D-day.... appointment....oops appointments!

January 20, 2013 by helenhamill | 4 Comments

Have a really early start tomorrow.

Have managed to be very cost efficient and arrange to see 2 of my specialists.

Neurologist at 9 in Belfast.

Cardiologist at 11.30 in Daisy Hill.

Am happy to have sorted both….the cardiac one is probably the easier one, as i have already been with this specialist. He has done many tests and a surgical procedure for me. I have an irregular heart beat….an electrical flaw! I was supposed to have gone back to him for a repeat of the heart ablation he did, when i suffered a haematoma – a complication to his last test….so being the coward then i deferred!

But i deferred  too long and then my hubbys health became a situation of great flux. So have been told by GP that i need to go back. And to be honest i know that i do!

• cant walk up a few stairs without becoming very breathless
• cant dance – at all! heart flies for hours.
• had recent ECG done – unrelated to weakness above, and showed all sorts of new “long complexes”…the terminology i have no idea about.
• but i have fitness of an 80 yr old! and it is very debilitating.
• Also due to lack of fitness have gained weight – big amount since the last time i met him – and am not eating any more…am just sedentary. disabled beyond belief.

the neurology appointment , i am less sure of. I have never met this man  nor have i ever met a neurologist! This referral is from the neurosurgeon, who met me when an MRI for severe repetitive migraines/headaches showed a cyst type tumour inside the brain cavity. I went up planning dates that would suit me to have that removed. That wasn’t how it went.

He said he considered it wasn’t causing my symptoms  and was NOT keen to remove surgically. Then he discovered on the scan the chiari malformation . he then referred me to a neurologist, to see if there were an underlying neurological condition  – or how he could explain some of my symptoms.

Am dreading it because, GPs in some ways confuse health. They dont see the body as an integral system – they separate it into different areas and specialisms, treating one at a time. So i find that even in the diary i have kept, since the neurosurgeon until now, has done exactly that. I have separated, and mentioned the conditions and symptoms which to me seem to be potentially linked to the chiari malformation .

• headaches
• neck aches
• tingling
• vivid dreams
• numbness
• lightheadedness
• legs and hands pins and needles,
• slurred speech
• hyper-somnolence

i have already – as an unqualified GP- done the same thing, i have discounted any lower back pains, heart issues,long term pain and associated treatment, breathlessness,depression…as unrelated.

And NOW am afraid that i will miss do the appointment, that i won’t do justice to the appointment- now that i have it.

if i go in with a cocky little blog list, and a concept that i KNOW what his remit is, then i am leading the appointment in one direction.

What do i expect, and PLEASE what do i need ask!??

Hx

a

About these ads