Friday, July 22, 2011

Origins - Part Three (or "I'm Sorry For All of the Big Words!")

Now that my summer class is over (still waiting on my grade though ::grumblegrumble::), perhaps I can update with a little more regularity (providing I don't stab myself in the eye again).  And thus I bring you, part three of my epic adventures to find a diagnosis:

After our adventures with Dr. A, my mom decided she was done screwing around and called Johns Hopkins.  So in August of 2007, I met my new neurologist, Dr. M.  After discussing my symptoms, he took a look at the MRI images we had brought (which had been previously ordered by Dr.A).  He said he wanted to send me for extra tests because he thought he saw something on the MRI, but it was hard to tell.  And off I went to have a cine flow study (I'm pretty sure I was claustrophobic by time it was over).  Back we went to see Dr. M and the new study confirmed his suspicions.  I was officially diagnosed with Chiari Malformation.

Well, kind of.  See, Chiari Malformation is identified by a number, which is assigned by the degree in which your cerebellum has descended into the foramen magnum and by other complications you may have (this is a very simplified explanation - for more information, please visit the American Syringomyelia & Chiari Alliance Project [ASAP] and/or the National Institue of Neurological Disorders and Stroke [NINDS] websites).  The types range from I to IV (please note that Type III causes severe neurological defects and Type IV is incredibly rare and does not have a long life expectancy). The type I was diagnosed with, however, was Type 0.  Type 0 is still being debated by neurologists/scientists/people-who-decide-these-things on whether it should be considered a real classification or not.  With Type 0, the cerebellum has descended, but not far enough to warrant a classification as Type I.  However, the cerebellum still causes a blockage of spinal fluid flow, which results in the typical symptoms associated with Chiari Malformation.  In my particular case, the cerebellum had moved more outward instead of downward, so it was causing a decent blockage of spinal fluid flow, but was not descending into my spinal column.

Wow, that was a lot of technical information.  I'm going to try to avoid that as much as possible in the future, I promise.

Anyway.  New diagnosis: Chiari Malformation Type 0 (borderline Type I).  Due to my symptoms and the results of the cine study, I was referred to a neurosurgeon (Dr. H) and scheduled for neurosurgery in December.  As in, four months later.

I remember very, very little concerning the surgery, so next post will skip right on ahead to the post-surgery story I promised (in case you forgot: "in which I scare the hell out of a doctor and prove myself to be more politically savvy than I realized") so it should be much more amusing than this post.  And to make up for my lack of posting, it'll be going up as soon as I finish this post!  You're welcome.

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