More Health Updates

For those of you that are just getting to our blog (I know more and more are reading it each day) here is a brief update on where we are and why....

- January (2010): I noticed that Mark was taking more and more pain killers for headaches. We were both concerned about this but chalked it up to the stress of a move and dehydration and did some basic research on health with headaches to work to alleviate the pain for him.

- March: Mark saw the general doctor and he said to keep monitoring it and suggested a couple other basic things and to come back if things weren't better in a few weeks.

- May: we scheduled an apt with a neurologist since things weren't getting better, but they schedule quite far out so we had to wait till June to get in.

- June: we saw the neurologist who scheduled an mri just to check things out. On June 25th Mark had the first mri and was called back into the office immediately for more testings. They wanted to rule out possible stroke or other things with a ct and other tests. This mri showed that there was a 'brain slump' which is a casual term for the idea that the fluid surrounding the brain and going down into the spine (csf) was low and therefore not supporting the brain like it should. The common cause of this is a leak (usually from having a lumbar puncture - spinal tap or an epidural). They did a blood patch right away to try to fix any leak there might be even though Mark had never had a spinal tap or epidural.

- July: we were referred on to the mayo clinic in Rochester, MN. There we had a neurologist and neurosurgeon work together to try to figure out what was going on. Through some tests they realized that Mark had many leaks up and down his spine. We also found out that there is a tumor in Mark's brain as well, although not seemingly related issues.

- September: mayo seemingly was at a loss. They had done every procedure they knew to try to alleviate the leaks and even consulted with many other doctors on Mark's case. I asked where they would recommend we go for a second opinion and one place they said was Houston Medical Center. Since my sister and her husband live here we decided to try there first.

- October: Houston Medical Center called with an apt for the next day so we got Mark on a plane to come down here. He has been in Houston/Huntsville (where stephanie and travis live) ever since. The girls and I have been somewhat living back and forth.

Mark's symptoms include a severe headache, balance issues (he has fallen a number of times and now walks with a cane), speech, comprehension and memories problems, numbness and tingling in his hands and feet. His symptoms seem to be somewhat better at times with certain medicine, but overall his condition continues to decline. At this time the doctors do not think the tumor is the cause, but more that the symptoms related to the tumor are also from the brain slump (putting pressure on the tumor). The doctors have said that due to the 'brain slump' - that the longer is stays slumped the more symptoms will occur as the brain goes further down which can cause chiari issues (the brain is being pinched into the brain stem). He is now on disability for work. The prognosis is still uncertain, although we hope to have more answers to that at his appointments on December 7th.

I know for many of you this is just a repeat of what you know, but for those of you new to our blog and raising up prayers on our behalf, I hope this helps to 'catch you up'. Please continue to pray for Mark, that he can find relief for the pain and that the Lord will guide the doctors to an answer. Thank you for all the prayers that our raised each day on our behalf!