Health Update: Next Steps

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet.  Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved." - Helen Keller

{I feel like the above quote best fits my life right now.  I don't have "ease and quiet", but I can see this trial as something God can use to improve who I am, even if I don't see the purpose in it right now.  I can allow this to help mold me and make me into my best self, and that sounds like a good thing to me. :) }

After my appointment with the neurologist, I have no more answers, but I do have more testing coming up, but I have no idea when.  I am thinking it will be at least a few weeks away, if not a month or more.  I will see my neurologist again when all the testing is done (the appointment is set for July right now, but that will get moved up if the testing is done sooner and I can get in sooner) and discuss next steps.

I will be having an EEG and an MRV (like an MRI, but it looks at all the veins, not just the arteries).  They are trying to rule out seizures with non-typical presentation and blood clots in veins vs. arteries.  Non-typical migraines and complications due to Fibromyalgia or my Hashimoto's thyroiditis are also possibilities.  We did not discuss the possibility of MS at this time, but I will bring it up if the newest tests don't point to something else.  Basically, there is no one thing that stands out as obvious with all of my symptoms, so it could even be more than a few things.  We're still in the "ruling out or in" phase, and she said we can take this as far as I want to take it as far as testing goes.

We also discussed chiropractic options, and she thought that may help, but I am going to wait on pursuing that until after the EEG and MRV are done.  If those are "normal", then I will definitely try that route before we go another one unless she feels that another test would be more beneficial first.

I may also have some more blood work done, depending what they find with the EEG and MRV and/or what my doctor checked for already.  She has to look at what all has been done, and then decide if more blood work is needed at this time.  Joy.  I hate needles, but I'll make it. :D

Please continue to pray for wisdom.  She saw me when I was having a "good" day, so she didn't see me when I was struggling to walk or think straight or any number of other things.  She listened, didn't call me crazy, or even suggest that I was insane, so that's very good!  She took lots of notes and was very thorough, so I'm encouraged.  It is extremely hard to diagnose something that is inconsistent, so pray that she sees what she needs to see so that I can get the correct treatment for this.  Thanks so much!

Also, I have decided that I am going to pay more attention to my diet and exercise as those are the one thing I *can* do.  

I plan on:

1. Getting exercise when I can, which includes walking daily whenever possible, and working on getting a swimming schedule down if at all possible.  I already exercise as I can, but I don't really have a plan to do it.  If I tell myself that I will go for a walk daily unless it's storming out or I can't move, or that I will go swimming every Thursday, I will be more likely to do it than if I just randomly decide that I should go for a walk or go swimming.
     
2. I will be removing the green tea supplement from my routine as I feel it is no longer needed at this time (but will add it back if I start having new issues).
3. At least two weeks after that, I will be removing soy as much as possible from my diet as I have issues with my soy.  I plan to go soy-free completely, but that may take a little time to get back to.
    
4. At least two weeks into the "less soy" diet change, I plan on removing grains (other than rice) from my diet as much as possible.  Mainly this will entail limiting corn, wheat, and oats as I have the most trouble with those.
     
5. At least two weeks after that, I will be removing my multivitamin as it contains soy (most do).  I will keep the multivitamin out of my diet completely unless I have new issues, then I will add one back in which will involve finding a soy-free one.

If you are wondering why I am waiting at least 2 weeks between removing different things, that is to give me time to see if there is any change in my health to the good or to the bad and let me know exactly what the culprit is.

Thank you for all your thoughts, prayers and encouraging words.  I appreciate it more than you know!  I will post another update when I have one to give.

(This post was originally posted on my original site, Fibro, Fit and Fab!)