Health Update

[Dillon]

Earlier today I had an eye doctor follow up appointment where I had noted loss of vision in my right eye all of a sudden with headaches that have been going on for a few weeks mainly on the right side. I was told through examination I have early stages of glaucoma with hypertension (blood pressure was high today). Didn’t get prescribed any medication until “progression was noted”.

I then later in the afternoon went to the emergency room because my headache was getting unbearable. I had a CT-scan done with no contrast of my head and brain and everything was apparently fine and clear. Blood work came back normal except my white blood count was slightly elevated but ER doctor never mentioned anything about that.
Told me to follow up with my primary care doctor and a neurologist and make active life style choices.

Has anyone experienced something like this when you don’t know what is going on?

It makes no sense as I am quite young to have optic nerve damage and hypertension from what I was told. I also been having speech and communication issues for months with cognitive issues and I am told by an ER doctor that my speech and memory was fine.

 

[Kavigant]

Fingers crossed that you'll have answers and good news soon.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

Earlier today I had an eye doctor follow up appointment where I had noted loss of vision in my right eye all of a sudden with headaches that have been going on for a few weeks mainly on the right side. I was told through examination I have early stages of glaucoma with hypertension (blood pressure was high today). Didn’t get prescribed any medication until “progression was noted”.

I then later in the afternoon went to the emergency room because my headache was getting unbearable. I had a CT-scan done with no contrast of my head and brain and everything was apparently fine and clear. Blood work came back normal except my white blood count was slightly elevated but ER doctor never mentioned anything about that.
Told me to follow up with my primary care doctor and a neurologist and make active life style choices.

Has anyone experienced something like this when you don’t know what is going on?

It makes no sense as I am quite young to have optic nerve damage and hypertension from what I was told. I also been having speech and communication issues for months with cognitive issues and I am told by an ER doctor that my speech and memory was fine.

Follow up with the neurologist. They are going to have a more critical eye. The radiologist is looking for obvious things. Have the neurologist examine the CT, perhaps with a follow-up MRI, and have them examine and interpret the images. Seriously. Your primary care doctor, eye doctor, and ER doctor have just begun their assessment. Asymmetrical headaches, loss of vision, hypertension, speech and communication issues that are relatively recent. None of that should be ignored or "disregarded" as "normal", when it clearly is a change from your perspective. It is not your baseline. It is not your normal.

Here is a little bit of information for you regarding radiologists. They are not specialists, per se. In my world of neonatal medicine, the neonatologists, neonatal nurse practitioners, and neonatal respiratory therapists are quite often more skilled at reading neonatal images than the radiologists who write reports and post them in patient charts. In fact, we literally do not read their reports, because, frankly, they are so generalized and basic, they are pretty much useless to us. We can see, with much greater detail and describe all the subtle nuances of our images. We know, literally from looking at an image, the current gestation, by the maturity and development of the tissues. So it is with a neurologist. They are going to be looking at things with a much higher resolution than a radiologist.

 

[SusanLR]

What Neonatal RRT says is so correct.
A neurologist is the best first step.
You may even want to consider a second opinion from another as I found one did not agree with the other.

I have been losing my ability to walk over the past three years progressively.
Two different neurologists were working on tests and scans for everything they knew to do and couldn't find what the problem was until one of them who was a doctor at a large university here looked very closely at the cerebellar region and noticed it was a little atrophied, (shrunken), at one place.
The radiologist report said nothing of this.
The other neurologist in his private practice couldn't see it even when I told him where to look.

There was a new test for a rare neurological disease that involved a small nerve biopsy. It confirmed what the university doctor thought.

So, hang in there with more than one doctor if needed. I hope you get good news and reliable answers.

 

[Aspychata]

Good luck Dillon, you may need to further check with neurologist to find what you are experiencing. Are these cluster headaches? They have made some strides in prescriptions for this. Serena Williams suffered from this and feels this really helped her, she is a spokesperson for this. Ubrelvy-
Home

UBRELVY WORKS DIFFERENTLY

The first in a different class of acute treatments for migraine, UBRELVY is an oral, non-narcotic pill taken during a migraine attack. Unlike older migraine medications, it directly blocks a protein, known as CGRP, believed to play a major role in migraine attacks. ONE DOSE WORKS fast.

 

[Au Naturel]

Earlier today I had an eye doctor follow up appointment where I had noted loss of vision in my right eye all of a sudden with headaches that have been going on for a few weeks mainly on the right side. I was told through examination I have early stages of glaucoma with hypertension (blood pressure was high today). Didn’t get prescribed any medication until “progression was noted”.

I then later in the afternoon went to the emergency room because my headache was getting unbearable. I had a CT-scan done with no contrast of my head and brain and everything was apparently fine and clear. Blood work came back normal except my white blood count was slightly elevated but ER doctor never mentioned anything about that.
Told me to follow up with my primary care doctor and a neurologist and make active life style choices.

Has anyone experienced something like this when you don’t know what is going on?

It makes no sense as I am quite young to have optic nerve damage and hypertension from what I was told. I also been having speech and communication issues for months with cognitive issues and I am told by an ER doctor that my speech and memory was fine.

Classic migraine symptoms. That is exactly how I experience them. Pain on one side of the head with visual distortions (called aura) is just about the definition of a migraine. I have found that Immitrex taken at the earliest signs of a migraine stops them.

There are a zillion reasons why your white blood count might be slightly elevated. Doctors don't take note unless it becomes a significant, an indication of an infection.

However, glaucoma can have similar symptoms. It is excessive intraocular pressure within the eyeball. I don't know who your healthcare provider is, but you need to sit down and ask why they make the decisions they do. Health care requires the active participation of the client. Why are you waiting for it to progress before prescribing something? There is always a reason.

Cannabidiol (aka CBD) might provide modest relief from glaucoma, but nobody is currently studying it. There are much more effective medications for it.

Glaucoma: Symptoms, Causes, Types & Treatment

More than likely, they concluded that any cognitive problems are psychological and not due to any detectable physical condition.

Is this the first time you've been tested for cognitive impairment? You need to have an earlier test for them to compare it with. Otherwise, as long as your cognition hasn't dipped below average, they can only conclude you are fine. Also, the tests don't measure small drops in cognition. They have to be fairly large to show up.

When they tested me, the questions asked were so simple I'd have to lose 60 points of IQ to get them wrong. Most of my issues are "standard" for getting old. Long-term memory is okay, and reasoning ability is okay, but if I get up from the sofa for a glass of water, by the time I get to the kitchen, I've forgotten what I got up for. They might refer me to a therapist to help me adjust to the short-term memory issue, but there's nothing they can do about it.

 

[Kayla55]

If doctors don't know what's wrong then can try advice in this thread

Thread 'Migraines'

Jul 1, 2024

Do you have any tips about migraines? It seems like mine are getting worse and I'm looking for better ways to cope. Mine are migraines with aura (additional neurological symptoms). What I've been doing so far:
- medication: ibuprofen + strong coffee or solpadeine (paracetamol + codeine +caffeine) when there is aura and the attack isn't full blown yet, triptanes are something counterindicated for me
- avoid trigger foods such as cheese, cured meats, nuts
- stay hydrated, get enough sleep, eat regular meals - all of those factors seem to act as triggers for me
- stress and weather aren't...

• vergil96
• Replies: 45
• Forum: PDD-NOS, Social Anxiety and Others

• 

 

[Dillon]

Follow up with the neurologist. They are going to have a more critical eye. The radiologist is looking for obvious things. Have the neurologist examine the CT, perhaps with a follow-up MRI, and have them examine and interpret the images. Seriously. Your primary care doctor, eye doctor, and ER doctor have just begun their assessment. Asymmetrical headaches, loss of vision, hypertension, speech and communication issues that are relatively recent. None of that should be ignored or "disregarded" as "normal", when it clearly is a change from your perspective. It is not your baseline. It is not your normal.

Here is a little bit of information for you regarding radiologists. They are not specialists, per se. In my world of neonatal medicine, the neonatologists, neonatal nurse practitioners, and neonatal respiratory therapists are quite often more skilled at reading neonatal images than the radiologists who write reports and post them in patient charts. In fact, we literally do not read their reports, because, frankly, they are so generalized and basic, they are pretty much useless to us. We can see, with much greater detail and describe all the subtle nuances of our images. We know, literally from looking at an image, the current gestation, by the maturity and development of the tissues. So it is with a neurologist. They are going to be looking at things with a much higher resolution than a radiologist.

I would think a MRI scan would be better anyway since it uses a magnetic field to take images.
I had a CT scan done a while back because I was having abdominal problems and was told by the ER doctor that they couldn’t find anything. Few weeks later I undergone a colonoscopy and surgeon found a small benign adenoma tumor in my colon that was removed.
So yeah a CT scan isn’t going to get everything.

 

[Dillon]

I can add on top of all of this which is I have a small lump/lymph node in my neck near my collar bone that hasn’t not gone down since the end of June (it’s halfway through August).
It actually doesn’t hurt but feels hard. Could this be from an infection or is that not normal for a lymph node to swell for several weeks to months?

 

[Neonatal RRT]

I can add on top of all of this which is I have a small lump/lymph node in my neck near my collar bone that hasn’t not gone down since the end of June (it’s halfway through August).
It actually doesn’t hurt but feels hard. Could this be from an infection or is that not normal for a lymph node to swell for several weeks to months?

Get it checked out. Infections certainly can swell lymph nodes, but generally, most people are feeling quite ill if/when this happens. A course of antibiotics and it goes away.

I dare say, this seems a bit different from your description. I wouldn't waste any time.

 

[Dillon]

Get it checked out. Infections certainly can swell lymph nodes, but generally, most people are feeling quite ill if/when this happens. A course of antibiotics and it goes away.

I dare say, this seems a bit different from your description. I wouldn't waste any time.

I am getting that area on my neck checked out on Monday of this week when I see the doctor next. I have been on 2 different antibiotics throughout this time frame and that spot has not gone down one bit. Normally I’ll have a lymph node that will only stay for a week of two but this is a bit concerning.

 

[Dillon]

Get it checked out. Infections certainly can swell lymph nodes, but generally, most people are feeling quite ill if/when this happens. A course of antibiotics and it goes away.

I dare say, this seems a bit different from your description. I wouldn't waste any time.

So I did go to the an urgent care clinic this morning to get the lump on my neck looked at and it’s not a lymph node and a mass/growth on my thyroid gland.
I couldn’t get any blood work or scans done as the clinic was limited in what they could do but now I know what it is.
I go see my primary doctor this week where a full thyroid panel will more than likely be performed.

 

[Rodafina]

Wishing you good health and a quick resolution to this, @Dillon.