6 lesions......

[Jena]

so yes my beautiful mri is done, and difficult child has left for her dad's and it's quiet here which is beautiful. yet had to share i have 6 lesions on my brain.

so, i'm guessing this will def. be enough for him to start medicating me.........

ya know it's one thing to know it a whole other to see it! they came thru without even the contrast.

will discuss with neuro if i have to have the other tests over next two weeks or not. i'm praying he doesn't send me for the cervical mri.

i did it today, i was kinda proud of myself i didn't move an inch! yet i felt like anthony hopkins in that movie when he eats ppls' faces and has a bar over his face. they placed a bar over my face and slid me into the machine.

she said do you want a blindfold?? lol umm no..... she said may make it easier....... really? i dont' think so. why dont' we just bound and gag me??

anyway that's that, it was confirmed last week. and Star i have my brain picks in a lovely cd case that has pretty pics of flowers and trees on it! no 8X10 glossy though

 

[Mattsmom277]

Sorry to hear about the lesions, yet I know it is helpful to get you on the right medications and a firm diagnosis. Which really is the key to good treatment and slowing or halting progression. So it's a bad thing, yet at this point a good thing, if that makes sense. I would think the neuro may still want the cervical MRI if only for comparison down the line over time, a base line type thing. Fairly typical way of getting a chart going and can be more helpful down the line (probably moreso than at the moment). I'm very impressed how you were able to get into that clinic so quick and get such speedy results. here it takes months (8 for me!) to get in for a MRI, and I had to travel 4 1/2 hours to get it done. Then a month for results. Yuck!

You're on the right path and keeping a great attitude!

 

[Jena]

no i expected them...... i'm not shocked or anything. there they were as bright as day lol. you have to wait how long?? wow thats insane...... i was very lucky it was free! yes FREE! they were soo nice to me also. it was huge to not have to pay for it. very lucky. and they gave me my pics right away. went to the desk and boom there was my brain cd lol

how are you doing??

 

[Star*]

Just shows to go ya - you got a picture and you have a brain. Sounds like a win win to me Hanibal.

 

[graceupongrace]

Jena,

So sorry you're dealing with this. Your diagnosis just may be the catalyst for filtering the koi out of your life. easy child has left home and must now take responsibility for problems with her school. husband can take ownership of his issues, with you there lending support and encouragement, but not trying to manage his medications, etc. difficult child still needs help, but you can place more responsibility on the doctors and the school, and encourage her to take a more active role in her treatment. Micromanaging will add to your stress, and make your own health issues harder to deal with. I know you have tried to keep everything in your household runnng, but now, for your sake, it needs to be a team effort. Many hugs.

 

[DammitJanet]

i just have to say how absolutely amazed I am that in these days of inadequate healthcare, you were able to find access to a place that got you in for a free mri at the drop of a hat. Even with damned good insurance, it took me well over a month to get my MRI set up on my knees and then it was at least two weeks before they got the results back to my doctor who then scheduled a follow up appointment with me. As far as I have always been told, radiologists are not allowed to tell patients the results of what they find on the exams. That is the doctor's job. Quite amazing.

 

[ThreeShadows]

Janet, husband is/was a radiologist and said it's inappropriate to tell results to patient since it's the clinical history that counts and the neuro has the history. It's not forbidden, just bad idea. Maybe things in NY are different???

 

[DammitJanet]

3s...well my doctors have always been very appropriate with me which is how I would want them to be. And how it should be. I wouldnt want to deal with someone taking care of me who was acting inappropriately with my medical information.

 

[klmno]

They don't do that here either but Jen psoted on another thread that she tried to read them herself. Maybe that's what she meant- she can see the lesions on the CD she was given. ???

 

[flutterby]

There are about 100 pictures on those cd's. I know my neuro couldn't read it during my appointment.

 

[hearts and roses]

I'm sorry Jen, I missed a step. What do the lesions mean exactly? Big hugs to you, our brave lady! Praying for you.

 

[Jena]

Janet i was soo lucky. i really was. ppl at lab were also so very nice. overall a good "tunnel" experience. i spoke to neuro's office yet i found them also.

you can't miss them they look like ufo's lol. their like "hi over here we're over here"...

next week monday i'm sure i'll take to neurologist at some point as far as what all of it means. it usually means that it is the areas of your body which are affected, legs, hearing, memory etc. according to where their placed. some can be old some new. he wont' know because i refused to get the metal injected in me for contrast to be done.

the pictures are fascinating and there aren't 100 at all. i have about 8 nice photo's and you can play with them from the cd they gave me, make a video of them

i played with it last night trying to stay awake till he came home! best is i've been experiencing constant bouts lately....... yet today i woke up and it was almost the old me. i spent day in garden and i'm finally finished!!! took almost 4 weeks till completion. i'll have to post pics tmrw.

next is our patio difficult child and i are planning on making in the back so the family can sit out and eat there, roast marshmellows etc. maybe husband and i have a drink out there. it's a huge huge job though. alot of digging involved. so i told difficult child if you and i can actually accomplish it than we'll find a cheap pit and we can hang out and make like we are camping make smores etc.

our house is quite small, we do not own it, it was like that ugly house on the block. it had absolutely no landscaping an old ripped up garage door, broken screen door. yet inside was nice all new wood flooring an older kitchen etc. yet now the landlord bought us a new screen door, garage door, my planting is done and we arent' the ugly duckling in the block anymore. i can't mow the lawn anymore so i am paying the kid next door to do it also.

 

[Jena]

thanks everybody

and grace yes you are right. this is teaching me alot. I have had to let go of certain things, except things and ppl for how they are. enjoy what i have and appreciate each day.

I keep saying it guessing about an illness and actually having confirmation and seeing it with your own two eyes totally different deal. isnt' it odd though how my neighbor has it? i mean, that we moved here and for some reason i've always felt something for this woman that i do not know... sounds weird. yet in all honesty there are days i've sat on my steps out front watching what they go through, feeling for them.

i think i'll go over, i tried to invite her to the wedding last summer. shes a very sweet woman. yet she wouldn't come. she doesn't do well in the heat and she is i think embarrassed about her wheelchair. maybe i can go over with the wedding pictures and cookies or something. i've heard she's bad and i dont' want to infringe upon their thing they have going on over there. thoughts???

 

[DammitJanet]

You had your mri yesterday right? And you have already had the mri read, talked to your neuro and have the images in a scrapbook? Really? You do know that not all lesions are MS right? And it can take more than a MRI to rule MS in or out. Not to completely rain on your parade but this just seems a bit odd. It takes people years and years to finally get the MS diagnosis and that is after lengthy testing including spinal taps and MRI's with and without contrast.

 

[Jena]

parade?? is it me and i've just had a long day or do i again detect a bit of nastiness in your posts?? what is up with everyone lately..... sheesh are we all in difficult child mode like our kids??

i've been going to doctor's for about 3 years now trying to figure out what was wrong. my gp inititally thought lupus, than r.a. so it's been a long haul of blood tests, etc. as far as other tests i'll know more next week when I speak to him directly i spoke to a liason at the office. knowing him he'll probably want to do more tests. my gp has been saying ms for about a year now. even though other speciailsts were saying lyme, had one idiot say lung disease. so its' been a long long thing it feels like to me. and they aren't in a scrapbook their ina cd case given to me by the radiologist and yes had it two days ago, had contact with-office and will speak directly to dr next week and yup it was free. so i guess i lucked out i 'm overdue.

we'll c. he's a neurologist im just following the doctor's lead on this one.

 

[ML]

I just hope this is a step in the right direction towards a definitive diagnosis. Great job on the tunnel experience.

 

[DammitJanet]

Im not being nasty Jena but I do find it rather odd that after all the years and years of diagnostic testing I have gone thru, I have never seen action that fast. You say you got your MRI on a friday and had pics in hand that day as well as they called your neuro and you were in contact with the neuro that same day. Just seems a bit of a hurried time frame.

When are you going to have the spinal tap? Did they mention anything about the spinal cord shrinkage? Are there any black holes or just white lesions? I hope its just white lesions because that could be other things such as infections or plaque. Black holes is a really bad sign.

 

[DaisyFace]

I do find it rather odd that after all the years and years of diagnostic testing I have gone thru, I have never seen action that fast. You say you got your MRI on a friday and had pics in hand that day as well as they called your neuro and you were in contact with the neuro that same day. Just seems a bit of a hurried time frame.

Let's see...

when my son was not getting any relief for his swollen knee and they began to suspect juvenile arthritis it was a few weeks to get in with a pediatric orthopedist...who referred for an MRI (which took another few weeks)...and though they sent us home with images on a disk...we had to go back to ortho for the results...

We got the images right away - but being told what they mean took some time...

and then we had to take the disc to the next specialist for a second opinion.

Jena may have just gotten lucky...

 

[everywoman]

When my spinal cord collapsed and left me partially paralyzed last January, I did get my results that same day---but I was in the hospital and it took several hours before the dr. came up to talk to me about the results and to let me know I needed surgery ASAP to prevent further nerve damage---so it is possible---a few hours later I had another MRI for the tumor in my jaw---all they told me then was that their was a shadow in my cheek on the first one---I did not get the results for those until 3 weeks later when I saw the specialist.

 

[1905]

There is no way you get the results immediately. I had half my face paralyzed once, a virus I had spread to my brain (Ramsey-Hunt symdrome) but I had to have am MRI to rule out brain tumor. It was an emergency and I have good insurance. It still took a few days to get it done. The oncologist told me it would take a little while for anyone to read it. It took a week until I found out. And this was an emergency. I certainly would not have wanted the radiologist to tell me anything because I would have many questions that he couldn't answer. Plus, how would he have all my records to diagnose anything??The neuros office do not get the results immediately. The report has to get read, then sent to them. You said you should talk to them next week, but you also said you already did talk to them.