The lengthy session with Mr.V was good in parts, less so in others. He went through all the routine tests again, and had a long look at the MRIs from Wednesday before deciding that he wants still more imaging - just X-Ray and CT this time, no big deal to cope with. The idea is to look at bone displacement and mobility with the fracture at C1/C2 - the top two vertebrae in the neck and the ones we called the atlas and the axis when I was at school. Long time ago now... As well as the imaging he's arranging for a rigid collar to help stabilise my neck and unspecified physiotherapy - there's no two ways about it, physiotherapists are NOT my favourite people.
Oh well, these things are sent to try us.
As I expected he's clearly thinking of surgery which would be at Brentwood for reasons not yet clear to me. He said there were two options - to go in from the front with a screw (not favoured) or from the back with a couple of metal rods, which sounds like a better idea to me - not so many other bits to get past and avoid damaging. Brentwood wouldn't be a problem, apart from another ten miles each way for visiting etc.. I think the Spire hospital there has a good reputation for advanced/difficult surgery, certainly better equipped than Springfield for that kind of thing. What might be a problem is getting my insurers to accept that this is all to do with myeloma so that it comes under the same claim. Otherwise I might be looking at expensive loss of No Claims Discount along with the 55% increase in this year's premium! The neurologist Dr.Da seems a better bet in that direction with his comments about myelomalacia and etc. Mr.V is clearly not well-informed about myeloma as one of his first questions was whether my myeloma is "all behind you now?" Well no, as it's a terminal and incurable disease...
For reasons not entirely clear to me he was keen to establish this C1/C2 thing as a recent injury, and was delighted when I remembered the fall I had playing boules on 23 May last year - see entry for that date for details. I don't think that had anything to do with the current problems but if it makes him happy...
He's going to send me copies of the MRI report and his letter back to the neurologist. Things may make a bit more sense when I've seen those.
We have a "review" appointment with the neurologist on the 22nd, by which time all those new images should be in. It's a long slow business and the important part hasn't even started yet. Meanwhile, every day both hands get a little bit worse. After the consultation we went for breakfast and Sue had to cut my bacon and sausage and a few other bits into bite-sized pieces for me. With ,y lack of fork control I would probably sent them flying. It's necessary and I try to accept this kind of help with good grace and plenty of thanks but no getting away from the fact that it is a little humiliating not to be able to do such simple things for yourself.
On the other hand I have worked out how to restore the spellchecker to Blogger which is a big help to me as my single-handed typing is far from accurate!
Later addition: I asked Mr.V about the various issues further down my spine, some of which had been identified by the neurologist as possibly myeloma-related,. He was completely dismissive, saying just "usual age-related". Not very impressed.
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