Tomorrow Barbara and I head to Houston to try to deal with my current ailment. A few weeks ago, trying to get to the bottom of mild dizziness and unsteadiness that i have been experiencing lately, my New Orleans internist recommended a visit to a local neurologist, who - after going over my current medical records - suggested an MRI of the brain. A small aneurysm in my frontal lobe was discovered, and was confirmed by an MRA two days later. Dr John Wise, my great internist, suggested second opinions, and I asked him to consider those of specialists in Texas, which has a terrific medical community with which I have had great success before. New Orleans has some fine medical people, but all the best hospitals were washed away by Katrina, and many of the best specialists and surgeons moved on to cities where their careers and families would have a brighter future. I dont blame them ... New Orleans institutions fell apart for several years - and an out-of-work orthopedist in a town with no power, schools or protection cant deal with that. Things are improving everyday, but it is very slow. Dr Wise recommended a great Houston neurosurgeon, Dr. Gavin Britz, a South African trained there and at Duke University in North Carolina, who is the Chairman of Neurosurgry at Methodist Hospital of Houston, one of the pillars of the Texas Medical Center. Great credentials, and after a long conversation with him in his office a day or two later I concluded that he is most likely a terrific brain surgeon but if he were a candidate for public office he would not likely get my vote. We all have choices to make, right? So after two weeks of studies Dr Britz and his great staff have concluded that the aneurysm I am dealing with does not pose an immediate threat, but that the imminent threat of all such brain irregularities is that - should it burst - death is almost certain. Not my choice - or his - so he will try to repair it after a diagnostic angiogram he proposed to conduct this coming Wednesday afternoon. That procedure is meant to educate him and his team on the best medical approach to deal with my problem. After this afternoon-long procedure, Dr Britz will decide which course to take, an arterial approach through my brain to determine if a soft solution can be more effective ... i.e. stents, etc, or a cranial entry where a repair can be made surgically. We will know in a few days. I am tempted to use the old it aint brain surgery line but it is. But that line is generations-old, and the medical knowledge and techniques available to us now are even newer than today. I know I will be fine, and will give you some kind of word after Wednesday or Thursday. Incidentally, when this was all coming together we had an old physician friend over to our new home in New Orleans for a drink after work. When I led him to my little closet bar in the dining room to pour him a toddy, he called Barbara Mcclung in and told her, Darling, I think I have gotten to the bottom of Dans dizziness problem Asshole!
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 01:56:18 +0000
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