So yesterday I had yet another doctor’s appointment with yet another doctor. This appointment was with a female neurologist who actually specializes in pediatrics. She is an American so it was a lot easier to understand her…the last neurologist was a guy from China and although he was very nice his accent made communication difficult…so I decided to try another neurologist partly for a second opinion and partly to see if I could find one whom I could understand better and thus communicate better as well. I was happy that I could understand her better, but I was even happier that she has had a number of patients with Chiari malformation (CM) and seems to know considerably more about it.
She explained that, if the CM related headaches can be controlled with medications and if my arms don’t get numb, I won’t need to worry about surgery at least for now anyways. We’re still working on regulating the headaches with meds…but it’s looking very promising because they’re becoming less frequent and the excruciating ones are being alternated with much less intense ones which for now at least is making them more bearable. My arms only get numb and tingly if I rest my elbows on a tabletop or on my knees or something and occasionally when I fold them up, but never when they’re just hanging at my sides or anything like that yet which is really good. We’re up-ing my dose of the headache med so hopefully we can get them more regulated and the headache med might possibly even help with my neck, back, hip, knee, and all-over leg pain…which is awesome I’m really happy about that possibility.
I’m also really happy that fall break starts tomorrow after my last class and then my roommate and I are going to Michigan to see her some of her extended family, then we’re coming back to my house to have my birthday celebration with my mom (I turn 21 next Tuesday!!!) and Amber’s coming too (YAY!!!), and then we’re coming back to school…with a couple of stops along the way. Anyways it sounds like fun to me…hopefully the car ride goes ok…and hopefully my back doesn’t complain too much.
Another thing that has come up more recently has been my struggle in my classes. I’ve been over-cutting and struggling to keep up with the homework/reading in all my classes and my grades have been suffering as a result. I gave each of my professors a letter explaining why I’ve been missing class more than I should (if I was healthy) and how I’ve been struggling in my classes. I’ve recently been in contact via email with a man from the AEC (academic enrichment center) and I have a meeting with him next week to see if I can get some study tips because I’ve been having a really hard time remembering information no matter how long I spend studying it. Hopefully, I can get some pointers for studying and then hopefully I can finish out the semester with better grades and remembering more of what I’ve learned for later on.
These are some prayer requests – that the car ride goes ok and that we get there safely and that my back doesn’t complain too much…because I’ve already told it not to…haha. Another prayer request would be for me to be able to regulate my pain with meds because I’m really, really scared of the idea of surgery and it’d be really expensive…and for my arms, and legs for that matter, to not start getting numb for no reason. And a last request would be that my meeting goes ok next week and that I can get the help I need with classes.
No comments:
Post a Comment