MRI of My Brain…

…yeah when you say it like that it really sounds odd.

After having a horrible migraine for about two weeks, plus having neck pain to the point of being unable to move my head, I finally made an appointment with my doctor. I actually called to get my sleep medicine refilled since I haven’t been able to sleep here lately. Usually I get in bed around midnight yet I lay there struggling to go to sleep until about 5 or 6 in the morning. Needless to say, I’m one exhausted mommy. Anyways, called for the refill but since it had been so long since he had seen me for that problem they needed me to come in before I could get a prescription. *sigh* okay.

I decided since I was going to pay for an appointment anyways, I was going to talk to him about the migraines. He had put me on Topamax back in January but it really hadn’t done much good. I figured I would mention the headaches, mention the neck pain, he would prescribe something new and I would start feeling better.

Yeah… I was wrong.

I headed to my appointment with Abby and my bestie in tow, he went along for the ride to help me with Abby since hubby couldn’t get away from work and I didn’t feel comfortable making the drive. My bestie is a nurse and I talked to him about what all had been going. How long I’ve been in pain, how at times I feel severely ill/sick, how I’m not sleeping well, how I felt like I was going to faint at time, even how I’ve dealing with leg cramps/spasms. He immediately mentioned Arnold-Chiari and was pretty sure that’s what I was dealing with. Unfortunately, if that is it, the only way to fix it is surgery. I wasn’t thrilled and hoped my doctor would say that it was my typical migraines, no more.

My appointment was pretty short and to the point… I mentioned the migraines and he asked if they felt like my usual migraines. I have dealt with migraines since I was really young and was thrilled when they seemed to go away while pregnant and have stayed away until now. I told him that at times, yes they were the same, but other times they were definitely different and much more severe. I described everything else going on, just how the migraines felt at times, the neck pain, everything. He didn’t say much but when he did, it wasn’t anything I wanted to hear.

Instead of telling me we would try a different medicine, he said he wanted an MRI done. He wanted to take a look, make sure there wasn’t a tumor or anything. Okay, seriously?! Not what I wanted to hear. I mentioned what my friend had told me and my doctor agreed that Arnold-Chiari might be the problem as well and that we would have answers with the MRI.

I thought going to the doctor would help me feel better, I ended up leaving feeling even worse because this news did nothing but upset me, worry me, and make my head hurt worse. I just went through dealing with a tumor in January, I’m not ready for this stress again. This time being my head, my neck, my brain! Surgery terrifies me, especially on my head/neck. Needless to say, the sleepless nights have continued (but I did get my sleep medicine refilled!).

I’ve known for almost two weeks about scheduling the MRI, I’m talked about it to family and friends. But it never sounded all that terrible, just an MRI. Today when the nurse called me she said “okay, we have you scheduled for an MRI of your brain…” and I just sat here shocked for a few minutes. It sounds so serious, so terrible, when put like that.

My MRI is now scheduled for July 3rd, I’ll hopefully have answers soon.

This is why I don’t seem to be around as much as always, why my posts come in little spurts and then have a few days of silence. Working at the computer is often difficult and my laptop has died. I have good days and then I have dreadful days like today where my head hurt so severely I could barely tolerate it. I’m still here, I’m just resting in between my posts 🙂

If you pray, please say an extra little prayer for me that all is okay and it’s just a migraine that has gotten out of control. No tumor, no serious condition, nothing major… I’ll update once I have the results.