Copied from my other blog written 1/16/10 Mini-Stroke??? or Inner Ear Infection???

In an effort to bring the blog back to Earth, more real, a friend mentioned I was getting too esoteric, I posted about how hard it is to sell Jags, in upstate NY.
Now I'll tell you about the first serious blip in my health, other than broken ankles, since I was a kid. It happened on the afternoon of December 11, 2009, and I don't mind saying...it scared me. It's easy to talk if you've never been ill, and even now I'm not 100% sure, but it was enough to scare me.
I was feeling fine, and was cooking some bacon to make a bacon sandwich. Always been one of my favorites, a pound of bacon, two slices of bread and Frenches Mustard. Anyway, the light was out in the hood over the stove. So while the bacon was cooking, I bent over and looked up under the hood, taking the screws out so I could get to the light bulb. Suddenly I felt dizzy, so I straightened up. The dizziness went away. I got a new bulb, and again bent over and looked up, changing the bulb and replacing the cover and screws. Suddenly I was dizzy again. This time so bad I almost fell, I sat down and it went away after a few minutes, when I stood it came back, so bad if I didn't hang on to something I'd have been on the floor. I finished cooking the bacon, put it on a plate, cleaned the frying pan, then took the bacon and went in my room and laid down, taking a nap. When I woke it had subsided. But now when I stood and walked I veared to the right, and if I turned my head too fast the dizziness returned. I worked the following day, driving was no problem, it only bothered me when I got out of the van and walked or stood. A couple days later I was going to work again, so in a bout of self medication, I took 10 Tylinol, 8 Centrum Vitamin tablets, a couple of allergy pills, and 4 or 5 Echinacea pills. Which I WON'T DO AGAIN. The next day I noticed that the right side of my head, starting at the nape of my neck, passing over down my face through my nose, and stopping at my chin was numb. The right side of my mouth felt like I'd had a Novocain shot. Also I could only swallow food with difficulty, if I took too big a bite, it would block my throat, choking me. Fortunately I was able to cough up the food each time. Over the last couple of weeks this has not gone away, but has susided to a mild numbness, the skin only is numb. I've learned to take small bites and chew. Everything works, there's no droopyness in the eye or mouth just numb skin. I have wondered if this was something else, perhaps a pinched nerve, from sleeping on my side, head, not neck supported. As it stands at this point, I'm fine except for balance issues if I move suddenly, numb facial skin, and overall weakness/lack of stamina. I was convinced I had an inner ear infection (although it showed up suddenly), others have me two thirds convinced it was a tsa or mini-stroke. Also for some time I've had poor circulation in both lower legs, and laying on my back under a car working on it would make me dizzy and nautious, but it went away as soon as I sat up. Everybody thinks I'm an idiot for not going to the hospital, or a Dr. but I'm convinced that they couldn't tell me any more than I already know, take an aspirin daily, and they'd charge thousands of dollars running tests to tell me that. Maybe I am an idiot, I guess we'll see.

Lee Murray

From my other blog Update Mini-Stroke or Ear Infection????

To recap briefly, 12/11/09 cooking bacon and changing light bulb under hood on stove. Got dizzy, light headed, nauseous and threw up. A couple days later skin on right side of face went shot of novocain numb, and couldn't swallow except with difficulty choking easily. Since I wrote the original post on 1/16/10 there have been changes, improvements, different diagnosis'...
To start the difficulty swallowing and choking on food finally pretty much went away around the end of January. The numb skin is better, less but still numb. It starts at the nape of my neck, comes over my head down my face through the nose to my chin. My head is split right through the middle, right side numb, the left side normal. I got several opinions from friends that it was a TIA, a stroke, a brain tumor...
I broke down and got medical Insurance, and found it incredibly difficult to find a doctor. I had a list from the insurance company and called them. Nobody was taking new patients. Finally one considered taking me on, so I filled out a bunch of paperwork about two or three weeks ago, and they finally called two days ago with an appointment the end of this month, on the 28th. It's nice to see the medical profession doing so well that they don't need, or want, new customers (patients). Anyway, tired of waiting, I went to the hospital in Hamilton last week. Everyone was very nice, I saw the ER doctor, after talking to me and doing a cat scan and blood tests, he came back and said not to over-react, but they had found several ???? infarctions in the pictures of my brain. That he didn't think it was a stroke or a brain tumor, that based on the infarctions it might be MS. That I should make an appointment with the Neurologist, get a MIR which will give better pictures, and not to worry... Right, don't worry.
So I called, made an appointment, and saw the Neurologist yesterday. After talking to me, doing some simple tests, watching me walk, etc. She told me that in her opinion, it wasn't MS, that I'd had one or more TIA's. She'd looked at the pictures from the CT scan and it was too unclear to say what the problem was for sure.
So I'm now taking more tests, before I left the hospital I had two ultra sounds, one of the arteries in my neck, and one of my heart. The one of my heart showed a possible small hole, I think she said in the atria wall, which if it's there, could possibly have allowed a clot to pass through, maybe causing the ATI, if that's what happened to me. The MIR is being set up, who knows what else. So far they've told me to keep taking the baby aspirin, which I prescribed myself in December when this started.
So now I go back today for more tests, some kind of bubble test ultra sound, and to see a cardiologist. The good news is it's a heart problem. As I said to a friend, a heart problem can be fixed, MS can't, so I'll take a heart problem. So that's where I'm at now