Dr. Henderson Follow-up

On Friday morning, at 9am, I had my follow-up appointment with Dr. Henderson, a neurosurgeon in Bethesda, Maryland. My parents and I woke up around 5:50am, left home at 6:30am, and got to Bethesda around 8:15am. We met Jon-Marc, who works about 45 minutes away from Dr. Henderson's office, and we had breakfast at a little diner.

This time was very different from my last appointment; Dr. Henderson was a little late, but I felt as though he really gave me his full attention. He reviewed my new MRI and CT scans, measured the angles of my vertebrae, and decided that he wanted me to have another X-Ray done in order to get a better image. (I hadn't bent far enough in my flexion/extension MRI, so I had to redo it then.)

My support group (Jon-Marc, Mom, and Dad) and I went down the hall and got me on the list at the Bethesda MRI center. They didn't have an opening until 12:30pm, so we walked around town for a bit, looking for a place to sit, relax, and get some food. After a couple of tries, we found a Starbucks (thanks to Jon-Marc's and Dad's diligent use of Google Maps on their Blackberries.)

After that we spent the rest of our free time in the lobby of Dr. Henderson's building. I took a quick nap on the couch while Jon-Marc studied an electrician book, Mom read the newspaper, and Dad played Angry Birds on my Kindle Fire.

Finally it was time. We waited in the lobby upstairs until 12:45pm, and then I got my X-Ray done. (I don't know what her job title was, but the woman who performed my X-Ray was very kind and funny. The people at Bethesda MRI and Dr. Henderson's office are generally very helpful and compassionate.) Then around 1:30pm we went back to see Dr. Henderson.

He reviewed the new images, measured angles, and asked more questions about my symptoms and how much they limited my life. He was pretty sure that my headaches and other symptoms were caused by cervical instability rather than Chiari. He told me to try wearing my neck brace again, but this time to wear it 24/7 for two weeks. I had researched this issue, so I knew that the symptoms lined up with my symptoms; many of the symptoms of cervical instability are the same as those of Chiari.

We decided that, since I am planning on participating in the spring semester of college, it would be best to figure this out over winter break. If it is cervical instability, then wearing the brace will help. If it's not that, then wearing it won't help. When I go back to see him on December 23rd, if he thinks it's cervical instability, then we'll go ahead with the surgery (the fusion of my fourth and fifth vertebrae.) Ideally, I would recover in time for classes. If we think it's something else, then we'll just go from there.  :)  I'm so thankful to be working with an intelligent, caring, invested doctor who really wants to help me figure this out.

I've now been wearing the brace since late on Friday night, even out to lunch at Garfield's for Jon-Marc's and my two-and-a-half year anniversary. But that's another story for another time.

All in all, Jon-Marc's and my emotions, future plans, and thoughts are being tossed around like a lost shoe in a moonbounce. On the other hand, we may be making real progress in discovering what's really going on with my health. We may be able to fix this! But I'm trying not to get too excited...