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Baphijmm

Further health update.

Test results were discussed with my internist last Wednesday; here's the gist of it:

EEG came back perfectly normal, save for my known exceptional speed in dropping to sleep; no epileptic signs detected. Heart monitor was noted by the technician to "look like (I) have a pacemaker", but dismissed by the studying neurologist as the results of not having been calibrated correctly. (No, I do not have a pacemaker. Yes, the results would look like the expected / noted-by-my-doctor arrhythmia.)

Abdominal imaging revealed absolutely nothing out of the ordinary; no inflamed appendix, no inflamed colon, no tumors, nothing.

ECG results noted as "normal"; however, the doctor considers them suspect due to a "mechanical-looking artifact" in the readings. Incidentally, very similar to the artifact in the EEG's heart monitor readings.

Stool samples returned completely normal; officially my issues therein are not "diarrhea" by the technical definition, as all contents were stool and contained no traces of bile or other "created" content.

Blood samples contained a potential flag for Crohn's disease (which does occasionally display ALS-like symptoms); recommendation to a Gastroenterologist in El Paso for further testing.

For those of you who don't know, because ALS is a very serious and very rare condition, testing almost always attempts differential diagnoses first; in other words, doctors look for other things that are more likely to cause similar symptoms, but are far less serious. The fact that all these tests came back normal is not, as one might otherwise expect, a good thing; it means the possibilities are being narrowed down, and that ALS is still very much in the running.

After the visit to the GE, I'll be having another appointment with my internist to discuss future plans. I'll also be taking home an "event monitor" when that happens; instead of the Holter/ECG, which records constantly, the event monitor will only record "events" as I see fit. In other words, whenever I'm feeling particularly weak, faint, or lost, I tell the unit to record what's going on with my body; while the Holter was on my person for three days, the event monitor will need to be on my person for at least a month. Unfortunately, my insurance will not cover another of the same test (and they're already basically at their limit for the year), so this is about the only way to get around their bullshit restrictions.
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Added: 9 years, 4 months ago
 
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