To Better Understand...

As life has become pretty busy in the last week, Brianna and I discussed the option of posting our story on a blog to better share with friends and family. We have decided to start tracking our story so others may have a chance to see through our eyes. We are currently at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN and if anyone is wondering, we don't live here and I am not applying for a job. Brianna is here for medical reasons of which I will explain shortly. In order to better understand where we are, it is important to know how we got here.

Where it all began...

In August, Brianna began to show symptoms of what seemed to be a sty in her left eye. A sty is a red painful lump near the edge of the eyelid that looks similar to a boil or pimple. Brianna has had a sty before and we knew that in due time the sty would resolve and all would be well. We waited a week or so and the sty didn't seem to be getting any better. Knowing we had an appointment coming up with Brianna's OB-GYN, we decided to wait until then to seek medical advice. At the doctor’s appointment, the physician thought it appeared to be a sty but further back in the eyelid and gave Brianna some eye drops to help her eye heal. We were informed that after a week if things had not gotten any better to call and let them know. After a week, not only did the eye not look any better it actually looked as if it was getting worse. We called the doctor’s office and they said give it a little more time for it to heal. Being a physician’s son and a health administrator, I was not completely in agreement with that decision so I scheduled an appointment for Brianna to see an ophthalmologist. My father agreed that this didn't look like a typical sty and agreed with the decision. The soonest appointment was about a week and a half away so we had to wait patiently to see what was going on.

In the meantime, Brianna's eyelid began to shut to where it became harder and harder for her to open her left eye. By the time we made it to the ophthalmologist Brianna could hardly open her left eye. The doctor spent a long time looking at Brianna's eye and examining her face. He ruled out Bell's palsy and determined that this was a 3rd cranial nerve palsy pupil sparing. What we had not realized was that Brianna wasn't just having issues opening her eyelid but she was also not able to move her left eye to the right, up, or down. (Thus the 3rd cranial nerve palsy). However, the pupil was dilating and working properly. (Thus pupil sparing). We asked the doctor what could be a possible cause and he said in a young patient like Brianna, this was not normal and feared this might have been caused by a brain aneurysm or a tumor. Very emotional, we left the office with a MRI scheduled for that afternoon. To make things a little more difficult, Brianna is pregnant and it is not suggested that pregnant woman be exposed to the contrast used in MRI's. The contrast simply makes things easier to see for the physicians but an MRI can be completed without contrast and still be useful. The MRI was on September 22 which was a Friday afternoon. We waited all weekend hoping for results but they didn't come in until Monday morning.

We were given the results on Monday and were informed that the cause could potentially be from demyelination or a low-grade glioma. Demyelination has to do with the neurons in the nervous system. The neurons (especially) in the brain have a myelin sheath that is around them. This allows protection but also allows signals to transmit a lot faster. Demyelination is typical for someone with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). The other opinion was a low-grade glioma which would be a small tumor. As we researched both of these, we felt that her symptoms were more aligned with MS. The ophthalmologist then determined that Brianna needed to see a Neurologist. He sent the information and an appointment was scheduled for Thursday October 12.

While we waited patiently for the Neurologist, Brianna seemed to only be getting worse. She started to have weakness in her right side of the body. It started with her right foot as it began to drag on the ground as she walked. This continued as she started to feel weakness in her right hand. She came close to dropping things often with her right hand and could tell that she was losing her strength. I then came home one night from work and noticed that her smile was drooping on the right side of her body. This was very concerning to me but we had already made the appointment with the Neurologist and thus all we could do was wait. We met with the Neurologist and she felt that this was being caused by a low-grade glioma and only a neurosurgeon could determine the diagnosis. She scheduled the appointment for Friday October 13. We met with the Neurologist the next day and he felt that it couldn't be a low-grade glioma as it had progressed too much and didn't follow any of the same symptoms. He felt that this was more likely an auto immune disorder. Luckily we had taken my father with us to the appointment and he asked what the Neurosurgeon would do if it was his wife and he stated that he would be on his way to the Mayo Clinic where he was trained to get answers. The decision was made that we would like to be referred to the Mayo Clinic. The Neurosurgeon stated he would start reaching out to colleagues immediately.

It was a terribly long weekend waiting for what the next steps would be for Brianna and her treatment. Over the weekend, she fell once and I could tell that she was becoming even more unstable. I also noticed that she was having difficulty at times articulating what she was thinking. She and I discussed the issues she was having and we decided to call the Neurosurgeon first thing Monday morning to let them know that even over the short span of the weekend that she had gotten a little worse. I called first thing Monday morning but was unable to reach anyone so I left a message. I attempted to focus on work but was worried that no one had gotten back with me. I figured if I didn't hear anything back from the office following lunch I would call again. During lunch the office called and stated that they had the Mayo Clinic on the other line and they were wondering if we could be at an appointment the next day at 7:30 am. I asked if I could look at plane tickets and was having a hard time finding tickets that would actually get us there. I luckily found plane tickets from Dallas, TX to Minneapolis, MN. The plane was leaving at 8:35 pm that night. I looked at dad and we decided we shouldn't wait. Arrangements were made for the flight, rental car and hotel as well as leaving Watson with family. We left College Station at 3:50 pm and got to the Dallas airport at 7:30 pm. We boarded the plane at 8:05 pm and took off at 8:35 pm. We landed in Minneapolis at 10:50 pm. We got our luggage, got the rental car and began the last leg of the trip to Rochester. We got to the hotel around 2 AM. We went to sleep hoping that the Mayo Clinic would be able to give the answers we were searching for.