When last we left Meryl’s Adventures in Neurology, she was in the hospital, undergoing zillions of tests on her brain and heart and carotid arteries, only to discover—nothing out of the ordinary. The numbness went away, and that was the end of that, except for taking Lipitor, for which she will always hate the doctor who prescribed it. If ever you want a medication that will completely destroy your digestive system in every possible manner, then by all means, take Lipitor.
In the intervening weeks, there were no return symptoms until—last week, when our intrepid heroine, working diligently at Large Company In Richmond, had to stand on her feet for much of the day cataloging the department’s library. And the numbness returned, only in a different place—Intrepid Heroine’s legs—and ignoring it didn’t make it go away. In fact, by this weekend, when Intrepid Heroine went to rock-climbing gym to reward the last of her former year’s students with an hour or so of climbing indoor rock walls, her legs were worse than they had been, and got worse as the day wore on, to the point where, first thing Monday morning, Intrepid Heroine called the neurologist for the follow-up she should have had some weeks ago.
Today was the exam, and the upshot is: Take another bunch of blood to be analyzed, but there are three possibilities. 1) Pinched nerve (there’s a fancy neurology term for it that I refuse to Google; pinched nerve was good enough for my parents, it’s good enough for me, dammit!). 2) Underactive thyroid. This is a possibility, which will be discovered by the bloodwork. 3) Plaque in the arteries. This too, will be discovered by the bloodwork.
However, judging from the fact that I have put on a few more pounds this year and am larger than I have ever been in my life, and the fact that the numbness disappears completely when I sleep and only returns when I am standing a lot or sitting in bad positions, I’m leaning (as is my neurologist) towards the pinched nerve. Which, he says, may well have gotten irritated due to the weight gain. Which also means that a simple diet and exercise program will suffice.
You know, I’ve been looking for a reason to really, really diet and exercise. I have failed in my many attempts these last six months. But this? It really sucks, this numbness in my leg, and if losing the weight I put on this year is the key, then damn, I think I can do that.
Of course, if all the above things turn out to be wrong, it’s time for another MRI of various spinal areas. But that can wait until we see if these things work. Anyway, I can still use that old joke that they took a picture of my brain and didn’t find anything.
Ba dum bum.
I wish you good luck with your test results. I know waiting for the answer on this sort of thing really cranks up the stress level.
when they take pictures of your brain do you get double prints? or maybe a CD copy?
Good luck, double prints or not.
I’m not a doctor, but there are lots of statins. Liptor is only one of them. Each has a different side effect profile.
BTW, from the Richmond pix you pointed to in a previous post, you were on the skinny side. Good luck on losing your five.
chsw
c’mon, every woman frets over five.
“BTW, from the Richmond pix you pointed to in a previous post, you were on the skinny side. ”
Like this one?
http://www.yourish.com/archives/2002/nov17-23_2002.html#2002112201
Or… this one?
http://www.yourish.com/archives/2003/nov2-8_2003.html#2003110201
Yep… she looks skinny to me too…
Prayers from here for a speedy recovery.
Good luck to you, and a speedy recovery.
I have a friend who had numbness like that, and it turned out to be MS. I hope you’re luckier.
They already checked me for MS when I was in the hospital. I don’t have it, thankfully.
Cond0010, I wish I could say it was five pounds. It’s more like 25. Those are old pictures. I am one of those Americans who has joined the fattening trend.
Tommy: I didn’t ask for the duplicates. Damn, didn’t know you could.
‘It’s more like 25.’
Well, 25 lbs does not seem like much. If you were short and/or slight, it might be a problem. Also, if you your weight would pool in pockets instead of distributing rather evenly.
But then you would know better than anyone – if not be a little too critical.
I’m ~100 lbs over my fighting trim (waaaay back when I used to run 8 miles a day, swim 2.5 miles a day and do jujitsu on the weekends) yet I look more like a linebacker than a couch potato.
Frankly, I think weight is a lesser variable considering other ‘blemishes’:
http://sigcarlfred.blogspot.com/2006/09/saturday-night-date-fiasco.html
glad to hear it’s not MS. good luck to you.
I went through something similar a year ago and it turned out to be the weight. I dropped 35 lbs on the Perricone diet and my symptoms went away. The good news is that even though I stopped following the diet religiously (I got tired of taking all the supplements, for one thing), the weight has stayed off. I’m gearing up for one more round, however.
Since you want to lose the weight anyway, give that a shot and see what happens. There’s simply no downside to giving it a try.
By the way, in my case plaque/cholesterol wasn’t even a possible factor, which is why I tend to discount it as a cause of symptoms in yours.
Best of luck with whipping this problem.
HT, y’know, if I followed the Perricone diet it would totally lose the 25 pounds.
But then I’d have to take a few months to recover from the diet.
I’m allergic to fish.
Got a huge laugh out of my friend Sarah when I told her the main ingredient of the diet, though.
I think I’ll try my usual: Cut out nearly all junk food, oven-roasted potatoes instead of fries, and grilled chicken. Salads for lunch. Smaller portions. That’s always worked before.
I think Perricone likes the salmon because of the fish oil, which you can get from capsules (and I do). The apples you’re just going to have to deal with. But the low carb thing, which is a very low-key part of his plan, I think yields the best results. We used to have rice or potatoes with most meals; now we skip it.
BTW, low-fat doesn’t really seem to have much to do with it. We still use butter, cream cheese, and other “forbidden” substances with great enthusiasm. Ask about our chicken casserole with mushrooms and mozzarella cheese, for instance…