Hi all,
I am going to my first neuro appointment this week and want to make sure I don't forget anything. Although my gp has ruled out MS because a CT scan and MRI of brain came back ok I want to lay everything out so that this possibility is included.
My gp thinks it may just be migraines and that is possible. I am 37 now and initally just had neck pain + back of head headache and joint pain, tingling and stiffness along with dizziness on occasion. Sometimes it came with blurred vision and eye pain and afterwards it required a change in my glasses prescription.
Over the past 2 years the episodes started to occur more frequently and came with extreme exhaustion - the must lie down now kind. Then they started to occur regularly a few days into my menstrual cycle then over the past year the frequency increased to before during and a few days afterwards.
Dec 14th is when that changed. I started with what I thought was a migraine aura and it has been one thing after another since; dizziness, loss of balance (in hospital 2 times for this), numbess, tingling, tinnitus, pain, losing my words, saying the wrong words, stabbing pains in my ears, face, heaviness in arms/legs, weakness everywhere, sometimes walking feels like I'm balancing on stilts, often it feels like I just completed the work out of my life - everything is exhausted and tingling and much more - everyday since Dec 14th, not one day without something
I should also mention that I have a ton of visual disturbances, blurry vision left eye, spots, left eye moving slower than right, difficulty focusing, reading, seeing bright lights even when my eyes are closed - these hurt, shots of light if my cat jumps on my bed when I'm sleeping
When I talk with the neuro I want them to look at all possibilities and not just lump it as a migraine. The gp did give me migraine meds and clonazepam for the loss of balance but when the body and "heachache" pain hits even those along with Tylenol 1's don't do anything - they also don't get rid of the exhaustion and the vision issues
I was adopted so no family history to work from. How far back should I go in mine? I know that when I was a teenager I was tested for thoracic outlet syndrome which was inconclusive and at the time they did note some balance issues and repeated some nerve test on my left arm a few times.
10 yrs ago, my then gp questioned MS when I had foot pain, tingling and numbess but decided it was plantar faciitus.
5 yrs ago I had repeated tests done to determine the cause of stomach pain 1 yr after my gallbaldder was removed - The pain felt like there was a ball in my left side and a band around my chest under my rib cage - it eventually went away but I'm still on stomach meds for gastritus - not that they work but they are better tha nothing
In September last year I had what felt like repeated stabbing pains to my heart - my employer sent me to the hospital and it was not my heart - may have been stomach issues. It lasted 10 days and then stopped suddenly.
Starting in October I would hear things like a cell phone ringing and then everything would start to tighten in my jaw - right under my ear.
My question is how much of this is relevant....should I go back to age 17 with the TOS investigation?
I should also mention that I have BP2 and I am on medication (no manic episodes ever) so I like to be prepared because generally the first place they go is "how is your mental health" and generally 90% of doctors get stuck there and don't bother to find out if there is anything else wrong...then when I mention that my oldest son is autistic, that I work full time and I'm a single parent...it goes down hill from there.
Any suggestions that you have I would love to hear!