This was kind of a tough week. On Monday I went in to see Dr. Bowen and we went over my autoimmune panel results. Not too surprising something showed up, I knew something had or she would have e-mailed me the results. I was in the equivocal range for Myelin Basic Protein antibodies, not necessarily high but in the top portion of the normal range. I knew what that meant right away, back to the specter of MS hanging over my head. She suggested I get back in to see Dr. Srivatsal, my neurologist, and get an MRI so we can rule this out or deal with it. Everything else was fine which was really good news.
I managed to get a cancellation appointment with Dr. Srivatsal today. The good news coming out of it – my feet are actually a bit better than they were in September when I last saw her. I have quite a bit more sensation than I did before but they are still pretty numb and giving me only about 15% of the feeling I should have but that is way better than before. The news I expected – she is scheduling an MRI so that we can see if there are any lesions which are a sign of MS or CiDP (Chronic Inflammatory Demyelination Polyneuropathy). So I won’t know for sure what is going on for a few weeks when I get the MRI done and follow up with her. The thing is, I’m not sure what I’d do differently should I have a diagnosis. I’d stick to AIP and not take any immune suppressing drugs so I’m doing what I can now to keep any damage to a minimum.
Still waiting for my Adrenal Stress Index, Thyroid Panel, Metabolic Panel and Lipid Profile to come back, hopefully I get some of that next week. I also head to Portland next week to take another SIBO test and to see Dr. Keller. My SIBO symptoms for the most part are down and many days not noticeable at all, only when I eat pretty high FODMAP foods do I have any symptoms at all. Will it be gone? I still have my doubts. Other symptoms have just been weird this last few weeks. Still having sleep issues though I’m falling back asleep better lately and getting over 8 hours per night. I’m tired in the mornings and after about 7 p.m. but mid-day feel pretty good most days. My arms have had the odd tightness feeling to them all week and my left hand has had numbness though that seems to be letting up a bit.
Other than all the waiting and the bit of anxiety about the autoimmune panel results I’m doing OK. I’m getting outside every single day, catching plenty of trout, we are getting our studio space moving along, and I have managed to get out and see friends this week even taking a yoga class with some of them on Wednesday. Catherine and I have been enjoying our yard every single day, watching hummingbirds, swallows, crows, kingfishers, ducks, eagles and deer.
Hopefully a bit more to report by the end of next week test wise and the next month or so will tell me a lot about what all I’m dealing with at the moment.