Update on my Pain in the Neck

It's gone! As of an hour ago, it's gone!

This is what your temporal arteries look like

Hi friends, I thought I should bring you up to date on my headaches and where we are with them now. As of about an hour ago, I’m finally pain-free. The blessed steroids have kicked in. So now I can concentrate.

Remember when I told you about the Royal Pain in my Neck? Well, let me tell you what’s happened since then. Though I didn’t know it at the time, I was lucky enough to find the best E.R doctor I could ever have imagined. I dissed him in my last post because I thought he didn’t believe me about the Giant Cell Arteritis, but it turns out he did.

And he was right when he said it can only be diagnosed with a biopsy. I’m this old and I thought biopsies were only done when cancer was suspected. Wrong! But that’s what made me balk. I thought a biopsy was overkill. Instead, it’s standard procedure for a suspected temporal arteritis (another name for Giant Cell, though not nearly as fun).

Anyway, my E.R doctor, who is quite handsome in a McDreamy sort of way, made it his mission to get me in to see someone to have a biopsy ASAP. (I didn’t know it was for a biopsy, I thought it was for an ultrasound, but I’ll get to that.)

I needed a referral and I was new in town and I needed it quick, so McDreamy looked around for someone and finally called a friend in Ear, Nose, and Throat who said sure, send her in.

I questioned why I was seeing someone in Ear, Nose, and Throat when it was my head and back that was the problem, and his friend (who was also quite handsome…) kindly explained that he was the only one McDreamy could find who could see me in a hurry.

So within days I was sent to see a vascular doc who I thought would be doing an ultrasound. But, no, I was there for a biopsy. This also good-looking doc was a surgeon and he was scalpel-ready. So we talked. I said I didn’t think I wanted a biopsy. He said, “I’m only the surgeon. I’m here to please. I’m not going to push this on you if you’re not ready.”

And we talked some more. And he explained that this particular disorder, the one I had originally diagnosed on my own, requires a biopsy in order to pin it down. And he explained how he would do the biopsy, which was really pretty simple. After numbing my left temple he would make a slit and cut out a small piece of artery. Not a vein, an artery. Which, he told me, I would never miss.

He was ever so patient, knowing all along, I think, that I was going to go for it, and when I finally said, “Yeah, let’s do it!”, he seemed genuinely happy.

And he did it.

And it hardly hurt. When he was finished, he asked me if I wanted to see the little rascal, and I said, “Sure!”, and it looked like a two-inch long piece of limp spaghetti. (See photo above.)

And so far I haven’t missed it.

But more about McDreamy, the E.R doc. Throughout all of this he was calling me. First to make sure I was doing okay on the steroids, then to make sure someone had contacted me and that I had appointments, first for the referral, then later for the biopsy. He gave me his number and told me to call him personally if anything went wrong. I don’t think he had to do that but he did, and it really did ease this whole thing for me. Someone in my corner. Someone I hadn’t even known before. (I’ll be writing a letter. I probably won’t call him ‘McDreamy’.)

So the biopsy came back yesterday and sure enough—it’s temporal arteritis. Caught soon enough it reacts well to steroids, but if left it can cause blindness in one or both eyes, heart problems, and possible strokes.

I’m very lucky it was caught soon enough. They don’t yet know how long I’ll have to be on steroids—it’s an autoimmune disease and it depends on how well my body can fight itself—but they’ll be monitoring my progress and making adjustments and we’re hoping it’ll be weeks or months and not years.

But I’m in good hands.

I saw my new doctor yesterday, too. She’s a resident newly working in a group, and I felt I had to be honest with her about my concerns that she might not have had enough gerontology background to catch the signs in an old person that would indicate different treatment.

She assured me she’d had some training in older people but would be consulting with the other docs in the group over most of my care for a while.

I asked her what she thought I should do about this, that and the other thing so I wouldn’t come off as someone who didn’t trust her, and we got along well, I thought. I liked her! And I felt she liked me. That’s all I can go on for now.

So we’ll see where this takes me. I’m not keen on steroids because of their notorious side effects, but being hopped up isn’t all bad!

Who knows what I can do as Superwoman?

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