Forward progress
My pain flareup is finally subsiding today, and also I had a followup appointment with my ENT and another CT scan on my sinuses, which found that I do not currently have sinus polyps, although I do have a mild deviated septum. The ENT thinks it’s not necessary to get surgery and that I can just continue to manage the occasional sinus infections as they come up, and that my usual ongoing management strategies are the way to go (which I assume means saline rinses and Sudafed, although we didn’t actually discuss those at all).
Last time he had also supposedly referred me to a VNG testing facility although I have no recollection of that and never got any paperwork. I have gotten (re?)referred to them and hopefully they can do more specific testing of my vestibular function.
He’d also given me a referral to a physical therapist for vestibular rehabilitation, but the one he referred me to didn’t take my insurance and were a bit out of the way for me, and he didn’t respond to my inquiry about that. This time he said that I can go to any PT who does vestibular stuff and I can get a referral just about anywhere, and he suggested a few other clinics that are a bit closer to me and likely to take my insurance, but I took the initiative to find a PT that’s in walking distance of my house, does vestibular stuff, and takes my insurance. So now they’re going to fax the referral to them. It’s a little annoying that I’d have to do this kind of admin work when they’re the ones who are supposed to be the subject matter experts (including the matter of getting further treatment), but oh well. I have an intake appointment scheduled for March 11.
I also have a neurology followup on March 6 where I can discuss the other stuff from my first CT scan (including a thing that the ENT called out) as well as my migraines, since that’s something the neurologist mentioned as a possible cause when I first saw him.
I used to get really bad migraines pretty frequently before I got my hormones in balance to normative-female levels, and I had identified several specific triggers as well, particularly overwhelming sounds and smells (things like Febreeze and scented cat litter and laundry detergent and such).
I’d been pretty much completely migraine-free post-orchiectomy until a couple weeks ago, when I got a really bad one as a passenger in a car. I am pretty sure that migraine was triggered by a much more intense version of what normally triggers my dizzy spells while driving (the driver was a bit, eh, eccentric, let’s say), so that tells me that it is quite possible that a lot of this is indeed neurological. My working theory is that seeing motion in my visual field (especially my peripheral vision) triggers dizziness, and an overwhelm of that then turns into a migraine.
Anyway. I’m cautiously optimistic about maybe being able to get my life back, as far as being able to drive goes, anyway. I’m much less optimistic about the pain shit, but, y'know. Any port in a storm.