Health Update January 2025

Hello Friends, Fans, and Family;

It’s been an interesting couple of years for my health. I last talked about it in July 2024.

In short, I’ve been dealing with:

  • Pain in both my forearms
  • Dizzyness
  • Fatigue
  • Brain Fog
  • Tingling in my hands and feet
  • Numb and tingling on my left cheek
  • Blurry vision in my left eye
  • Pain in the joints of my hands and feet

Arms and Spine

I am doing exercises and stretches to help avoid pain. It still there in my arms but it’s manageable. I sometimes get pain in my neck that radiates down, but I double up my exercises and it usually goes away within a week.

Migraines

This is the big one. I’m currently taking Amitriptyline to try and prevent the migraines. So far I’ve been on it for two months with an escalating dose, and it hasn’t done much beyond make me sleepy and have terrible dry mouth. If this doesn’t work, there are other drug options.

I am starting to identify my triggers better. I know the following will trigger me:

  • Big change in caffeine consumption (If I have no coffee or if I have 4+ cups)
  • Alcohol (I noticed it with red wine and with cream liqueurs but I’m just cutting it all out.)
  • Changes in eating routine (If I don’t eat every 2-3 hours I start to feel faint and it can trigger)
  • Changes in sleep patterns. (Especially if the change is often)
  • Fluorescent lights
  • Strong smells (Mostly anything floral or going close to a soap store in the mall. Although someone had a poutine at work and the smell lasted all day. I loved the smell but ouch)
  • Changes of 10+ degrees in the weather and rainstorms. (I have no control over this one.)

Stress doesn’t seem to make the migraine worse but it does make the side effects worse. I had a really stressful day in December and for the next two weeks the muscles in my hips hurt like they were on fire. It’s caused by the migraine, the brain, and the two causing muscles to tense too far (probably what happened to my arms.)

I see my doctor on Wednesday and we’ll see what happens. I think this is a long haul.

Allergies

I have restarted my allergy shots and one week hasn’t cured me yet. I’ll be taking them weekly for 22 weeks. My allergist’s office prefers that I do the shots elsewhere so I’m thinking of going to an Appletree near my house on my lunch break.

Neurodiversity

As I mentioned in Friday’s post, I am Autistic and have ADHD. This explains a lot about how I burn out and how drained I feel in certain situations. It, with the migraines, explains a lot of why I feel like crap at certain times.

I’m not sure how this interacts with my other health issues but I’m sure that they interact and make things more complicated.

Sleep apnea and asthma

I have taken an asthma test and I am scheduled for a sleep test this summer. Hopefully these will be eliminated as concerns.


In Conclusion

Despite everything on this list, I feel better than I have in years. With my doctor’s help and hopefully finding the right thing to help with my migraines I should be even better by next year.

Stay safe and be kind,

Éric

Health Update July 2024

Hello Friends, Family, and Fans;

The slow wheel of healthcare has finally come around. Here’s my last update from April. If you don’t want to read all that, I have had issues the past 2 years with:

  • Pain in both my forearms
  • Dizzyness
  • Fatigue
  • Brain Fog
  • Tingling in my hands and feet
  • Numb and tingling on my left cheek
  • Blurry vision in my left eye
  • Pain in the joints of my hands and feet

The Road So Far

I’ve seen 3 family doctors, 2 neurologists, 1 elbow surgeon, 3 physios, 1 neuro-ophthalmologist, and a neurologist who specializes in MS; and I’ve been poked, prodded, and shoved in metal tubes a lot.

Here’s a list of things that have been eliminated as possibilities for what’s wrong with me:

  • MS and other degenerative neurological disorders (this is a ‘we don’t see signs but if there are changes, come see us’)
  • Tennis elbow
  • Spinal injury
  • Brain tumour

Last year, I did intensive physio with the clinic associated with WSIB. It was a three-pronged rehab, physio, and therapy. Each helped a little but had their limits. The clinic’s goal was only to get me back to work and not to find the root cause of my problems.

It was effective at lowering my pain levels by 20 to 30 percent. It’s gotten a little worse since but I’m still better a year later than I was when I started. My pain is constant but manageable, both because I’m used to it and because of the physio. It still makes everything harder however. That doctor did say I have mild carpal-tunnel and should keep an eye on it.

What’s Wrong with Me

The most recent round of doctors have cleared me of those scary ones mentioned above, and the nice MS doctor has diagnosed me with Complex Migraines (also called Atypical Migraines) and Foraminal Stenosis in the C5-6 disks.

Foraminal Stenosis means that the nerves outside my spine are being pinched. The recommendation is physio to help with back strength and posture. If that doesn’t work, I’ll be referred to a surgeon.

As for the main culprit, they think its Complex Migraines. The quick explanation of this is that I’m having non-pain migraine symptoms regularly. So the blurry vision is like halos, and the rest are typical migraine issues, but my body doesn’t always include more then a feeling of pressure in my left temple.

For the migraines, the doctor recommends:

  • Discovering my triggers
  • Avoiding alcohol, drugs, and tobacco (Not going to be hard since I barely drink and don’t do either of the others)
  • Drinking at least 2 litres of liquid a day
  • A vitamine combo of 400mg each of Magnesium, Co-Enzyme Q10, and vitamin B2 (riboflavin)
  • Regular sleep habits (Go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time all week)
  • Consuming the same amount of caffeine each day
  • Eating regularly (same time every day)

If that doesn’t work after 3 months, I should talk to my doctor about pain killers or going to a pain clinic.

In the meantime, he recommends I get tested for sleep apnea, get a colonoscopy, and as mentioned above, see a physio.

That means I have a plan for moving forward and a tentative diagnoses. Let’s hope the above can fix me.

I still find it amazing that all this pain in my arms and hands could be caused by migraines, but that’s what we have.

Thanks for reading,

Éric

Health Update April 2023

Hello Friends, family, and fans;

As I mentioned in March, I did the nerve conduction test with a very condescending neurologist.

Yesterday I had an appointment at the speciality clinic. My very nice occupational therapist (OT) went through a bunch of questions and asked me about a bunch of things. She then did some physical tests and went off to talk to the doctor.

I told her I was worried about the vision problems and the numbness in my face and my worries about MS. She said she’d talk to the doctor. She also said that that was normally something a family doctor dealt with and not them. They are concentrating on the neurologist’s conclusion that it’s muscular.

The doctor came in and asked me more questions and then asked, “What is bothering you more.” I told him it was the pain that bothered me more, but the face that scared me more. His reply was, “Okay then. Let’s focus on the pain.”

So the plan now is to have me see a doctor that specializes in pain and put me with a group consisting of a physiotherapist, a therapist, and my OT. They’ll run special rehab and physio for me two or three times a week. I’m kinda happy about that, since it’ll save us some money on physio that is only covered 80% usually.

I’ll be honest, I’m a little underwhelmed. It’s been 10 months of this and I haven’t had an x-ray or any other tests on the part of my arms that hurt. I’ve had one type of test, no imaging, and this feels very flimsy as a diagnosis. (Is it wrong that I want something definitive?)

The clinic people are really nice and I think they have my best interests at heart, but I feel like they’re focussed on getting me back to work and not really figuring out what’s wrong with me.

I asked again about MS and the OT said that if there had been any signs, the neurologist would have noticed and that the doctor is trusting that. It’s not very comforting, but I’ll have to trust them for now.

I doubt the balance issues, clumsiness, brain fog, trouble sleeping, numbness in my face, and vision issues are due to muscular issues in my arms. I’ll do what they say (I don’t have much choice) and hope it helps, but I’m not convinced. If this doesn’t help, I’ll have to try and see if my family doctor is willing to run a parallel investigation (if he hasn’t fully retired by then).

It’s been a hard week. Glad it’s over and now I can enjoy spending time with my family over the long weekend.

Stay safe and be kind,

Éric

Health Update January 2023

Hello Friends, Familly, Readers,

I’ve finally been approved for the WSIB Specialty Clinic.

What that means is that I’ll be hearing from their nurse practitioner in the next week or so and should have an appointment by the end of February. At the appointment they’ll, hopefully, run a lot of tests and figure out what’s wrong or send me to a neurologist.

I’ve also leveled up to a Long Term Case Manager, since my injury is now over 6 months. Let’s hope they’re faster and more organized.

Overall, I’m hopeful.

Be kind and stay safe,

Éric