Category Archives: mayo clinic

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I’m Back and I’m feeling great…temporarily that is!

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This post is just to get me back to my blog.  It has been entirely too long and there is so much to catch up on.  I tend to do things gung ho for a period of time and then burn out and that is exactly what happened with my blog.  I am really hoping to get back to it, especially during this time of reprieve.

Just a quick migraine recap…I went to Mayo and they put me on Neurontin stepping me up to 2400mg/day.  I successfully made that step up and had my first 8 day window with no migraine and then it came back full force.  I was also prescribed prednisone for 2 months starting at 80mg/day for a week and stepping down 10mg per week.  I started the prednisone on June 8th and have been on it for 22 days.  And let me tell you I FEEL FANTASTIC!!!  I feel like I could do anything, go anywhere, be anyone, etc.  I even went Jet skiing for the first time which by the way brought on a major migraine regardless of all the meds I am on…so I still have to be careful.

But the one thing I am so very much enjoying is reconnecting with my husband and 2 kids.  They have missed me and I have missed them and it wasn’t until I started the prednisone that it truly sunk in that I have been completely absent from their lives for the past year and a half.  Yes, I made veiled attempts to be with them in the same room, but there was always this anxiety that a sound they would make would trigger a migraine, so I could never be fully present with them.  And now I am able to snuggle, spend time with and not be the snarky mom I have been for the past year.  Yes I still get frustrated with my 5 and 10 year old of course, but I don’t feel like I am going to strangle their necks because they dropped a marble on the floor.

I just feel happy!  I don’t think you can truly understand happiness and joy unless you have had it taken away and for that I can be thankful for the trials and tribulations I have been through over the course of the past year and a half.

I don’t look forward to the end of the prednisone trial (2 months), but at the same time I really don’t think about it much because I am truly able to live in the moment and feel happiness and relief.

I have lots to catch you up on: end of year school activities I got to partake in, vacation, dealing with migraine and kids on summer break fears and so much more.  So keep an eye out for more to come!  Sorry for the hiatus but it is good to be back!!!

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Test Results

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I keep forgetting to post the results from testing done at Mayo Clinic. They all came back normal. So still no answers but in the long run it’s good that I don’t have cancer in the brain or spine or any of the incurable autoimmune diseases. But it’s been pretty rough week with the weather patterns the way they’ve been. So I still keep trudging along taking each migraine as they come. Finally over a 72 hr migraine…abortive meds were not helpful throughout this one.  No changes yet with new meds because it will take 8 weeks to get to the target dose and then another 5-6 weeks to know whether or not it’s working. If it works AWESOME, if not I go back to Mayo in August.  I will start the prednisone break on June 10th so that I am able to be there for my 2 boys over at least two of the summer months.  We already have a week long trip to Florida in June and hopefully we will be able to do some camping during the break.  I am also aware of the possible risks of prednisone and one of them is Headache, so hopefully that doesn’t happen to me.  And increased acid reflux, so hopefully the meds I am on for reflux will continue to keep it under control.  The side effects long term will have to be dealt with in the long term.

So for now I deal with the side effects of Neurontin: fatigue (both mental and physical).  But hopefully as soon as I make it to the target dose and stay on it for a little while my body will adust.  More importantly I hope it works!

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Mayo Clinic: The rest of the stay

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Saturday:  The highlight of our trip. We met up with a college friend Chris Gottschalk and Niko. They picked us up and took us to a great restaurant called Whistle Binkies. It was so much fun and so nice out that we got to sit outside. 80 degrees and breezy…perfect! And I got my favorite dish…pan seared ahi tuna. YUM! Then on the way back, Niko gave us a mini tour of downtown Rochester.  We arrived back at the hotel just in time to our comfy clothes on to watch the new Hallmark movie 😀

Sunday: My mom and I laid low for most of the day, but we did go to Olive Garden….YUM!  I was pretty nervous about the upcoming Lumbar Puncture the following morning.  I have had bad experiences with the puncture itself and have also had spinal headaches that resulted from both punctures that I have had. 13062527_10154047653281897_1477015710969330656_n

Monday: Migraine is pretty bad so hopefully it will yield the best results.  The pressure was actually high and when they removed the fluid my head pain decreased. I am prone to the leaking spinal fluid and resulting spinal headache. It is just a wait and see now.

13055418_10154047658096897_8464084912672851094_nProcedure is completed. Fluid pressure was really up and when they removed the fluid my migraine did get better. Now we wait for results from testing and I go back to the hotel and rest.  And rest I did for the rest of the day, icing my back between sleeping.  12994542_10154051269991897_644240225602523312_n

Tuesday: I rested all day yesterday and most of the day today. I did make the journey to the hot tub this afternoon (Love love love my new Turbie twist. I have a hard time getting my hair up in a towel because bending over and standing up quickly both throws me off balance and increases head pain. Thanks to Mindy Richmond I have always wanted one because I saw it at her house. And now I have one and love it!!). I either have a migraine on the top of my head or there is still that off chance of a spinal headache but not nearly as severe as the 2 before so that is good news. My mom Sherry Dunne Weaver has been taking walks along the nice river walk. This hotel has turned out to be such a great choice. Hopefully I will have test results back tomorrow and know something more.

Wednesday: I woke with no spinal headache or migraine! Now we are off to have lunch with another college friend Mary Francis.  While we were waiting at the Gonda Building at Mayo Clinic for Mary, my mom and I finally had a chance to look around and see some awesome art work.

And then we were off to eat at a Dutch restaurant called Pannekoeken.  I love eating at new places that are not chain restaurants.  We all ordered Pannekoeken and the waitress came out singing Pannekoeken.  So much fun!

I still hadn’t heard anything towards the end of the day on Wednesday from the doctor,  so I sent a message and they said I could go home and wait for the results of the tests from there.  The initial test results came back all normal which is good but the autoimmunity and paraneoplastic results hadn’t come in yet.

Thursday: Our trip home was very uneventful.  I slept most of the way…stomach hurting and getting more and more congested.  So I only drove for 2 hours…luckily my mom was up for driving.  First person who came to greet me was Gideon with a big smile and a huge hug and he asked me if my migraines were all gone.  Buddy I so wish they were but I told him that the doctors are working hard to  make them go away.  When I walked into the house, I instantly smelled really weird in the house and it made my head pain increase…I finally figured it out and it was epoxy from Dan’s RC planes 😉  But I was really just feeling blah and my head was in a fog.  So I went to bed pretty early.  I took the first 300mg pill of Neurontin that Dr. Cutrer prescribed.  When I finally tried to go to sleep I couldn’t breath through my nose at all, and I was a little worried that I was having a reaction to the new med, so instead of getting to sleep in my own comfy bed, I ended up having to sleep in the recliner so I could breath.  Benedryl cleared up my sinuses finally but I didn’t wake up until 6:30am.  So thankful that my mom was still here and was able to take the kids to the bus.  I never heard anything this morning, so mom if you read this, thank you so much for everything.

Friday: I slept most of the day and felt really blah and foggy again.  I did send another note to Mayo and found out that the Dr. just received the autoimmunity and paraneoplastic results today but did not have time to review them properly yet.  Hopefully I will hear from them early next week.  It is good to be home.

I will be returning to Mayo for sure in August after I do the 2 month step down of Prednisone and have been on Neurontin some time.  I decided to wait on the prednisone (with doctor approval) until June so that I will be able to hang out with the kids instead of being stuck in my bedroom all day everyday.  So I won’t start prednisone until June 15th (which will also give me a break from migraine for our trip to Florida at the end of June).

 

 

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Mayo Clinic Day #1

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Update from my first visit with my Mayo Clinic doctor: Dr. Michael Cutrer.
First of all he read through my summary before he met with me and had ideas of a plan before he met with me and all of my spreadsheets made things go so smoothly today. So my effort was not wasted.
The Plan: On Monday bright and early I go in for my third and hopefully final 😉 (wishful thinking) Lumbar puncture (spinal tap). BUT this time they plan on doing so much more with the fluid than before. They plan on running several assays to determine if I have any immune deficiencies or any other illnesses that might come in up on the testing. If everything from that testing and the pressure testing from the lumbar puncture itself comes back normal we will just have to wait 48 hrs and then we can come home on the other part of the plan…if something turns up I will go back in to see the doctor to discuss whatever they find further.
The medication part of the plan: someone finally listened to me that Prednisone works. That my headaches/migraines have an inflammatory response that seems to be helped by prednisone. So he is going to start me at a very high dose and step down every week over the course of 8 weeks. If anything to finally get some relief a little more long term than 1 week. And at the same time he is going to be titrating me up on Neurontin, a medication I was given at the same time that I was given Keppra (a drug I knew to cause anxiety), and we were never able to determine if it would really help. In fact I was only on a dose of 100 mg/day…and this doctor wants to titrate up to 2400 mg/day over the course of the 8 weeks that I am on Prednisone, so that when I stop the prednisone I am at the highest dose of Neurontin which will hopefully take over the pain prevention. These are hopes, not guarantees. But at least their is hope.
So now my mom Sherry Dunne Weaver and I get to enjoy the weekend and hopefully meet up with friends. So what are you guys up to this weekend: Chris Gottschalk and Karen Connell. I am pretty sure that we are going to head up to Minneapolis one day to see Jeremiah Carpenter and Kelly Carpenter if it works out for them. And Mary Francis we will have to try and meet for lunch if you can get away one day. I believe I won’t be at the clinic long on Monday and will want to rest…but maybe we can take the shuttle to where you work on Tues or Wednesday for lunch. So many folks in this area 🙂
Now that my anxieties are calmed, I know the plan and it makes sense…I feel a load of relief lifted off of me. Thank you for all of you who are praying (and that list is so long to tag everyone and I wouldn’t want to miss any, so just know that know that you are praying).
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Preparing for Mayo Clinic

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They asked me to pull together all of my medical records which are ready to pick up…just have to go and pick them up.  They also asked for timeline and medication list..I took that one further and made a list of all of the medications I have taken since this whole things started and if they worked, if I had side effects, how long I took them, etc.  I am really hoping that this will really provide insight into my journey over the past 14 months.

Here are the documents I have pulled together all ready:

I also consolidated all of my headache journals into a spreadsheet that shoes the number of days I was non function a month and how often I have needed to take abortive medications to help with migraine pain.

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And last but not least I put together a binder for all of my medical records.  I plan on having a copy for myself and one for them.  It has dividers and an appendix and everything.  I did that last night.  So much fun!  Such a nerd, but I love it!  Organization is what made me successful in the work place environment, so maybe it will make the journey to Mayo a success!

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MHNI #14

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March 31st, 2016: I remained at baseline NDPH all day which was a great relief compared to the days leading up to this visit.  I took an Amerge just to make sure that a migraine didn’t decide to join or that the NDPH didn’t increase.

I had such a great day.  My friend Dawn rode down with me and we talked all the way.  I drove and I talked and my head pain did not increase…it was wonderful.  I even drove home and talked on the phone for a good majority of the trip home since Dawn had food coma and I was trying to prevent going into food coma 😉

I was really worried about my appointments today because I had to tell them about Mayo Clinic, but it turns out they already knew because they all had to sign off on the records to go to Mayo.  They were very supportive and were anxious to hear any findings from Mayo.  What a relief!  And anxiety for no reason.  Oh well, I just didn’t want them to think I was going behind their back…I really just wanted to have someone look further into what might be causing the constant head pain.  Almost 15 months now!  Never how I imagined it would be, but have done my best to take it in stride.  So glad that my Dr’s at MHNI had my back about going to Mayo Clinic.  I leave in 5 days.

In between Dr. apts Dawn and I went shopping to 5 Below….great store, but you really have to limit yourself or you could spend way to much money without even knowing it.  And then we were going to meet up with my high school friends Kristen and Steve and their son Eli.  Unfortunately they were delayed and we only got to give hugs, say Hi and good-bye.  But the food at Olive Garden was awesome.  I hadn’t been there in so long.

Oh and I stayed awake all day!!!  Big deal for me really!  Thanks for making the trip with me Dawn…it was much needed girl time!

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Mayo Clinic

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I got the call that Mayo is going to take my case!!!  Happy Dance!  My series of appointments start on April 15th.  Good thing I already filed my taxes.  And a really good thing that my mom will be home from Florida and is available to drive out there with me.  Now to start filling out headache questionnaires and gathering all of my medical files.  Just hoping that they can get me some answers.   I have my next apt at MHNI on March 31st and I really hope that they will continue with me as a patient even though I am going to Mayo to try and get more answers about the why? the migraine started to begin with.  Hopefully they will do more extensive testing or having other ideas or who knows what!  But it can’t hurt at this point!  I am kind of excited about this journey.

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2nd Opinion

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So I have decided to see if I can get further answers about my migraines.  Right now and for as long as I have been going to my current head pain clinic, they have only been trying to treat it.  But no one has ever tried to get to the bottom of the cause and looked at it from that angle.  So I am on the phone right now with Mayo Clinic in Minneapolis.  Jeremiah and​ Kelly​ and Karen,​ who knows you might be seeing me on your front steps.

I finished giving them all the information that they asked for and confirmed with my insurance that Mayo is in-network.  So now I wait until the neurologists review my case and call for more information.  They said it would a couple of weeks for anyone to get back with me and then I will know more about what their suggestion is from that point.

Until then I have an apt with MHNI on March 31st to see what they have to say again and which medications they will change.  What other ideas they might have and then hopefully I will have a better idea about when they might see me at Mayo Clinic.