Thread Drift

[maillotpois]

Wow Knotted - that's a bit scary. Definitely go for the second opinion.

I have to say your attitude seems to be terrific.

[KnottedYet]

Oh, yeah, and twice I've had a doc tell me the issue I was complaining about was simply stress.

#1 turned out to be a torn alar ligament in my neck.

#2 turned out to be malignant melanoma.

So I have a bit of hesitation surrounding accepting the diagnosis of "not breathing deeply enough due to stress".

[maillotpois]

Yeah, you're not breathing deeply, so you have symptoms that seem to match up with brain lesions that aren't causing those symptoms?

What-ever.

Get a second opinion.

[snapdragen]

Needless to say, I'm going for a second opinion.

Um....good idea!

[Quillfred]

Knottedyet,

That sucks! I hate to be talked down to. Why can't they just be honest and say "I don't know what's causing your symptoms?"

I hope you have some recommended physicians in your health plan.

Quillfred

[KnottedYet]

My resting heart rate in the neuro's office (surely a stressful situation?) was 72 bpm.

That doesn't sound like the heart rate of a stress-case.

I'm getting a little p.o.'ed. Working myself into a frenzy. Aaaaak, I can feel my breathing... it's getting... shallower..... no, deeper..... no, it's stopped.... I'm the next David Blaine!

(I'm such a snot. Health care workers are the worst patients!)

[Trek420]

Knotted, every Spring alergies? Yep, breathing's a good thing but see a second...third....Doctor.

[KnottedYet]

I asked about allergies and got poo-pooed. (as far as I know I have none). Kinda makes sense to me, too. I mean, if I don't have MS (which kicks in in the spring for a lot of folks) SOMETHING is irritating my CNS and/or the lesions in the spring.

If this is something I just have to live with 6-8 weeks a year, fine. But if it's something I can mitigate to some extent, I'd certainly like to know.

Still mighty happy it's not MS or cancer.

-Kaja, breathing deeeeeeeply

[Trek420]

Alergies can be awful. We have a family friend who leaves Sonoma county each year and visits family in Japan while something blooms that would make life horrid for her. Then she comes right back. Not sure if she even knows what it is she just goes.

[DrBee]

I'm glad to hear you've had it confirmed that it's not cancer or MS. I'd definitely get a second and third opinion on the breathing part. That just sounds absurd. It sounds awfully seasonal to me (and apparently everyone else). I wonder why the doctors won't even consider that as an option. Odd.

[Lise]

My resting heart rate in the neuro's office (surely a stressful situation?) was 72 bpm.

That doesn't sound like the heart rate of a stress-case.

I'm getting a little p.o.'ed. Working myself into a frenzy. Aaaaak, I can feel my breathing... it's getting... shallower..... no, deeper..... no, it's stopped.... I'm the next David Blaine!

(I'm such a snot. Health care workers are the worst patients!)

It's true. We are tough patients. Have to back down, switch gears, and be a pro-active patient. I *know*, as a health care provider, how hard it is to say, "We don't know what is causing your symptoms". But "you have two lesions on your brain...relax" doesn't make sense to me, either. Keep at it. We'll be here, waiting to hear what docs #2 and 3 have to say! L.

[Nanci]

My daughter stressed me out enough during her teenage years to give me brain damage!!!

I met a doc at the coffee pot yesterday, drinking decaf, who has the exact visual disturbances I get, who called it caffeine-induced non-cephalgia! (Like a migraine aura, kind of, but never get the headache). It was so weird, he described what happens to me to a T, even the length of time the whole episode takes. I thought it was related to my hole in my heart, and I was having mini-strokes or something!! It's just my friend caffeine!!

I am watching the new eagle nest. At first I was disconnected from the babies, but I really got attached to them yesterday. The best part is watching the sun come up, and mom finally get up off them, and seeing these huge babies she was sitting on!

Buttercup walked around the yard and grazed yesterday, with her head out!

[Nanci]

I had headaches _every_ day of my life, since teenage years, and when I moved to Florida, I started getting VERY sick, coughing, congested, etc. I was prescribed Zyrtec allergy medication, which I take year-round, and now I don't get headaches any more, ever. Who would have guessed...

[DrBee]

I met a doc at the coffee pot yesterday, drinking decaf, who has the exact visual disturbances I get, who called it caffeine-induced non-cephalgia! (Like a migraine aura, kind of, but never get the headache). It was so weird, he described what happens to me to a T, even the length of time the whole episode takes. I thought it was related to my hole in my heart, and I was having mini-strokes or something!! It's just my friend caffeine!!

If I drink caffeine, my peripheral vision gets wacky and kind of wiggles. My heart also gets fluttery. I stay completely away from caffeine now and I'm fine. Is this similar to what you get? I've never had a migraine, so I don't know what the aura is like.

[salsabike]

Go girl on the doctor front. Some of them revert quickly to saying it's stress when what they mean is, "Um...I don't know." And sometimes their test results aren't exactly right either, so those lesions might or might not be real lesions, also. I've had some experience with that kind of thing. You have a ton of support on this forum.

Hope to see you around the trails---how will I know it's you? I am riding an bleached celeste '06 Bianchi Eros Donna (or a bright blue Burley tandem), and usually have a soccer jersey on (yellow or red).