I saw the eye doctor again on June 7th. Dr. Cohen was pleased that the fluid was decreasing and the bubble seems to be shifting out of my central range of vision. It seems like my vision is getting a little better now, so I am glad I did not get the steroid injection. His big concern still is the optic nerve lesion because it is large and leaking. He's afraid if I do PDT again that it would really compromise my vision. Therefore, he wants me to hold off until there is some further change in the size or amount of leakage from the optic tumor. I follow up with him on July 2nd.
I've been very preoccupied this summer with my Aunt Winnie, the travel agent who I went to Florida with. Unfortunately, she has been suffering from medical issues herself. She required surgery three weeks ago for a pinched nerve & after being in rehab for a week, had to undergo another surgery due to complications and signs of infection in her lumbar incision. It turns out that she has MRSA, a really serious type of staph infection which is very resistant to treatment. She's very frightened now, as she has to be on antibiotics the rest of her life. So, please send prayers her direction too.
Over the past couple of weeks, I have noticed tingling and numbness in different parts of my body - e.g. my arm & fingers have been tingly and my pinky is completely numb. The sensation in my right arm is really off. It feels like it's asleep and I keep shaking it to wake it up. Then I noticed that it started progressing into my right foot, causing numbness in several toes, my heel and my shin is tingly also. After the symptoms worsened, I contacted my neurosurgeon, Dr. Bendok, who suggested I go right to the emergency room. He was concerned that I had a stroke or a recollection of fluid in my spine. Unfortunately, Steve had the stomach flu so my friend, Darlene, drove me down to Northwestern. They kept me there all night and I finally had an MRI of the brain and cervical spine done at 5:00 a.m. this morning. Things looked good and there was no sign of a stroke. However, they are still really concerned with the numbness and its cause. They gave me the option to stay and do another MRI of my thoracic spine. They think that maybe there are tumors there that could be the culprit. I chose to come home & am scheduled to go back on Friday for MRI's of the brain, cervical and thoracic spine (3 hours!). Then I see Dr. Bendok on the 28th. Another possible reason for the numbness could be hyperstimulation of the nerve root. Your nerve endings regenerate about six months after surgery, so it could just be that I'm having a hypersensitive reaction. So, they put me on Lyrica, which will help calm down the nerve endings if this is indeed the problem. I'm very anxious because my symptoms increase daily. I am also nervous because once there is nerve damage, you sometimes never get that feeling back.
A BIG thank you to Darlene for taking me to the hospital and staying with me all night. It was like a sleepover. We talked and laughed all night. Unfortunately, the bed we were sharing broke in the middle of the night!
Hopefully, this will all be resolved soon and I can get on with enjoying my summer. Hope everybody else is doing well...
