Packing

We're all packing up in my office today. It's weird but the morale isn't at all down. And the atmosphere is very light and casual.

I feel like I can't get started with preparations for our trip. I guess it's because there's very little to actually prepare for. All we need is clothing for a week, something to do when we're in the passenger seat, and stuff for our furry friends.

It'll all come together as the date approaches.

Post

I'm so busy today that taking the time to post something defies all logic, but I want to get back in the habit of submitting something daily so I'm going to do it anyway.

I think the reality of the move finally started to hit me on Wednesday when I had my last ever mid-week practice with the worship band at Harbor of Hope. Now the coming events seem very weird and I'm starting to feel sad about leaving my friends and family.

At the same time, the reality of the good things is starting to hit me too. An amazing road trip, a new, bigger apartment with a pool and fitness room, an exciting new job, and most of all, a totally new world to explore and get to know. 

I've always known, rationally, that this experience should be bittersweet. It's finally beginning to feel that way.

Life Alive and the road trip plan.

I met Steve at Life Alive for lunch yesterday in what will probably be the second to last time I go there. Kimberly and I have a lunch date there planned for this coming Saturday. That place is truly a gem for vegetarians or anyone who can appreciate real food (as opposed to the food-like substances) we (modern people of the developed world) usually consume.

Here is the plan for our road trip from Chelmsford to Northridge.

Click to enlarge

We're heading out Tuesday afternoon. I hope to reach at least to Syracuse before we call it a night. Then I want to get to Chicago by Wednesday night. From there, it's a whole lot of flat nothing until we stop at Mt. Rushmore and drive through Yellowstone. It's then on to Salt Lake City, down through Nevada, and to our final destination via roads with no agro checkpoints.

If we drive 12-14 hours a day, we'll arrive on Saturday. Making room for some exploring of interesting places or a break here and there, I'm planning on us getting in sometime Sunday.

Oops

I'm going to make an effort to start posting here again, since I'm moving across the country in two weeks. I've been very busy at work and elsewhere, but I think I can manage a quick post here and there.

We're down to the wire now, seeing friends as often as possible, checking things off of our "to do one more time" list, and mentally preparing for the biggest change we've had since we got married (maybe the biggest change ever). We're both really excited. I'm particularly excited about settling into my new office and being able to focus on my new responsibilities. It'll be very nice to finish up all of the work here in Bedford.

Google Earth Pictures!

The pictures I took of Chelmsford Center back in June and uploaded to Panaramio have finally hit Google Earth! I take quite a bit of nerdy pleasure in this for some reason...

New Blog

I'm going to shift gears in this blog away from talk about Chiari. I decided to create a separate blog to record my progress there, so that I can get back to normal updates here. The new blog (which so far only has copied text from previous entries here) is Dan's Chiari Log.

Why I think that doctor is wrong.

I thought I'd lay out the details, for my own benefit, of how I disagree with the surgeon's assessment that Chiari isn't my problem:

1) The two main determinants he used for his conclusion were the fact that my cerebellar tonsils are only herniated 6 mm, and that to him it looked as though my CSF (Cerebrospinal fluid) wasn't being impeded by the herniation.

a) Herniation on its own has been shown in recent years to be a poor determining factor for the diagnosis of Chiari. It is a symptom rather than the cause. Many people have severe symptoms occurring with a much smaller herniation that 6 mm (the radiologist who analyzed my MRI actually reported 6-8 mm for me), and some have much larger herniation with no symptoms at all.

b) Specialized tests, such as Doppler ultrasound and Cine MRI are used to determine impedance of CSF, and even these tests are not conclusive. This doctor spent perhaps 3 minutes (or less) reviewing the still images of my standard MRI when coming to the conclusion that CSF wasn't blocked.

2) My symptoms. There are many diseases and disorders that cause the symptoms I have, but it seems that holistically, they are a near perfect confluence of Chiari evidence. These telltale symptoms include:

-daily (sometimes constant as today) pain in the back of my head

-frequent headaches in my entire head, at one point occurring nearly 24 hours a day for 3 weeks (this was the initial impetus for my CT scan that revealed the malformation)

-a host of eye problems that have not subsided for many months, such as frequent reduced and blurred vision, and disturbing flashes or slow moving streaks of light

-ringing in my ears

-moderate insomnia over a prolonged period

-profound fatigue and pain in the muscles and joints

-numbing in my fingers (and tongue! That happened for the first time yesterday.)

-stiffness in my throat and obstruction of my airways at that point--this was my first symptom and it remains a constant problem, every moment of every day. Recently I've noticed that when I try to run, once I get up to an aerobic breathing pattern, I believe I have what is called a "stridor," which is sort of like wheezing, but is a single high-pitched tone that occurs in turbulent airflow as I inhale.

The list goes on and on. The important thing is that imaging concluded that I have Chiari I Malformation and before I ever knew what Chiari was I had daily pain in the back of my head. It's basically a slam dunk diagnosis. Now all I need is a doctor who agrees.