Neurologist
21 August, 2005 :: 3:39 a.m.
Ok, it's just easier to post this as a blog entry than type different versions of it over and over or try to remember to email everyone...so this is how my visit with the neurologist went:
I went in and had my initial meeting with him where he took my history of everything from my fractured skull at 3 mos. of age and meningitis at 10 mos. up to my current problems...somehow my work-related injuries managed to get omitted though...so next time I meet with him if nothing else has turned up, I'll have to remember to share that with him. He seemed most interested in the meningitis and said all of my problems now could stem from that.
Basically the exam consisted of him pushing and pulling against my hands/arms/feet/legs, poking them with pins, thwapping me with the little rubber hammer all over the place and checking my vision and sense of smell. For some reason my peripheral vision in my left eye sucks and I see more vividly out of my right eye than my left. I've also been having trouble adjusting to light and distance when I step outside after being inside for a while...I've always been light sensitive, but the trouble adapting to focusing at distances and stuff, that's been since I started having dizzy spells...At any rate I am supposed to see an opthomologist to have my eyes checked more thoroughly.
I still have a lot of weakness in my left leg which is where I started noticing numbness originally. The skin on the top of the foot has less feeling in it than the rest of my body. He managed to get my left arm and leg tingly and twitchy by the end of the exam...
He also noticed that I seemed somewhat detached from the whole thing...can't remember the exact word he used, but basically the same sort of thing...told him I've always been like that but it's been getting stronger to the point of affecting life and decisions a lot more lately. Also told him about my lack of focus lately... He was intrigued with the visual hullucinations--the chick in the yellow shirt and jean shorts especially since there was a lot of detail...apparently all of the freaking out I've been doing about thinking I see insects and things that turn out not to be there when I turn my head is referred to as "rat in the corner."
That's the majority of what I can think of right now...noise sensitivity has been increasing lately...not bad as far as day to day life goes, but when it sets in, my brain feels like it's short circuiting every time I hear whatever noise sets it off whether it's some repetitive noise or someone's voice or whatever...
He said at the end that everything seems to fit together and that it seems like there's something going on in the temporal lobe...so basically he believes my story and believes it requires more testing...wooo. MRI, eye exam, extended EEG, some other test and if none of that has shown anything, drawing spinal fluid to examine...so I'm really hoping they figure it out before it comes to stealing spinal fluid from me...now I just have to find out when the MRI and eye exam are because those are the next step. And I have another appointment with the neurologist in October.
That's about it for now...