Monday was the follow-up visit to the MRI I had last Wenesday with the Neuro-optho. The MS doctor that ordered the MRI looked me over the same day and had fairly good news. The spot that we have been looking at in my spinal cord was unchanged. There is no growth to the spot in the last 4 months. We have made a change to my medication to help combat the pain. I have a follow-up visit in three months. That news was good to get, really. I was thankful that there were no major changes.
   The Optho-Neuro visit was a bit differnt. Part of me thinks I let myself expect too much, we all know that feeling I think at one time or another. The best thing that came from the visit was I got my patch taken off temporarily as a priosm was put on my glasses so now I can see only one not two. That I am very thankful. I was given two tests to identify my the signals going back to the brain from what I see. Those tests were somewhat below average.
we then looked at the MRI. There it was noted that the blood supply to the 6th nerve in my eye was distorted. The artery (I guess) started in one picture showed fine but as we looked through the the slides it became quite distorted that was noted to be the cause of the double vision. the doctor was very perplexed at this. he said that this was one problem that he could see in my eye. The second problem came from the fact my eye is moving in toward my nose. This was being caused possibly from two things. An injury from long ago (like a hit in the head) or perhaps a tumor growing that is pushing it that way. he asked me to drop the MRI to a fellow radiologist that he knew. On my way home I dropped it off to the new reader. My optho said he would get back to me today, tuesday, after the two had discussed it. This morning I await that call. I give him until 10am for that call then I call him. That in a nutshell is the visit.
    Here are my feelings on this visit and a few of my observations and feelings. I have had 12 MRI's in the last two and a half years. Albeit that some were follow up to the fusions I had, I have a hard time that more answers are not there. We all look for more concrete answers. In the problems I have, I see it like this. If muscles and nerve pain are your intial complaints, and you have a problem in your eye that seems to be muscle breakdown letting you eye drift toward your nose, and nerve / signal reaction be off would you not think all of this is related? The doctors are so quick to say that these two issues are unrelated. I have a hard time getting that. My nubness in my hands, feet , arms , and legs. The pain that is associated with these are all unrelated? Believe me I am no expert but I cannot swallow so well that these things are not "feeding" off of each other. I guess the bottom line is that the limbo feeling that I still have has made me somewhat bitter, and once again the quest for answers has lead to nothing for sure.
  Any comments would be greatly appreciated. God Bless you all.
MC      

    Good friday Morning to all of my friend here. I hope everyone is doing well. This week has been much better than last week. Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers for my wife she is feeling much better. She has her follow up visit with the doctor today. She seems to be well on the way to recovering.
     I had my MRI on tuesday. The good news is the spot in my spinal cord has not changed any. Still the same size and in the same location. No other new spots showed up. The doc refused to comment on much of the brain MRI other then to say it was clear. He did not want to comment any further because he did not know what the neuro-opthomologist was looking for. That appointment will be monday morning. That means that monday will be a long day.
      We did make some changes to my medication. We upped the lyrica to 200mg/day, stay on neurotin 3600mg/day and get off the cymbalta. I requested that we drop the cymbalta. I do not like the way I feel on it. I will go back to the effexor 150mg/day. We are going to try to go down on the neurotin. it will be a slow process. I am not a big pill taker. However, when I hurt I want something that will knock it down as soon as possible.

Have a great weekend everyone, Prayers and wishes to everyone,
Mike    

I have had one of those weeks that you have to experience to believe. Monday was a crazy day at work seems most days are like that it seems anymore. I had my appointments on tueday, I got great news, it was so welcome. My wife had a cough and I mentioned that she should take some cough medicine. She did. Wednesday I attended my 5 year olds class for career day. I explained my job, with pics and such it was fun. I went back to work that afternoon. Finally starting to catch up. At home the wife was feeling worse. I suggested a trip to the doctor. She flatly refused and went to bed early. She was up off and on all night cough spells. Thursday morning she was very agitated. I told her get rest I would speak to her later. At 2:30pm, I called she said she felt awful and I would have to pick up my son after school. I got him and took him back to work with me. We stopped at the store to get a few things to make dinner and I made her a doctor appt. for 10:00am this morning. She called me at work and and said they are admitting her for Pnemonia. I have been washed out this week. My insurance company does not care for me after this week.
   Well, the Lord only give us what we can handle i have asked for him to let me handle this before anymore comes along. I am confident he , along with my friends here, will get me across this bridge.
  Stay tuned, you never know what may happen next.........

Mike    

I woke up this morning with terrible pain in my jaw. i proceeded to swell. went to Doc this afternoon, saliva gland infection.??? Craziest thing I have ever heard. taking antibiotics now.