It's been a LONG time, I know!

Sorry it's been so long since I've blogged, but a lot has happened since the last time I dropped by. I've had a lot of doctor's visits, planned and unplanned and then I actually made an attempt at having a life and left town for the weekend. Since I didn't have the VNG, I had a REALLY hard time readjusting to my medications again and ended up in the ER on June 9th because I had been vomiting for a week and a half straight. I spent 9 hours in the ER hooked up to an IV, but they finally got the vomiting under control and sent me home.

Then I had my 2nd opinion consult with the neurologist which basically turned out to be a waste of $10 because she gave me the same diagnosis: vertigo, migraines, balance disorder. Oh, wait, she added on fatigue too. She was completely nonplussed by my tingling hands and feet, my slurred speech, my auditory processing issues, and memory loss. Needless to say, I left that appointment crying in frustration. It's not like I'm wanting the doctors to diagnose me with some horrific disease, but I have serious reservations that what's going on with me is just vertigo.
Then about a week ago I had my 2nd opinion with another ENT doctor that specializes in vertigo. He listened to everything I had to say, my symptoms, family history, looked in my ears, watched me walk, watched my hands shake and twitch, blah, blah, blah. He said that it's not my ears that is causing my problem because if it were, it would have resolved itself by now. He said that, in his opinion, it sounds like a degenerative neurological disorder like MS or something like it, based on the symptoms that I described and what he saw happening.

At this point it's The Waiting Game With Christine Rachuy. If I don't show any improvements by mid July, we're calling my primary doctor and asking to be referred to where the money is: Orange County or L.A. If I'm successful in making it out there and I don't really get anywhere with them, then it's to the insurance office and making a case that we have exhausted the Kaiser system and demand that, on their dime, that they send me to UCLA or the Mayo Clinic to try and figure this thing out because I am slowly wasting away. It's getting to the point of ridiculousness.

Over the 4th of July weekend, Mom and I went to a music festival called Spirit West Coast up in Monterey. I did all right on the 1st and 3rd day, but we had to leave the 2nd day because I got pretty sick for some reason and spent a lot of time with my head inside of a trashcan. All-in-all, I had a good time, but this illness is really the pits because it makes me so tired and I cannot stand up for very long, can't think straight, can't talk straight...it's just frustrating in general.

Anyhow, that's the skinny on what has been going on with me. I'll let you all know what the outcome of my ultra sound is when they tell, if they tell me anything.