Spinal Tap & MRI

[BlayN]

Hello All, I've been having odd symptoms since I can remember, was diagnosed with Hashimoto about 6 years ago and symptoms improved, about the last year I started feeling bad again, tired, trouble sleeping, tingling in my feet, feeling I have a fever, ear ache but all regular blood test normal. Went to India in January and a week after getting back I had the worst headache I've ever had, MRI showed a lesion in my head and some fluid. Ever since then I've started having vision problems, eye twitching and blurry vision but only for short periods, I have a constant headache and tingling feet worse than before, feeling dizzy and walking to the left, and have a hard time talking clearly sometimes, bad memory and just tired all the time, sometimes I can barely walk a block and feel faint. Mornings are the worse but some afternoons I feel completely normal. I've been admitted into the hospital after eye twitching that wouldn't stop, my neurologist was worried about a stroke but they couldn't find anything but the improvement of fluid in the head. The neurologist and attending physician put me on anti seizure medicine and the headache is only a mild pressure and my vision has improved. The neurologist told me to get a second opinion because he was stumped. The new neurologist order some blood work and it shows a negative ANA, but shows signs of Lyme disease but that it's a recent thing so probably a false positive. I have a high white blood count but not much else showing. I have tried getting off the medication on the neurologist suggestion and my headache and dizziness returns. They did find a cyst but they said I was born with it so that's not an issue. Next I'm getting a spinal tap and an MRI of the Spine.

My question is do any of these systems sound like MS? My doctor said he wants to rule it out but I thought there really wasn't a test for MS. Also spinal tap is one day and MRI the next, would I be in alot of pain to lie down on a hard table without moving 24 hours after a Spinal Tap? I've read some post that said some people were in alot of pain. I'm thinking I should reschedule but this works good since I wouldn't have to take more time off work. I'm worried about having missed work so much already.

Thanks

[jimmylegs]

hi when are the LP and MRI scheduled for? as far as i'm concerned the risk of pain after LP is associated with being vertical not lying down in an mri machine. that would be more like loud and mildly claustrophia-inducing version of the bed rest that's actually needed. try a multi for athletes (because they are higher potency) from now until the LP, to make sure your capacity for healing punctures is topped up. i suspect, without being aware of any pertinent research, that the susceptibility to the post LP headache is associated with slow wound healing. the usual fix for a slow healing puncture, when and if needed, is a blood patch. i figure why not ensure you're topped up with wound healing nutrition ahead of time.

consider emphasizing foods rich in vits c & a, as well as zinc.
related:

Basics in nutrition and wound healing
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 0710001668

“Power” Foods and Food Groups to Help With Wound Healing
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/a ... nd-healing

re the hashimoto's dx, any nutritional regimen there? do you have high normal serum selenium? are you supplementing selenium or consuming specific potent sources of selenium in diet, eg brazil nuts?
related
Selenium Supplementation in the Treatment of Hashimoto's Thyroiditis: A Systematic Review and a Meta-analysis
http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10 ... .2009.0351

also what about vit d3? docs tested that? any associated regimen?

Relative Vitamin D Insufficiency in Hashimoto's Thyroiditis
http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10 ... .2009.0200

re ruling things out, you're right there's no one single ms test. docs basically need to run about 90 other tests ruling out OTHER things before they should say 'yea ok this is ms'.

i think a, if not the, major failing of chronic disease management (infectious, non infectious, either way) is: docs not referring patients straight to the dietitian for a run down of diet. there can be highly visible red flags in a diet diary, that are tough to align with a set of standard serum nutrient tests - unless you know what you're looking for.

anyhoo hope something in there will be useful

[BlayN]

Hello, thank you for the links, I'll read those. I am on Vit D supplements and those or fine. As far as my diet I probably need to improve that, I tend to stress eat and have gained about 8 lbs since starting to feel sick, which is bad because my liver enzymes elevate when I eat badly which makes me feel bad too. My LP is Thursday at 8:30 they will keep me there for 2 to 4 hours then going home to rest all day I do have some work calls I need to join but I can take them from my bed. MRI is Friday at 1, I am worried about the side affects from the LP so didn't want to be up and about but hopefully everything goes well.

Thanks again I'll read those links now.

[jimmylegs]

hey no problem

good to hear re vitamin d supps. assuming d3? if daily dose is high over a long time period, take care with cofactors. esp if stressed - speaking of which, magnesium is an important cofactor for vit d3. amazing for stress reduction. do you have a mag supplement in your regimen, and/or do you know how much magnesium you are getting daily from diet?
if not, could also consider:

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/nutrition/ ... .php#fnb18 (scroll down to table 2)
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tnam ... nt&dbid=75
http://orangenaturals.com/essential/mag ... g-60v-cap/

any supplemental magnesium intake should be divided carefully when d3 is being supplemented. half the daily mag *with* d3, half well away. otherwise you can try to ensure lots of mag rich foods (also spaced through the day with and away from the d3).

as for prep between now and your appointment, even a couple of days on a high potency multi could help you keep things in line healing-wise. if you can get through a can of smoked oysters that is a pretty solid zinc booster right there

also it just occurred to me that my fave prepackaged specialty multi, which i always think of as a virus fighting combo, would also be perfect for wound healing:
http://www.carlsonlabs.com/p-32-aces-zn.aspx

ok that's me for now - if you rest lying down (horizontal is the key!!!!!!!) for as long as possible between LP and MRI you should be fine

[BlayN]

I'll look in magnesium, in Dec I was in the ER for nausea, diarrhea and high fever and the only thing they found was low magnesium but they said food would restore it after been sick. That wasn't tested this last time I had blood work done, I'll ask my pc to test that.

Thanks again.

[jimmylegs]

hi again if the docs noticed your mag was low, that would probably be pretty darned bad. if you are below the bottom end of a crazy wide 'normal' range for mag, probably best not to rely on the issue being transient while ill. could be chronic, and you want to be *high* normal to match healthy controls - not a couple ticks above the bottom end of the so range. esp if dealing with chronic stress, a known drain on magnesium levels. if you care to post or pm the results of your next serum mag test we can review.