Neurologist Recap

It's time for yet another specialist recap (specialist physio recap here and ENT recap here). So despite it taking me 6 weeks to get into see the ENT, by some miracle it took only a week to see the neurologist as apparently my case was labelled urgent (which isn't something you want to be labelled but in my case it was a good thing) and the ENT was concerned. I had to move around my usual doctors appointment to the afternoon but having that appointment after I saw the neurologist gave me peace of mind and meant I could debrief with my doctor afterwards. 

So for starters why do specialists send small novels of paperwork to be filled out prior to the appointment? I had to sit down and fill out 10 pages of paperwork which were extremely thorough and covered everything from family medical history to what makes the dizziness worse (everything!) and my job and relationship statuses. I swear this paperwork made me dizzier than normal haha!

As I was having the balance tests on the day they rang me and gave me an appointment, I had to make sure the results (including graphs) were not just sent to the ENT but also the neurologist. 

So here's the thing I have had so many medical tests and gotten my hopes up so many times regarding this dizziness and at what point do I just give up and accept that this is my new reality? Prior to this appointment people would ask me how I felt about it and what I hoped to get from it, and I wouldn't know how to answer. On one hand I was hopeful because maybe the neurologist would have some idea of what is going on with me. On the other hand anxiety (I'm not kidding the anxiety started the moment I got the appointment and proceeded to get worse as the days went on) as if this neurologist couldn't help me there was no where really to go. 

Surprisingly the neurologist was 5 minutes away from me and super easy to get to, I've probably driven by the offices hundreds of times over the years and not noticed it (there's a line of houses that have been converted into medical offices), so that made things easier. My mum asked me multiple times if I wanted her to come with me and I felt like it would be more anxiety inducing to have her there and knowing I was seeing my GP in the afternoon meant that I could take notes and get him to translate for me if need be. Also it was super close so it wasn't like I was driving 20 plus minutes to get there unlike to other appointments.

I arrived 15 minutes early and chatted to the receptionist and also a physio who would be sitting in on the appointment.

It went for an hour and it was like the specialist physio all over again, the same tests except more questions and the same diagnosis at the end of it. So I got re diagnosed with vestibular migraines expect not inner ear but brain stem related (also the apparently the migraine diet I was on only helps 25% of those with vestibular migraines). He hadn't received the balance test results (and I hadn't received a call from the ENT with them either) but he assured me that they wouldn't show anything and would be normal. Physically I'm normal there is nothing that needs surgery or that would show up on any tests. So he has put me on this medication that can be used to treat high blood pressure and as my blood pressure is on the lower end of normal (which he kept telling me) I would need to see my GP to get it checked in two weeks to make sure it's not too low (the side affects can also include insomnia and crazy dreams). The medication also takes a while to work and I need to take it twice a day and not skip a dose as otherwise all the work gets undone and the levels go back to zero. 

Now this is where I got annoyed, the neurologist told me that due to the medication I'm on due to my anxiety (he also made the comment that I was on a high dose which it's not) he could only put me on two possible medications and if they don't work then it's anxiety. It is NOT my anxiety and it's been confirmed by my doctor and my psychologist multiple times and when I explained this he just ignored me and told that if medications then he would be talking to my psychiatrist about it (which I had to tell him I don't have, I was diagnosed by a psychiatrist but I see a psychologist and my GP specialises in mental illness). Look I get with seeing a specialist you don't expect them to have the best manner but at the same time I shouldn't have felt ignored. I do have a follow up appointment in 8 weeks (2 days after my 26th birthday) but I'm unsure if I will go, it just depends on how things are going.

So I get the script filled and get warned by the pharmacist that it's going to get worse before it gets better and the he hopes it goes well. I get home and just want to scream because once again I felt like I wasn't heard. I have lunch and message a few friends (and my psychologist) with updates on how the appointment went (not well). 

I go to my doctor's appointment and I am ready to throw something at him and realise that the pills I have just been prescribed are in a good sized bottle to throw (I joke but it did cross my mind!). Despite telling myself I wasn't going to cry the tears started to fall and the words spilled out. I told him about how I had seen the neurologist (which he didn't know), how I felt like it had been pointless and how annoyed I was about the results. He too got annoyed about how the appointment went down, especially the anxiety remark because he is 99% sure it isn't and feels like it's such a cop out when that gets said, because I see a psychologist and I'm on anti anxiety medication as well. He personally doesn't see the point in returning to the neurologist especially considering how it made me feel (he apologised for how I was treated and mentioned that he has had issues with him in the past) and the amount of money spent (I did get 60% of it back but it's still a lot of money). I am to take the medication as prescribed and we will check my blood pressure in 2 weeks, but he says it shouldn't be affected. Also hopefully at the next appointment my doctor will have notes from both the neurologist and ENT and we can reassess the situation then. At this point I am between a rock and a hard place and all I can do is try yet another medication and see what happens.