I'm Alive and Well!

I got a lovely email from Mark over at Tales of the Sissy, and I must apologize for my lack of blogging. I'll give you the briefest update I can...

My wisdom tooth came out in about 5 minutes. I got lots of nitrous and novocaine... it was all quite groovy. I was perfectly fine to drive myself directly to Walgreen's to get my vicodin prescription filled, then home.

The pain came gradually, but I slept soundly through the night, waking up with a nice little puddle of blood on my pillow. I spent the next day feeling quite sore, but not too bad. I had to work the day after that, and I was really in pain. Motrin every four hours seemed to help. By the third day after surgery, it was really hurting, and spreading-- to my jawbone, my cheek, my left ear, and into other teeth. I felt as though there was some horrific infection spreading throughout my head.

Finally, on Monday morning, I called the oral surgeon, who saw me immediately and determined within minutes that I had a dry socket. Based on what I had heard about this, I would have expected pain far worse than what I had. I mean, yeah, it hurt like a motherfucker, but I slept with an ice pack on it and Motrin helped (even more than the vicodin), so I didn't think it was unbearable. Well, maybe a little.

I spent the next week and a half going every two days to the surgeon to get the gaping hold stuffed with clove-oil-soaked gauze. No pain, but the taste was dreadful. Everything I ate tasted completely of cloves. Horrible. Anyway, it's over now and I'm feeling good. The hole is healing up nicely and I irrigate it frequently with a syringe of warm water.

Three more wisdom teeth to go. Oy.

Then it was off the neurosurgeon for some good news: my brain issue and neck issue are fine. No problems there. My frequent headaches are probably caused by some nerve pinching between vertebrae C3 and C4, and can be helped with physical therapy. I also have the arm and elbow pain on the left side, which turns out to be the result of cubital tunnel-- like carpal tunnel, only in the elbow. The funny bone area. I'll have a simple outpatient procedure and it will be perfectly fine.

And that's enough. Thanks for missing me. No other big news just now, but I'll resume blogging and posting pics post haste!

Me and My Dog.

Bailey went in last week for his expensive vet visit.

They cleaned his teeth (after extracting several), and they were happy to report that his lower canines were intact. This is good, because those teeth help keep his tongue centered in his mouth, rather than having it hang out the side and making him look like a special-needs dog.

They also addressed the problem of his mouth infection-- a major infection of the salivary gland. They cleaned that up nicely, leaving his mouth full of dissolvable sutures.

They cleaned out his ear and found a polyp-- which they left alone, since he's 12 and has no apparent hearing loss.

Finally, they removed a cyst from his paw, stitched up the area, and wrapped it in a cute pink bandage. He was pretty groggy and crabby that evening, but now he's just fine-- he's on pain medication for another week! Lucky dog!

He's going to be just fine, thankfully.

So am I, it seems. Well, sort of.

My MRA showed that there were no issues with the blood vessels in the brain. Then why the pain in the back, neck, shoulders, and arms? Well, it's bone spurs on my vertebrae. I'm being sent to an orthopedic surgeon to discuss options-- of which there may be none. It might just be bursitis / arthritis. At any rate, it's not an aneurysm or any complication from my freakishly oversized cerebellum. That's something.

Bailey and I might just have a beer tonight, to celebrate our mediocre health.

Wacky Day.

I've been without home access to the internet intermittently for weeks. The cable guy came over and assured me I had connectivity, so the problem must be with my computer. He suggested I defragment my drive, something I already have the computer do automatically every week.

I did, however, do some extra "cleaning up," did a re-start, and presto! I'm on.

I'm home today as I had some minor complications following yesterday's colonoscopy. (It's true what they all say, that the prep is far worse than the actual procedure.) The results are that I probably have irritable bowel syndrome, and some polyps were removed for biopsy. They are looking for celiac sprue, essentially a reaction to gluten. The result? I have to give up at least the following: caffeine, carbonated beverages, nicotine, and spicy foods. In addition, I may have to watch what kinds of wheat products I eat.

My MRI results on my neck and brain came back. The neck (and the surgery from 2006) looks great, no problems. The Chiari malformation seems unchanged. The issue is with the blood vessels in my brain-- some sort of "abnormalities." Doctor has ordered an MRA (the nurse described it as "just like an MRI, but using a different software package"). Things they might be looking for: AVM (this is what Nate Fisher had on "Six Feet Under"), aneurysm, or any kind of "hardening of the arteries." Sheesh.

Just shoot me already.

Meanwhile, a reporter from the Wall Street Journal emailed me, as she found my post about using Zabasearch.com to find out info on the then-new boyfriend. She found the post hilarious, and wants to interview me for a story about internet searching for the WSJ! How fun is that?

Wacky day.

A Twenty-Something in the Body of a Sixty-Something.

This is not about my gastro-intestinal issues (pun intended), because that's just graphic and gross. I am having a colonoscopy and a gastroscopy on the 27th of February. That's all I need to say about that.

No, this is about symptoms that strike a familiar chord for me. The timeline follows...

1994: I have a severe pinching pain in my back that renders me nearly immobile. I see a chiropractor, who does no x-rays and simply treats the pain-- poorly.

1998: The years have not been kind. I have lots of back, neck, shoulder, and arm pain, and frequent headaches. An MRI reveals two things: a ruptured disc between vertebrae C6 and C7 (in the neck or cervical spine) as well as a defect known as a Chiari I Malformation, which is present from birth but does not cause problems until adulthood, around the 30's or so. (In a Chiari malformation, the base of the brain is too large for the skull and begins to force its way through the foramen magnum, or the hole at the base of the skull, putting pressure on the spinal cord and restricting the flow of cerebral-spinal fluid. See picture at left.) The disc situation is the one that is urgent, so I have surgery to repair it. A small piece of my hipbone is removed and used as a spacer between the two vertebrae, as the disc is indeed ruptured and all but turned to dust by now. The piece of hipbone will fuse with the two vertebrae, creating one strong vertebrae. Success. Back pain gone. I am back to work in 5 weeks.

2001: I begin experiencing weird pains in my head when I laugh hard, cough, or even strain to have a BM. The pains feel like the flow of blood is being temporarily stopped somewhere on the top right side of the head. I nearly collapse during a performance of "Someone Who'll Watch Over Me," in which I am performing. The pain happens during the same scene at every performance of the show-- when I am excessively straining in a "fearful" moment of the script. My doctor suggests it's migraines and prescribes a variety of different medicines over a four-month period. The pains seem to come under control.

2003: I am having trouble swallowing. I must take small bites and chew my food excessively. I begin having the head pains again. I start to research Chiari Malformations and discover that many of my symptoms match up. I ask my doctor if he agrees, and he does. I see a neurosurgeon. In April, just 2 weeks before the opening of "A Chorus Line," of which I am the musical director and pianist (and sole accompanist mostly), I have brain surgery. In this procedure, the doctor removes a bit of the skull near the foramen magnum, allowing more room for the brain in an effort to improve the flow of cerebro-spinal fluid. My recovery takes longer than the week the surgeon predicted; fortunately, subsitute pianists are found for the show's opening weekend. I only miss about three weeks of work.

2005: I have lots of neck, back, shoulder and arm pain. The cervical-spinal fusion from 1998 has apparently failed-- the bones did not fuse. A second procedure is performed. This time a titanium plate is added to hold the two vertebrae and hipbone fragment together. This is followed by 6 weeks of physical therapy and the use of a bone-growth stimulator, which I wear twice a day and which uses electrical impulses to stimulate the fusion of the bones. I am off work for 8 weeks.

2008: The symptoms of both the spinal discomfort as well as the Chiari have all returned. I am having headaches, intra-cranial pressure in the back of my head, sore back, neck, right shoulder, right shoulder blade, and down the right arm. My doctor has ordered an MRI of the brain and the cervical spine-- with and without contrast dye.

Wailing and gnashing of teeth to follow.

Next up... job and hobby fun.