Update on DH

[Rajah]

Heidi -- supposedly, he is taking the blood pressure medicine. Or so he says.

I really wish I'd known about TIAs being able to hit younger people as well when he had the first incident. I wouldn't have let him slide with a "no appointment for 3 weeks" bit if I had. Thanks to y'all, I was ready for that as a possible diagnosis after I did finally drag the idiot in.

But he's going in to these other appointments if I have to call someone to help me get him there. So far, threatening with my martial arts instructor has worked. LOL! I'll be going with him next week as well.

The dr didn't mention an MRI or CAT, but he did say an EEG if the bloodwork came back as he's expecting. What's the difference between an MRI, CAT, and EEG?

 

[heidica]

Rajah - an EEG looks at your brain waves - it is the one where all the wires are hooked up to your head and when they run it you get several wavy lines that are used to determine brain function. An extreme example would be to determine if someone hooked up to complete life support has any brain function. To be honest I am not that familiar with EEG's. I did wonder if the Doctor told you they would do an EKG and you heard EEG? EKG's show you the electrical activity of the heart and they can see changes on it that might indicate if he has had any heart damage.

CAT scan (or CT) is a really fancy x-ray. It is the one you lie down and are moved into a tube (you are also in a tube in a MRI). CT scans are really helpful to look at bone structure and blood vessels (especially with constrast). If we suspect someone has had a stroke we first do a CT to determine if the stroke was caused by bleeding into the brain or a blood clot (the difference determines how you treat someone who has had a stroke). Then an MRI is done to get a better view of the part of the brain involved and how much brain tissue has "died". MRI's are better to look at soft tissue and use magnetic technology to do it, versus radiation with a CT scan. Both CTs and MRIs can give you the layered scans, so you can look at different "sections" of the brain or whatever body part you are scanning.

This is a really simplified explanation of EEG, CT's and MRI's and I don't know all the technology of how the machines work, I just know how they are used as diagnostic tools where I work. An EKG could easily been done at the Doctor's office, while often the MRI or CT has to been done at a special office.

 

[Carl]

I didn't see the other thread. Good luck with getting him to cooperate with the doctors. Maybe they can scare him into it. My prayers will be with you.
Carl

 

[Rajah]

Heidi -- nope, he emphasized EEG, and had an EKG done there at the office with the bloodwork. The EKG came back clean. He didn't mention anything about an MRI or CT, which surprises me. Thanks for the quick rundown on each type.

Carl -- That's one thing I like about this dr -- he's very aggressive about it. And gave DH a good talking-to about ignoring the symptoms. The old "Ignorance is bliss and then you die" thing.

 

[dvcfamily41801]

Hope everything is okay Tammi.

 

[Micca]

Rajah I hope it goes well