I had my first appointment with my new neurologist this afternoon.
#1, I really liked her. The receptionist, on the other hand, has the personality of a piece of cardboard!! Thankfully, she wasn’t who I was meeting with. She frightened me!
The Dr. usually goes over your X-rays with you and usually gets films, but because I received mine all on CD, she had to bring in her laptop and we huddled together to look through all the images from Oct., Nov and the angiogram just done a week or so ago. Again, as it was in November, I’m amazed at how big the annie was. 1.2 cm she said, which freaked me out because they told me it was 11 mm…she said that IS 11mm. I’m confused! LOL Why can’t they just say it in inches or less?!?
She was pleased with how things looked as well and answered a lot of questions for me that Dr. Kwan didn’t want answer, so I feel much better.
Just because we’ve all had migraines, doesn’t mean you’ll get, or have an aneurysm. She said there is no relationship. She said many, many people get migraines and do not have annies and vice versa. She said smoking & hereditary is the biggest risk for getting an aneurysm. Although she said there is no conclusive evidence on 2nd-hand smoke, she was glad to hear I wasn’t a smoker and have never been as that would continue to be the biggest risk for my getting another annie. Not that getting another one is completely ruled out.
She said there were no issue with taking long hot baths or getting a message. So I’m fine with the tub and she also said there should be no issue with continuing my OMT therapy on my neck with the regular Dr. Good! I need it!
I asked her what the biggest risk to my existing aneurysm was. She said the main thing I SHOULDN’T do was become a weight lifter and lift very heavy things. Like moving that 100lb table by myself! I said there was no chance of my doing either and that I’d take it easy when it comes to lifting or moving heavy things. Sorry Dave! 🙂
Dr. Yanoschak also said I was at no risk for developing any eye degradation due to the annie (other than normal issue that are computer and age related) and that I wasn’t at any greater risk for having a stroke than anyone else. High blood pressure can still be an issue, but I haven’t ever had an issue with that.
I asked her about rides at Disney. Not that we have any trips planned there, but just in case! She said anything that jerks my head too badly and has horrible drops in atmosphere (no Tower Of Terror Dave!) should be off limits. Thunder Mountain Railroad should be fine. She’s been there and remembered a lot of the rides. No big roller-coasters with extreme drops. Oh, darn!
One thing I’m “happy” about is that she’s a migraine sufferer herself, so she understands migraines and their effects. I asked her what I’m calling my pseudo migraines as well as my sinus pain. I told her every-time the weather changes dramatically, my head, skull and neck just kills me. She said it’s a migraine because she gets them at those times as well!! I always thought it was sinus but it makes more sense now. I was never stuffed up with congestion and no runny nose or anything. She said they’re migraines! I said they weren’t what I would normally call a migraine and she said you can get different kinds even if you’ve suffered with the biggies for years. She asked me what I took when I had this “sinus” pain. I said “sinus pills”. She asked if they helped…I said “NO!”. So the next time I”ll take something else. She recommended “Alieve” for those headaches if I didn’t want to do the Excedrin Migraine pills for those. I’ll give those a try next time and see. I’m curious now and think she might be on to something there.
She also told me that the other higher octane migraine meds currently out there can be blood thinning agents and wouldn’t recommend them for me with my annie. She said the Excedrin would be fine even though the aspirin in it makes my heart race.
I’m glad I have someone nearby to go to should I need some questions answered or if I have some issues. She’s not out of Scarborough, but simply leases the building from Dr. D’Angelo’s outfit. It’s very nice and the drive back there on First Park Drive is very nice. She used to work in Philly and go burned out on the big city. She’s about my age I think and very nice. Now if I could just get her another receptionist!
I told her about the odd numbness in my hand that pops in occasionally. She wants me to try and record what I was doing when it happens again. When she was testing my reflexes and hit my elbow on that right arm with the hammer, my right hand tingled big time. It might be a little bit of carpal tunnel, so we’ll see. She wants to see me in six months…October.
So, overall, a good appointment. She said she deals mainly with aneurysms and migraines. She answered a lot of questions and the sinus/migraine issue is fascinating! I’ll be curious to see if Aleve does just that…Aleve!
Heidi's Brain Blog 