kitanzi: (quizzical)
kitanzi ([personal profile] kitanzi) wrote2004-02-11 06:59 pm
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Alive and kicking!

I had my followup visit with the doctor today to be told how my MRI turned out. Mostly it was good news.



The vertigo is all gone, I feel great, and I expected this to be a formality. It was, essentially, but he wanted to show me the photos of my brain. This was actually extremely cool in a slightly gruesome way - the cutthrough photos of my eyeballs seemed weirder than the cutthroughs of the brain, I'm not sure why. He briefly pointed to various bits, like the ventricles, and then pointed to a small white triangle showing up in the middle from two angles. He quickly explained that it's not unusual to have these show up in the brain of someone over 30, and that they aren't entirely sure what they are, but the best explanation is that it's a small bit of scar tissue, and the likely explanation is a very small stroke.

Wow. That could be - and I have a hunch I can even remember the day it happened, since that was the WEIRDEST headache I ever had. ACat remembers it too, a year or two back - I think I was acting kind of strange. Anyhow, no significant damage appears to have been done and it's not likely to be related to the problem I was actually there for, but I admit I never expected to be told today that I'd probably had a stroke and never known it.
gingicat: deep purple lilacs, some buds, some open (Default)

[personal profile] gingicat 2004-02-11 05:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Like everyone else, I'm glad you're okay, and hope you continue to remain so!

I suppose this means that you now have some idea of what to look for as stroke symptoms, which could help other people.

Re:

[identity profile] kitanzi.livejournal.com 2004-02-11 05:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Theoretically, though a) they can vary hugely depending on where in the brain is affected and b) I'm only guessing that it happened when I think it did.

[identity profile] surrdave.livejournal.com 2004-02-11 07:20 pm (UTC)(link)
They vary a lot--all depends on what part of the brain gets hit. Also, a major stroke doesn't end with the incident: there's continuing effects "downstream" of it that can take months to happen. But that's for a debilitating case like my Dad's.

Presumably the doctor talked to you about hereditary and habitual risk factors?

Really glad you're okay. Healthy wishes for you.

[identity profile] kitanzi.livejournal.com 2004-02-11 07:47 pm (UTC)(link)
No, he didn't. I thought about that afterwards and should probably call back about that. He seemed very casual about it on the basis of it being common for my age group, and just the one spot. *shrug*