A few weeks ago Sophie and I went and saw the movie Cinderella. Have you seen it? If not, you really should. It’s a truly beautiful movie with a lovely message: Have Courage And Be Kind.
As we left the movies that day Sophie turned to me and said, “I loved that quote of have courage and be kind. Imagine if everyone lived their life like that. The world would be amazing and people could do anything!”
Fast forward a couple of weeks and I find myself lying inside a very narrow steel tube with a canula in my arm, my eyes firmly shut and a panic button being held fairly tightly in my left hand.
Yep, there’s nothing quite like having an MRI done on your brain to make you think the words, have courage be kind over and over to yourself while a machine whizzes around your head to make sure the vision problems and numbness on the left side of your face isn’t being caused by anything nasty!
During that 35 minute procedure on Monday I may have also thought a number of things including but not limited to:
This is f*&king bullshit.
Turns out I am slightly claustrophobic after all.
Please let there be nothing there.
Except of course a brain. Really hope they find one of those.
I could never do a Chrissie Swan and go on one of those hideous reality shows where they shove you in a box and fill it with cockroaches.
This is NOTHING like being at a Day Spa
I’m still waiting for the results from the MRI to come back and if they’re all clear then the next step is a lumbar puncture. GOOD TIMES!
You see I’ve got some pesky thing happening where my body has decided to produce too much spinal fluid. It’s managed to work its way up to my head, which is causing a bit of pressure on my optic nerves.
The eye doctor I saw last week told me it’s rare with 1 in 100,000 people diagnosed with it a year – how lucky am I to be that one?!
He was also very pleased I’d trusted my instincts and insisted on getting a referral to see him as left untreated, the end result is complete vision loss.
Have Courage
I first noticed my eye sight playing up a bit back in December so I made an appointment to see my Optometrist in January – “You’re all good. Nothing wrong with your eyes”
There was no improvement by February, so I made a follow up visit to my local GP – “Optometrists are usually very thorough. If he said there’s nothing wrong, there’s nothing wrong”
By March my symptoms had progressed from slightly patchy vision to constant dizzy spells, facial numbness and my left eye blacking out for a few seconds whenever I stood up. I made an appointment with a different GP and insisted there was something wrong and please could I see a specialist of some kind to get this sorted? – “Yes, you might have a point there. I will write you a referral to see a Opthamologist.”
The ophthalmologist has FINALLY got to the bottom of things – “You’ve got swollen optic nerves. I am so pleased you’re here today. This is quite serious” – and we’re on our way to getting it sorted.
Be Kind
So if there’s one thing we can all learn from this slightly confronting situation, it’s this: listen to your body.
You know your own body better than anyone. If there’s anything, anything at all, that doesn’t feel right, please go and get it seen to.
And if you hit a few road blocks/busy GP’s/clueless optometrists along the way, don’t give up.
Have Courage Be Kind and keep knocking on doors until every possible avenue is exhausted and you’re 100% certain you’re ok.
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