues and stressors may have brought on the migraines on the trip which caused the neuro episodes.
The rest of the trip was just as stressful. It is very fuzzy to me, memories fade in and out like shadows around a flame. I did have another neuro episode on the trip, trouble walking and talking.
Once home I went to see my primary care PA. She was wonderful. She put me through about an hour and a half worth of neuro tests and set me up to see a neurologist two days later. Well, we walked in and I felt like we were back in the 1950's. He had a long white doctor's coat on, all starched with his name embroidered on the pocket, his stethoscope around his neck. He asked me a few questions and when I was taking too long to answer he asked Marty to explain everything because I was talking to slow. He then looked at my form and asked me in a very condescending manner,"You have a Master's degree?" I felt very degraded. He had me walk to the wall, which I stumbled a few times and Marty had to stand up and catch me. Then he had me follow his finger with my eyes. That was the extent of his neurological exam. He informed me that he thought it as all psychological and I could have an MRI only IF I wanted one.
The only good thing he did was put me on Topomax, a seizure med now used for migraines, and he ordered the MRI.
I ended back in the ER the next week, and that the Infinite Being that watches over us all, the doctor was one who Marty knew and once he heard about all I had been through, he got a hold of one of the good neuro doctors in Prescott and I have an appointment to see him tomorrow.
Now that is the nuts and bolts of what I have been through.
My brain is tired of writing, and going back over each sentence to make sure it makes sense. I will write more about what all this has meant to me and what I have learned having experienced stroke like symptoms, whether these have been TIA's or just massive migraines which have restricted blood flow to the brain (yes that is what migraines do).
