Tomorrow is another day

This has been quite a week or more since I wrote. My cold settled in my head of all places. I already have too much going on up there. So for a few days my dizziness, my weakness, and my endurance took a hit.

I saw Dr Nakazawa. We had a rather lengthy introduction. His children and grandchildren attended McDonogh School, as did Darren, and I taught French and Spanish there until Darren's accident. His daughter teaches French at another one of our elite private schools. He declared that I was a most interesting case, and he could help me. There was a procedure to be done on the scalp, but he zeroed in on my sciatica which had not yet resurfaced in the past year or so. Now, that wasn't so complicated! I endured the electrical impulses attached to the needles for 20 minutes-not fun, but tolerable. Shortly after I left his office, my whole right side was tighter than before, covered with pins and needles (a feeling). I recovered gradually over the next few days and would try one more session.

Between the cold and Dr Nakasawa I was drunk and feeling so bad that I cancelled my dance lessons twice, did not dance all week.

By Yesterday, Tuesday morning, I was feeling a bit better than I had since my stroke. I could focus more, the right side was less tight, the gait was smoother, and I had very little loopiness. I had decided to forgo the natural blood pressure lowering meds after concluding they were as powerful as the pharmaceuticals. My vascular doc wanted me to stop all BP meds but I was not comfortable with this notion. I would gradually decrease them and observe since I was going back to Hopkins for the three-months check up in a few days. So things were looking up.

I went to the ballroom to dance on my own. I managed to get through my open routines in waltz and foxtrot. I did some chacha and samba. NO DIZZINESS! Man did I feel uplifted!!!! So I went and weeded one of my perennial beds for an hour and a half. Then, I decided perhaps I should be careful and not overdo it.

That afternoon I had booked my second session with Dr N. He narrowed down the area of acupuncture and intensified the juice when I told him I saw no improvement. I must say, he could be getting hard of hearing or maybe he has that male-ego attitude of having to be right. Then he left me for one hour plus. I could feel the electricity along my entire right side into my head. I have never had such a violent reaction even though this type of acupuncture was performed several years ago for the sciatica. It did not work then. What was I thinking? I was not a happy camper. He assured me a warm bath would ease the discomfort. It got worse. This morning I was in pain but I was going back to the neurology department today.

I dared to call Dr N this morning. He denied that his treatment had any influence on the way I felt! OK, I am cancelling my future appointment with him

So we went to Hopkins. The Drs were an hour late. I was pleasantly surprised by Dr Bahouth. She had seemed like a naysayer when I saw her during my stay in the hospital. She was compassionate. After examining me and talking about all of the side effects I had from the meds, she agreed with Dr Hoke (Neuropathy doc) and with Dr Ratchford that I did not need the BP meds at all. Dizziness is an indication that something is too much. NO KIDDING. I had been reluctant to go cold turkey as I do not want another episode.

She brought in another big Kahuna to meet me since I had recovered so well (in their words, not mine). He was shocked that I had stopped the Lipitor and gave me the lecture of my life. My GP has told me to when I developed terrible muscle pain.  He suggested a much smaller dose of a different statins and suggested we could check my blood for the enzymes that degenerate muscles if the symptoms reoccurred. I agreed. And we are once more going to try Gabapentin in a syrup, designated for babies. This would ease my ever-present nerve pain.

 I'll take one med at a time to see if I get a reaction. The statin is not going to help me feel better but it will increase my chances of not having another stroke over the next five years by 16%. If I do get a reaction, I will have to stop it. Now will the Gabapentin at a minute dose help?

So tomorrow is another day. I do hope my head is better for my lesson tomorrow morning as I am stopping the BP medication entirely.