Home again...

Well I'm finally home again after a very long and exhausting 7 days in Sydney. I was originally only supposed to be in Sydney for 4 days in order to see the neurologist for a check up on the back surgery I had last July. I am having some on going symptoms associated with the surgery. I had a new MRI of my entire spine and in addition I had a Nerve Conduction Test (NCT) run on my hands because I have developed some symptoms in my hands, which would not have been associated with the lower back surgery. So, it was a totally new problem..

As I said the MRI was to follow up on my surgery sight and the NCT was investigating the symptoms in my hands, which included numbness and pain in both hands. I can not hold anything for longer than a minute without my fingers and eventually my entire hand going numb. My neurologist suspected that I might have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) and the NCT confirmed his suspicions. I have (CTS) not only in one hand but both. We also discovered that I am developing peripheral neuropathy in both hands. The neuropathy is the same as the neuropathy I currently have in my feet.

The (CTS) can be fixed through surgery. I will have two separate surgeries so I will be able to use one hand while the other hand is recuperating from the surgery. I don't know when the surgeries will happen but the doctor is working on scheduling the surgeries. As soon as they have a date I'll be off to fix my hands. Unfortunately, the neuropathy can not be fixed and I can only hope that it does not get any worse and get as bad as it is in my feet.

The MRI found a suspicious spot near the area involved with my back surgeries (remember I ended up having 4 of them). The doctor then ordered a series of blood tests and a set of nuclear scans of my entire body which not only looked at the suspicious spot but also my bones. The doctor was trying to determine if the spot he saw was scar tissue or instead a collection of fluid which could be a site of chronic infection. If the site was a chronic infection I was looking at ongoing intravenous antibiotics that would be administered on a regular basis in order to keep the infection in check so it would not spread into my system. The results ended up being just scar tissue and not an infection. I was extremely relieved. The scar tissue will be something I will always have to deal with and it will unfortunately continue to give me some pain for the rest of my life. This is not uncommon once any type of back surgery is performed. I can and as I said will have to live with that.

All in all it was a mixed bag of results but overall I think we ended up with mostly good results. I'm not looking forward to the surgeries on my hands but at least they will help my hand get back to some sense of normal. I'll keep everyone abreast of all the latest developments and once again I want to thank all of you that have continued to send me such wonderful notes of encouragement.

One more thing, I don't have to worry about looking for a job until my hands are fixed so in some ways that's one worry off my chest. I hope by the time my hands are fixed the job market will look brighter. OK, that's all for now and thanks for reading this very long post. I'll write again soon and also make sure I do next months 12 of 12. I hated missing it but I did not have my camera with me in Sydney. See you soon. Take care...

Sydney Town...

We're in Sydney right now, so I can see the specialist. Well ,I've seen him and I will have to wait until Thursday to let you know what is going on. I was going to go home on Monday but now I have to stay until Thursday morning. I will be having some additional test done over those extra days. To say I am not amused is an under statement. Anyway, this will be a short post but I'll keep you posted when I know more. I hope everyone is well. Take care, stay well and enjoy...

Back among the living...

I'm here after crawling and clawing my way back to the land of the living. Seriously people the way I felt the past few days is so extremely horrendous, you have no idea. Now in saying that let me recap what you've missed because I know you are all waiting with baited breathe to hear about my recent illness. (You should all seriously look into getting a hobby, I'm not that interesting.) Anyway, for those of you that need/want to know, here goes. Beware this is a long post so don't say you weren't warned.

You will remember that on the last episode of (Tony Falls Crook) I was about to go see the doctor. Well when he saw me the first thing he said "Wow you look awful". Thankfully we don't have to pay for doctors visits here because if we did I sure wasn't going to pay for that brilliant diagnosis. After acknowledging his medical expertise I felt it best to fill him in on just how bad I felt to get me look so awful. He then proceeded to do what doctors do with the poking and the prodding. Next some lab forms with all sorts of blood test on them were handed to me and he also wanted me to have a CT scan of my abdomen and my lower back where I had recently had back surgery if you remember back in July.

So off I hobbled to the X-ray/Imaging facility down the block. Oh here's the best part I had to walk about two blocks and wouldn't you know it but it just so happened that winter had decided to make a grand showing on the same time with freezing temperatures, rain, sleet and snow all at once and all on top of my head. Guess who didn't have an umbrella? Anyhoo, I made it to the imaging place and handed the lady my forms. She in turn told me that this would take about an hour and a half and to have a seat as she would be right back with a nice little drink for me to ingest. Now you know as well as I do that this lovely concoction was far from lovely. It was not only tepid but it looked like pee and tasted like a mixture of lighter fluid, formaldehyde and lemonade (not that I've ever tasted such a combination before but I'm guessing that would be what that combination would taste like). I was to drink this concoction slowly over the next 30 minutes. I finished gaging my way through the entire 8 ounce glass just as she came out to get me to take me in for my scan.

The scan was harmless and pain free. She did initially want to inject me with the common iodine solution that they use to get a better picture. I had to tell her that she would not be able to do that as I am allergic to intravenous iodine because I tend to have an anaphylactic response to IV iodine and then I die. So we both decided it would be best that we didn't go down that road. Besides what the hell was all that crap I just drank for the past 30 minutes? As I said the scan was a breeze except for the cocktail. I got the pictures from the scan and headed to my next adventure on Ton's big day out.

I was off to the vampire's lair otherwise known as pathology to give them fourteen tubes of blood and two small bottles. Not only did I feel like shit but now they were going to attempt to take every last bit of life giving blood from my body. The people that take blood almost always hurt me. It wasn't always that way. Before 2000 I was a smoker and I weighed between 160 and 165. (I know, can you believe it?) and I had veins everywhere so getting a sample from me was easy. After 2000 I quit smoking and unfortunately I gained a little weight and a lot of my veins disappeared under a newly acquired layer of fat. (No I'm not going to tell you how much I weigh now) The blood letters now tell me it's difficult to find a vein. My husband you remember the one who works in the Emergency Department and save peoples lives every night, tells me that I have great veins and that they are just either lazy or bad at their job. Anyway, blood was taken, I was hurt and by now I was already to call the funeral home myself because I felt so over the whole ordeal.

James took me home I collapsed on the couch. Five minutes later the phone rings and it's the doctor wanting me to come back down to his office right then. I drag myself off the couch and off we go down to his office. As a side note the weather has not gotten any better by this time in fact it's gotten colder and the combination of what was falling was getting heavier, but I digress. We find a parking spot and get to the doctors office where he tells us the results of the scan. It seems that there is a lump of some sort that has developed next to the area that I had recent surgery. They believe that it is a collection of fluid and they need to stick a needle into the area to drain off some of the fluid. They then can send the fluid off to see if it is infected and if it is it would explain the temperatures and everything else I had been feeling. At the same time by draining some of the fluid and releasing some pressure from the area I should get some relief from the pain coming from my back. On the other hand it might be possible that the growth could be something entirely different and that it might mean I would have to have surgery again to remove it.

By this time I'm beside myself as I'm not good with people stick big needles into me and stabbing around hoping to hit the right spot. I agreed to do the procedure as it had to be done. My doctor had a look from the outside and then he said he wasn't comfortable with finding the right spot and he didn't want to cause me any unneeded pain. He said it would be best to have the fluid/sample removed with the help of an ultrasound to locate the exact spot. Once again forms were filled out and appointments were urgently made. It was 4:00 at this point. The appointment was made for 5:30. James and I went back home so I could lay down for a bit before we headed down to the ultrasound. The test was performed with no pain as they numbed the site and the sample was taken however there was no fluid to be found. ??? Instead we ended up taking a small sample of gelatin like substance over to the after hours lab and then went home to collapse.

To make a long post short. every test has come back normal. We are still awaiting a few result from the sample taken from my back but at the end of the day everything is pointing to some type of viral infection. I am going to Sydney next week for a review by my surgeon and my neurologist. We hopefully will get some more information up there in reference the thing that has developed in my back. As for me currently all of a sudden as quickly as it came 7 days ago what ever attacked me left and I'm feeling fine. As I said they will still need to decide what to do with the growth and I imagine that they may require another MRI. All I know is right now I feel fine except for the fact that my fingers hurt from typing this post. I will now put this to an end so that you may tend to your bleeding eyes.

Hi Ho Hi Ho it's off to Sydney we go...

Well, we're off to Sydney for a few days. I have two doctors appointments on Monday as well as another MRI scheduled of my lower back to see if the problems with my lower back got any worse since I was in hospital a few months ago. If it is worse than we will start a course of steroids to hopefully reduce some of the swelling on the two disc in question. If that doesn't work then I have two options steroid injections or surgery. I have no plans to have the injections because they are way to painful and basically I'm not a big one on pain. I'm sure it will all be just fine.

The other thing the doctor will want to know is how I'm doing since we increased one of my medication a month ago. All I can tell him is that I fall asleep a lot more often and especially whenever I'm stationary for more than ten minutes or sometimes even in mid conversation. I actually fell asleep the other night for an hour sitting on the toilet. Good thing I didn't fall off and hit my head on the bathtub. On top of that I never did what I went in there to do.

They other strange thing is I have these little like mini sleeps where I'm asleep but not asleep and I have these kind of little dreams. When I start to wake up I start to act upon the dream as if it was real. It's hard to explain but extremely freaky. Anyway, I'll ask the doctor about it. We've decide that it was really a good idea that I gave up driving. You can only imagine.

The rest of our time in Sydney will be spent with James' parents so that James gets to spend some more time with his mum. I think it's really important as we don' know how long she will be able to fight this cancer. The doctors said 6-12 months. We are all hoping for 12 and maybe more who knows others have down it.

Okay, I best go finish packing. James is at work. He will be exhausted after doing 4 shifts in a row and it's been a busy three days so far in the Emergency Room. Maybe tonight they will get a break. At least James is on triage so he gets to sit down for a little bit in between patients.

I'll let you know when we get back and who knows I may even have some pictures to share as I'm taking the camera with me. Until then you take care and just Enjoy...