Scary Stuff

So, I had a bit of a scare last week. I'm not sure that it is entirely over, but the worst of it is (I hope). Last Tuesday, I go in for my yearly eye exam. No biggie, I've been wearing glasses since I was in 7th grade, and I've been seeing this particular doctor for the past 13 years, so there should be no surprises.

Well, the doctor is looking at my eyes, and starts to furrow his brow and looks again, they consults my chart and looks more concerned. Then he asks if I have had any problems with blurred vision, headaches, blackouts, stuff like that. No, no more than normal. I suffered from the occasional migraine and I sometimes get headaches, everyone does (I"m actually getting over a doozie of a headache right now, a regular headache, not a migraine. I'm not one of those  people that thinks every headache, or even every bad headache is a migraine. That drives me crazy, migraines are a specific medical condition, but I digress). So doctor takes another look at my eyes, another look at my chart, and asks again about problems with headaches, etc. 

He tells me that my optic nerves are doing something they shouldn't. They stick up, or are swollen, or enlarged...something along those lines. That is usually caused by an increase in pressure inside your cranium, like a brain tumor might cause. 

Brain tumor? Sweet Jesus (that may just be a direct quote). However, since I don't have any of the other symptoms, he's not sure what is going on (which is always a reassuring thing to hear from your doctor). So, he's going to take some pictures and scans and send them into a specialist. In the meantime, I shouldn't worry. Right, because this isn't something to worry about.

So, two excruciating days later, Eye Doctor calls, he's consulted with a couple of other doctors and this is something that they should look into. Really? Thanks for that super piece of doctoring. So eye doctor is going to pass my chart along to the internist and someone from his office will be in contact with me. 

Not very much later, a nurse from internist's office calls, they've schedule a CT scan for that afternoon. They'll look at what that shows and make a decision on what further tests that I need from that point. So, now I'm really worried, things are moving fast, and things never more fast in the medical field unless something serious is going on. But let's get this over with, I go and get the scan.

Of course, the guy running the machine can't tell me anything, except that the radiologist is done for the day (honestly, it's 2 p.m, and he's done for the day?) and he'll be in from 8 to noon tomorrow morning and will read the scan the next day (okay, off by 2 one day, and four hours the next day...not bad working hours). So more pacing and waiting. Pacing and waiting.

I get the call the next day around noon. There was nothing unusual on the scan, but nurse is not sure what the next step will be because they want to consult with Eye Doctor again. And Eye Doctor is in Canada for the next week. Awesome, so something is causing my optic nerves to be wonky and we don't know what it is, but I should just sit tight while Dr. is on a fishing trip.

So the good news is, I don't have a giant tumor in my brain. However, there may or may not be invasive neurological tests on the horizon. Will keep posting updates as they occur.