Wednesday 18 August 2010

The wait is over

Yesterday I saw my neurosurgeon. I was told that there are no structural issues in my spine: the nerve exits are clear and there are no bone spurs. So, as it turns out, my current issues are just the evolving complications of syringomyelia. Apparently I can expect peaks and troughs of these symptoms; given that my right hand is currently little more than a club I'm hoping I'm at the depths of a trough at the moment.
Now my main hope is that when I visit the hand and wrist specialist next month he can offer me some sort of help, otherwise I'm reduced to hoping for improvement.

More in early September after I see the next doctor...

Monday 2 August 2010

Update

What an inspired post title!
Last Friday I went off to see my neurosurgeon. Looking at my existing scans he had three theories for what was causing my current symptoms:
  1. I may have a bone spur around C6/7 putting pressure on the nerve emerging from the spinal cord there
  2. My cyst is only partially deflated, and is putting pressure on the spinal cord there
  3. It's just ongoing degeneration
I have a strange feeling it's #1, but I'm not sure why. At any rate, I went in for a dose of radiation (CT scan) this morning so he can get a better look at how everything is hanging together at the moment. Unfortunately, I was not bitten by any irradiated spiders while I was there. Also, CT scans are way quicker than MRI. I was in and out of the place in short order - it took longer for them to bill me than it did for me to register, wait, and get scanned.
The lady told me the results should be back by Wednesday or Thursday, so I'm not really expecting to hear anything until next week.
The waiting continues...