Medical Clearance

Well, it has been a long and stressful month, and I am so thankful that I can finally relax and be at peace. This year has been really rough for James and myself because I have had near-constant, mysterious health problems that have caused me more than my fair share of anxiety. Luckily, all of the tests the doctors have run came back saying that I am perfectly healthy and normal, so I can finally relax and try my best to heal (physically as well as emotionally.)

The most recent bout of problems relates to the back surgery I had four and a half years ago to correct a bad case of scoliosis. It was a pretty serous operation. As you can see from the image at the side there, they had to straighten out two large curves in my spine and secure two titanium rods to my vertebrae to hold the correction in place. Up until a few months ago, my back and muscles have been feeling ok - a twinge here and there, but nothing to be really alarmed about.

However, a couple of months ago, I started having bad headaches and disturbing bouts of numbness and tingling in my limbs - particularly on my left side. Understandably, I was concerned since many of my symptoms are reminiscent of a stroke. However, all of the blood work and tests from neurologists, cardiologists, etc. said that I should be normal and healthy. After a while the symptoms went away so I relaxed and tried my best not to think about what could be wrong with me.

Of course, that only lasted so long. The numbness and tingling came back at the beginning of January after I started trying to ramp up my exercise routine to help build up some much-needed muscle. I figured maybe my symptoms had something to do with straining myself while working out, so I went to see the doctor again and ask if he thought seeing a physical therapist might help. He said he was willing to send me to see a therapist who is trained to handle my kind of problem. However, he also wanted to have me do a full MRI - just to make sure I don't have some sort of big auto-immune problem like Multiple Sclerosis.

... =^O

Yeah... SO I had to live with that idea floating around in the back of my mind for over three weeks until they could get me in to do the MRI and scan my brain for any lesions or signs of a deep, underlying problem. To make matters worse, all of this was coming at the time that I needed to start processing my medical clearance to move to Misawa. I was very stressed and worried that something was going to show up that would force the medical staff to reject my application and force us to be reassigned. I know it doesn't sound like a huge deal to have to go somewhere else, but after finally working up the nerve to leave the country, I want to do it now rather than waiting until later in life when it would be more difficult.

Thankfully, all of the tests came back negative so I can sleep easier knowing that I am, in fact, healthy. I may not always feel like it, but there is nothing internally wrong with me. Also, the physical therapist I've been going to is wonderful and has been really helping me get back into better shape. He says that he thinks the problem is mainly stemming from the fact that my core muscles are so weak that I am not getting the support I need. As a result, my lower spinal column and shoulder/neck muscles are having to work harder to compensate for that lack of support and it's putting a lot of strain on those tendons that go down to my hands and feet. Also, the muscles around my shoulder blades where the surgeons did a lot of cutting during the surgery are so weak that my shoulder blades are not sitting where they should. So we've been working on correcting that problem.

I still have a week or two left of therapy, but with everything that they have taught me, I should be able to continue to care for myself and get stronger at home. This is the first time I've done any kind of serious physical therapy since the surgery so I'm hoping it will be another several years until I'll need to go back again.

The final bit of good news came yesterday (Wednesday, Feb. 24th) when I had my final meeting with the heads of the Medical Group here a the base to discuss my medical clearance. They went through all of my paper work and my whole medical file, and after asking me a ream of questions, they said that they didn't see any reason why I shouldn't be able to go to Misawa. Apparently the final decision rests with the receiving base...so it's still not 100% official yet. However, they gave us the paper work we need to submit to get our official orders processed... so it sounds like I'm good unless I hear from them. No news is good news - so I am now officially planning on being in Japan in 2 months!!