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Ancient History
Hi, folks. I've been going over the records I have received from my MS neuro and the neuro-opth he sent me to. While the neuro-opth didn't come up with a reason for the scotoma I have in one eye, the retina specialist HE referred me to says I may have had a mild bout of optic neuritis way back in '98 or '99, which is when the scotoma came to live with me. My vision field tests are within normal limits. My VEP is normal. My OCT is normal. Is there anything to be gained, or would it even be possible to get something from the opthalmalogist I saw back then? I had an MRI, but back in the day when you got your appointment during the week the semi-trailer containing the roving machine was docked at one of the hospitals in the mid-sized town where we lived then. It seemed to me he just wanted to make sure I didn't have a brain tumor, and I don't recall any mention of my optic nerves. He ended up deciding I had migraines, but without the headache.
Certainly none of the people I've been seeing since I traveled to limboland have suggested it. They're just taking me at my word when I describe how it all went down, and it was long enough ago that I don't remember many of the details. Would his office still have records and a radiologist's report? Would it be nuts to ask?
Certainly none of the people I've been seeing since I traveled to limboland have suggested it. They're just taking me at my word when I describe how it all went down, and it was long enough ago that I don't remember many of the details. Would his office still have records and a radiologist's report? Would it be nuts to ask?
MRI report from 1997 arrived, ordered after my scotoma first appeared. The interesting parts are:
"T1 sagittal and T2W axial images of the brain, T1 sagittal and coronal images with and without contrast through the sella turcica [where the pituitary gland lives].
The chiasm is unremarkable in appearance as are the proximal optic nerves.
There is a vague area of increased signal noted on both T1 and T2W acquisitions in the deep white matter of the cerebral hemispheres [earlier in the text it said it was on the left side] that shows no contrast enhancement or mass effect. This most likely represents artifact. Increased signal on T1 and T2W acquisitions can be seen with calcifications and hemorrhage and this region does not fit those patterns. Also, an abnormality in this area should not affect the visual fields."
So, nothing showing wrong with my optic nerves, no tumors, which is what they were mainly looking for, and no reason for the blind spot explained by the MRI.
The "deep white matter of the left cerebral hemisphere" sort of makes me wonder if it was anywhere near the same place as the "left insular region" where I had a lesion show up in my next brain MRI in 2007, that has never been seen since.
I looked at some auction sites, and it appears that the mobile MRI machines back then were 1T or more, so that's good.
I mentioned this in other posts, but the appointment at the neuro's resulted in new MRIs of cervical and thoracic spine. Nothing changed in cervical, but I have a herniated disc in the thoracic that might be the reason for the new creepy crawlies on my back, like a cat with the fur on end. That hardly ever happens any more. The result is, I had PT recommended, and although I wasn't in pain to begin with, I now stand and sit much straighter, I have more stamina for standing, and everything just looks more correct. Now all my neck tightness is more apparant, and that's what we're working on. I went because I don't want to get a hump in my back, and I don't think I will.
So, the old MRI didn't really shed a whole lot of light--it doesn't seem like anyone should have started suspecting MS ten years ago. The longer I go without new dramatic symptoms or lesions, I'm suspecting it less and less, too.
"T1 sagittal and T2W axial images of the brain, T1 sagittal and coronal images with and without contrast through the sella turcica [where the pituitary gland lives].
The chiasm is unremarkable in appearance as are the proximal optic nerves.
There is a vague area of increased signal noted on both T1 and T2W acquisitions in the deep white matter of the cerebral hemispheres [earlier in the text it said it was on the left side] that shows no contrast enhancement or mass effect. This most likely represents artifact. Increased signal on T1 and T2W acquisitions can be seen with calcifications and hemorrhage and this region does not fit those patterns. Also, an abnormality in this area should not affect the visual fields."
So, nothing showing wrong with my optic nerves, no tumors, which is what they were mainly looking for, and no reason for the blind spot explained by the MRI.
The "deep white matter of the left cerebral hemisphere" sort of makes me wonder if it was anywhere near the same place as the "left insular region" where I had a lesion show up in my next brain MRI in 2007, that has never been seen since.
I looked at some auction sites, and it appears that the mobile MRI machines back then were 1T or more, so that's good.
I mentioned this in other posts, but the appointment at the neuro's resulted in new MRIs of cervical and thoracic spine. Nothing changed in cervical, but I have a herniated disc in the thoracic that might be the reason for the new creepy crawlies on my back, like a cat with the fur on end. That hardly ever happens any more. The result is, I had PT recommended, and although I wasn't in pain to begin with, I now stand and sit much straighter, I have more stamina for standing, and everything just looks more correct. Now all my neck tightness is more apparant, and that's what we're working on. I went because I don't want to get a hump in my back, and I don't think I will.
So, the old MRI didn't really shed a whole lot of light--it doesn't seem like anyone should have started suspecting MS ten years ago. The longer I go without new dramatic symptoms or lesions, I'm suspecting it less and less, too.
Best wishes for your appointment, I hope it goes well, and that you are not in a new flare.
It's good to vent, don't apologise, it can release tension.
Funny with you thinking about ON and I have been doing the same.
I tracked down my old records with better success than you (and that was over 13 years ago), I was able to give the ophalmoligist a copy today of my field tests and the letters to my general Dr and my old neurologist, I got them to give to my new neurologist so he could have a clearer insight to years ago.
Take care,
Udkas.
It's good to vent, don't apologise, it can release tension.
Funny with you thinking about ON and I have been doing the same.
I tracked down my old records with better success than you (and that was over 13 years ago), I was able to give the ophalmoligist a copy today of my field tests and the letters to my general Dr and my old neurologist, I got them to give to my new neurologist so he could have a clearer insight to years ago.
Take care,
Udkas.
Grrrrrrr!!!!! Since I ended up having a new symptom (old symptom-new place) I have an appointment tomorrow with the neuro. I called back to the old opth to see where they stood on re-creating the info they sent to the wrong place to see if I could get them to fax it to me instead of mailing, so I'd have it before the appt.
They have lost my chart. It didn't end up back in the archives where it belonged, and the only way they could find it would be to go through all folders of a certain color, which would take forever. They said whatever they sent to my old house wouldn't have included a radiologist's report, and suggested I try the hospital where I had the MRI done. I told them never mind trying to find the chart again, and that I would try the hospital.
They were very nice at the hospital records department, and they even could tell me the date I had the MRI (which was a couple of years before I remembered.) But they need the signed release, and they won't fax records anywhere but another doctor's office. So, no way I'm going to have the info speedily unless I ask them to request it at my appointment tomorrow, and they fax it right back that day. Since this is just my bright idea, and nobody at the neurologist's has asked for the information, I think I'll just be as patient and I'm capable of being, and wait for them to mail it to me. If it says anything helpful, I'll give it to the neuro. If it's just normal, I haven't stirred up a pot of trouble in more than one city.
The question might be moot, anyway, since I have a new thing that happened.
So, could MRIs taken in 1997 on a mobile unit have the power to show anything interesting on the optic nerves? I'd better get back to work now. Thanks for listening to me vent.
They have lost my chart. It didn't end up back in the archives where it belonged, and the only way they could find it would be to go through all folders of a certain color, which would take forever. They said whatever they sent to my old house wouldn't have included a radiologist's report, and suggested I try the hospital where I had the MRI done. I told them never mind trying to find the chart again, and that I would try the hospital.
They were very nice at the hospital records department, and they even could tell me the date I had the MRI (which was a couple of years before I remembered.) But they need the signed release, and they won't fax records anywhere but another doctor's office. So, no way I'm going to have the info speedily unless I ask them to request it at my appointment tomorrow, and they fax it right back that day. Since this is just my bright idea, and nobody at the neurologist's has asked for the information, I think I'll just be as patient and I'm capable of being, and wait for them to mail it to me. If it says anything helpful, I'll give it to the neuro. If it's just normal, I haven't stirred up a pot of trouble in more than one city.
The question might be moot, anyway, since I have a new thing that happened.
So, could MRIs taken in 1997 on a mobile unit have the power to show anything interesting on the optic nerves? I'd better get back to work now. Thanks for listening to me vent.
We moved about 3 years ago, and they stop forwarding after 2. We live in a townhome, and we're getting stuff from two owners ago--mostly from attorneys. It has slowed down since we have written "not at this address" and put them back in the box.
The people who bought our house kept nickel and diming us, thinking we would turn our 35 year old house into a brand new one at less than our asking price. We did get a call from them once because a truck dropped off some sort of building material samples for my salesman husband. He told them if it's something they can use, keep it, otherwise trash it.
The factories he represents are always sending stuff to the wrong place. I'll come home and find paneling samples on the front porch, or a note from UPS saying they'll try again. I just write "return to sender" on the note, hoping that if they keep getting stuff back, they'll eventually get the idea. His office is in our house, so it's his mailing address, but we have shipments sent to a storage building his company rents for us.
OK, venting over. Time to do something constructive.
The people who bought our house kept nickel and diming us, thinking we would turn our 35 year old house into a brand new one at less than our asking price. We did get a call from them once because a truck dropped off some sort of building material samples for my salesman husband. He told them if it's something they can use, keep it, otherwise trash it.
The factories he represents are always sending stuff to the wrong place. I'll come home and find paneling samples on the front porch, or a note from UPS saying they'll try again. I just write "return to sender" on the note, hoping that if they keep getting stuff back, they'll eventually get the idea. His office is in our house, so it's his mailing address, but we have shipments sent to a storage building his company rents for us.
OK, venting over. Time to do something constructive.
My experience has been that the USPS will keep a forwarding order active only for a limited time, and once that expires, they just keep sending the mail to the wrong address, as though the new occupant of the old address would take care of sending it on to the proper individual. When we lived in one townhouse for 12 years, we used to get mail for a couple of different prior occupants. Nearly all of it looked like junk. One lady kept getting her annual frequent flyer mileage update tossed into our garbage can; I marked it "MOVED - Return to Sender" for about five years straight, but it just kept coming. Sad, but true. People often just don't seem to care to take the time to get things right.
Update: Sent the request to the long-ago opth in another city at the end of March. Two weeks ago I called to see if I was going to get anything, and they said, "Yes, it's on the doctor's desk waiting for a signature." I still don't have it, so I called today. They mailed it two weeks ago, they sent my file back to archives, and now they have to start over. They go to the archives once a week or so, so maybe I'll get something before my July neuro appointment.
The bad part is, I strongly suspect they mailed to the address I lived at when I was their patient. Why hasn't it been returned to their office? If it got delivered, what did the people that bought my house do with it? They weren't very cooperative during the transaction, so they probably pitched it. Or read it. Or both.
The bad part is, I strongly suspect they mailed to the address I lived at when I was their patient. Why hasn't it been returned to their office? If it got delivered, what did the people that bought my house do with it? They weren't very cooperative during the transaction, so they probably pitched it. Or read it. Or both.
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