brash_beauty
08-03-2007, 09:17 AM
Hello Ladies :)
This is gonna get pretty long, so sit back and relax... have a tea and read. :)
I've been pretty scarce lately, and I wanted to apologize, and let you know why...
The past few years, I've been getting treatment for Migraines... the last few months, my headaches have been getting worse and worse, and more localized around the back of my head (around where you're wear a pony tail). The headaches would literally cause me to fall over, I'd see flashing firefly lights, and the back of my head THROBS, like, on a scale of 1-10, it's a 10... it only lasts for about 30-40 seconds, but it's a terrible few seconds.
My primary care doctor, who I LOVE, did an MRI, and after spending Wednesday in the emergency room with this terrible headache, we come to find out I was born with something called a Chiari 1 Malformation... Chiari Malformation (Arnold-Chiari) is a serious neurological disorder where the bottom part of the brain, the cerebellum, descends out of the skull and crowds the spinal cord, putting pressure on both the brain and spine and causing many symptoms
In short, what it means is that it's almost like my brain is too big for my head, and it's trying to escape out the hole my brainstem/spinal cord go thru (That's pretty much how my mom explained it. I have a big brain :) )
They don't know why it wasn't diagnosed before, probably because my other doctor was more determined to treat me for depression headaches then anything else (the Chiari symptoms are at times confused with depression symptoms)
They have me on muscle relaxers and some pain killers to take the edge off, but there really is no treatment for it. The only way to try to cure it, is surgery, which isn't 100%. (it works fantastic in about 80% of patients) So now I have to meet with a neurologist, and a neurosurgeon and see what we can do...
The surgery is about 3-4 hours, and it's not brain surgery, it's just removing a little piece of bone in my neck, to take the pressure off. See... if it gets worse, because of the pressure on my spine, it can cause issues like paralysis.... and that's not good. Average recovery time spans from a few weeks up to a year depending on the person... so it could be a while before we start our family depending on what the doctors say.
Sean and I have decided to hold off on TTC until we know more, and since I'll be on pain meds, it's not safe to TTC anyway. We're staying positive, but it's alot to handle, expecially since we're so close to nearing our 1 year TTC date in September when we could move on to more fertility options.
Everything happens for a reason, and I know everything will work out in the long run. It's just a lot to handle right now.
This is gonna get pretty long, so sit back and relax... have a tea and read. :)
I've been pretty scarce lately, and I wanted to apologize, and let you know why...
The past few years, I've been getting treatment for Migraines... the last few months, my headaches have been getting worse and worse, and more localized around the back of my head (around where you're wear a pony tail). The headaches would literally cause me to fall over, I'd see flashing firefly lights, and the back of my head THROBS, like, on a scale of 1-10, it's a 10... it only lasts for about 30-40 seconds, but it's a terrible few seconds.
My primary care doctor, who I LOVE, did an MRI, and after spending Wednesday in the emergency room with this terrible headache, we come to find out I was born with something called a Chiari 1 Malformation... Chiari Malformation (Arnold-Chiari) is a serious neurological disorder where the bottom part of the brain, the cerebellum, descends out of the skull and crowds the spinal cord, putting pressure on both the brain and spine and causing many symptoms
In short, what it means is that it's almost like my brain is too big for my head, and it's trying to escape out the hole my brainstem/spinal cord go thru (That's pretty much how my mom explained it. I have a big brain :) )
They don't know why it wasn't diagnosed before, probably because my other doctor was more determined to treat me for depression headaches then anything else (the Chiari symptoms are at times confused with depression symptoms)
They have me on muscle relaxers and some pain killers to take the edge off, but there really is no treatment for it. The only way to try to cure it, is surgery, which isn't 100%. (it works fantastic in about 80% of patients) So now I have to meet with a neurologist, and a neurosurgeon and see what we can do...
The surgery is about 3-4 hours, and it's not brain surgery, it's just removing a little piece of bone in my neck, to take the pressure off. See... if it gets worse, because of the pressure on my spine, it can cause issues like paralysis.... and that's not good. Average recovery time spans from a few weeks up to a year depending on the person... so it could be a while before we start our family depending on what the doctors say.
Sean and I have decided to hold off on TTC until we know more, and since I'll be on pain meds, it's not safe to TTC anyway. We're staying positive, but it's alot to handle, expecially since we're so close to nearing our 1 year TTC date in September when we could move on to more fertility options.
Everything happens for a reason, and I know everything will work out in the long run. It's just a lot to handle right now.