at this moment I was in recovery after having a brain aneurysm coiled waiting for a room in Neuro ICU at Tampa General Hospital. In some ways it seems like it was just yesterday with things still so fresh in my mind. In others, it seems like ages ago.
In September, my neurosurgeon, Dr. Sauvageau, did an angiogram and everything was perfect with the coils in my brain. That was good news but the sad news was the Dr. Sauvageau would be going to Ohio State to work. I will miss him so much but wish him all the best.
Lets just say it's been a long hard year, harder mentally than physically. I can honestly say I'm glad it's over and hope to never have to do it again. About 7 weeks after having the surgery, I had my left arm go completely numb from the elbow down. It felt like it wasn't part of my body for about 15 minutes. The next day I had half of my foot go numb. A couple of days later I happened to have a doctor appt. and mentioned it to him. He wanted me to get in touch with my neurosurgeon in case of a problem with the aneurysm or a possible TIA.
I emailed my neurosurgeon who called me back within minutes and arranged for me to have a MRA done the next morning. Everything was okay with the coiled area, no other aneurysms, carotids were clear so no reason was found. Next step was to see a cardiologist to be sure there wasn't a hole in my heart that a small clot could have gone through.
All cardiology work (TEE) turned out good. When I mentioned to the dr. that the procedure was the best sleep I had since Jan. he gave me some sleeping pills. OMG, what a difference a good night of sleep did for me. Next step is to see a neurologist.
Before seeing the neurologist, I had another numb hand incident where I couldn't keep my hand wide open. It would start to close up. Then I was having a numb feeling in my calf like my leg had been asleep and was waking up. Other times, my lip would be numb. My cheek would get that feeling as if I had been to the dentist and the novacaine was wearing off. I was having this numb or tingling feelings almost daily. Sometimes a portion of my head felt numb. It was very strange and everytime it was on my right side. My aneurysm was on the left.
The neurologist doesn't believe I had a TIA but believes everything is migraine related. I used to get migraines pretty bad but haven't since the coiling. He said my brain has had trauma to it and is reacting differently to the migraines. I was put on a medicine (bystolic) to stop them if they were migraines and within a few days my blood pressure was so low I could hardly move. I felt so bad. I would be sitting and just felt like my body was sinking. Very weird. I called the doctor and they changed my meds cause my pressure was entirely too low!
Started another medicine(topamax). Very quickly I could see a difference in the amount of numbness and then it stopped completely. Loved this medicine but... it didn't love me. Took it from September to January. But the time January came around, I was so damn confused I was lucky I could find my way home. I seriously thought I was getting alzheimers because of how I was constantly asking the same questions, would be confused what day it was. My son said I needed to tell the dr. that I couldn't complete a sentence. Yeah, it was bad but I didn't realize it at first. When I told my family dr. he said to cut it in half for a week and stop it. Call the neurologist about another med. My doctor says it's nickname is Dopamax because of the side effects. Yes, I was definitely dopey, not loopy dopey, but stupid dopey!
As soon as I started weaning off of it, the numbness started to return. Called the neurologist again and his PA called back and she prescribed Amitriptyline. Okay, the numbness was less again but I was noticing my heart pounding. I would walk to the mailbox and hear my heart pounding in my head! WTF? I felt like I used to before I lost 120 lbs. I'm not out of shape, what is going on? I gained 5 lbs. without any changes to my diet. And as a person who had a gastric bypass, 5 lbs. is something I don't want to see added to the scale! So I started taking my blood pressure again to see if it was high. No, it wasn't but my pulse normally is around 64 and was now anywhere from 90- 110!
Had an appt. with the neurologist, again the PA, and told her I was weaning myself off the meds because of the high heart rate . One good thing I can say about Amitriptyline is I slept excellent while taking it! PA decides they have tried enough meds and wants me to see a neurologist who specializes in migraines because I have what they call complex migraines. But I'm welcome to come back to them if I need them. Oh, okay, I guess I'm moving on.
Decided to try a neurologist that wasn't the PA's preferred. Mainly because I prefer men doctors (except my GYN), and not someone who is a year or two out of school and the migraine specialist was about an hour away.
Saw the new neurologist last week. He agrees that I have complex migraines. Sometimes I also have auras in my eyes which used to signify a migraine on the way. Now I only gets the signs but not the actual headache which is good, I guess. My new med is Zonegran. So far, it has helped with the numbness and tingling. But now I do have problems once again sleeping. Getting a lot of reading done at night!
So this has been my year minus a few other issues. Vertigo being one of them. The thyroid nodules are the same, no change. Rheumatoid arthritis about the same, still on Enbrel for that.
I really meant to write this as it happened but sometimes I was so disgusted with everything I just didn't. If you actually managed to read and understand my ramblings here, I do thank you!
