spine

Health Update January 2025

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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

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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 2024

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Hello Friends, Family, and Fans;

I haven’t written an update since January because I’m still waiting on some results. However, there are some things I can tell you.

How’s my body doing

Heart

I wore a heart monitor for three days and despite what the RSV did while I was sick, my heart is back to normal. My heart rate is still a little high but within normal ranges.

Arms

My arms still hurt, pretty much all the time, but it’s manageable with exercise and stretching. I’ve only needed to put muscle cream on my arms once this year.

Face and left eye

Still numb and still having vision issues. It gets worse if I spend a lot of time concentrating or sitting in a computer chair.

Tests

MRI

I did an MRI of my head, neck, and back. I have an appointment with the neuro-etymologist in June. He might talk to me about it or I might have to wait for the MS doctor in July.

I saw the results but it’s in Medical-jargon and I’m not sure. It seems that there’s a UBO (Unidentified bright object) behind my left eye but according to the internet that could be a bug in the test.

It also say that I have no sign of, “demyelinating disease”.

Lastly it says that I have, “Multilevel degenerative changes within the cervical spine causing various degrees of spinal canal foraminal stenosis, worse at the c5-c6.” Which the internet tells me is a “narrowing that happens in certain places around the nerves that come out of your spinal cord”.

But again, this is my quick googling and not anything official from a doctor.

Vision Tests

I have a few repeat tests for eyes in June and a few to test for MS (unscheduled – doctor wanted to see MRI first).

Allergies

I have bad allergies. In 2007 I woke up feeling super weak and forced myself out of bed. The exertion burst the veins in my eyes. I got an appointment with an allergist and was tested and put on shots. They really helped.

After 5 years, I was told that they wouldn’t help me more and that if my symptoms worsened after 5 years to come see the allergist again.

In 2019, my allergies got really bad and I started getting what I call Allergy Attacks. My bowels cramp, and I get weak, and it takes about a week to recover. I didn’t realize it was allergies that caused it until last year.

I really felt it in 2020 but pushed it off.

I finally broke two weeks ago and contacted my allergist. Unfortunately after 10 years you need a new referral.

Long story short, I have an appointment with my family doctor on Wednesday to talk about allergies.

Colds

Last, and certainly most frustrating, are head colds. I’ve now had 4 since January and I’m pretty tired of blowing my nose and coughing.

I feel better today then I have in a while but I’m still sniffling and coughing. The whole thing is made worse combined with allergies. (And no, going outside and eating dirt will not help strengthen my immune system.)

Conclusion

I’m doing okay and I have leads to what might be wrong with me. Hopefully the doctors can narrow it down and I can start treating whatever it is to make sure it doesn’t get worse.

Stay safe and be kind,

Éric