Another day, another doctor

I've been debating about posting this, and have started and stopped a couple of times. I think the reason why I left this little blog alone was because I didn't want to turn into one of those people who was constantly kvetching about her health problems. Today, though, I'm going to kvetch a little, if only for my own sake. Feel free to leave at any time. ;-) Who knows, maybe I'll resuscitate the blog. Or maybe I'll turn into an account of my ever-fascinating daily life. We'll see what happens.

I saw my neurosurgeon the other day for a general follow-up appointment, my second in the past year. At the last one, in September, everything looked good, and I was told that, if my next MRI came up clear, I could switch to having appointments once a year (rather than once every six months). This was good news, obviously. If you're not familiar, MRI's are sort of a stressful experience. I've finally reached the point now where I can nearly fall asleep during the half hour scan, which is no small feat, considering how frickin' loud they are. I'm also not claustrophobic, though I can't imagine what it would be like for someone who is (they put a plastic CAGE over your FACE...it's unenjoyable, to say the least).

Anyway, at Tuesday's appointment, everything, once again, looked good. There has been no tumor growth, and my ventricles are normal-sized. When the resident was testing my peripheral vision, however, she noticed that I'm not seeing as well as I should. This isn't really that surprising to me, since I've been noticing some subtle vision problems myself, but it's disheartening nonetheless. My neurosurgeon referred me to an ophthalmologist at the University, but I can't get in to see him for nearly two months. I also have to go see my primary care doctor first in order to get an official referral so that my insurance will cover the appointment (yay insurance...). Apparently ophthalmology appointments can take FOUR HOURS, so I'll be missing at least half a day of work. Yikes.

I'm not really sure what peripheral vision loss is indicative of, or if they can fix it. Dr. Neurosurgeon indicated it might be a shunt-related problem, though I don't know in what capacity. If they need to adjust the pressure, they can do that from the outside by putting magnets near the shunt track (this makes me feel like a robot). If it's something else, will I need more surgery? I don't know. They didn't suggest that as a possibility, but they didn't really suggest ANYTHING as a possibility.

So the moral of the story is, I'll be living in mystery for another two months or so. Part of me was hoping to walk away from this experience scot-free. And I've been lucky--I haven't really had any brain tumor-related deficits to speak of. If peripheral vision loss is the worst thing that happens to me, then so be it. I'll deal. Even still, I'm anxious to hear what the eye doctor has to say. Hopefully this is manageable and not something that's going to continue to get worse.

Okay, I'm done now. Life is going really, really well otherwise, so I'm doing my best to focus on that. Onward and upward.