Has anyone else had experience of this?

Brain and nerves
1

I am a 56yr old woman with a very complex set of health problems. 

Just before Christmas last year I had a UTI and chest infection and was prescribed antibiotics. 6 days later, I had an absolute stunner of a headache, we were so concerned the day before Christmas Eve that I saw my GP, who suggested it was a migraine the first for 20 odd years!

I was determined to enjoy Christmas with my family but suffered from serious fatigue. 

I then started to have bi lateral leg weakness and numbness and blurred and double vision that lasted a few minutes each time,  daily, over the next 5 days. At the time I thought it was my other neurological condition flaring until it happened twice in the same day on the 2nd of January and I was standing this time and I had no control over my legs at all, vision disturbance and problem swallowing. My husband decided to take me back to the GPs. A locum sent me to A & E thinking it was a reoccurrence of cauda equina (I knew it wasn’t!)

The A & E doc was concerned as  there was still weakness in both my legs and an exacerbation in my nystagmus (eye wobble). 

As the hospital was packed and he believed I was not suffering a life threatening condition he allowed me to go home and report to the medical assessment ward the next morning. 

The new docs were unimpressed with me the next day and were ready to send me home until a blood test came back with a significantly high eosinophil (a white cell)  count. I was then

I was sent to a high dependency ward with eosinophilia (a life threatening condition that is very rare and I had never heard of!) the eosinophils act like an auto immune and attack the body systems. The most common organs they invade and damage are the heart, lungs and skin. In very rare instances they invade the central nervous system or gastro intestinal tract.  I was seen by a neurologist. He booked a mass of tests to find the cause of the raised eosinophils. It turned out it was a reaction to the antibiotics and once stopped the eosinophils began to decline and my new neurological symptoms stopped. 

I was booked to have a head MRI as an in patient but the machine broke and I finally had the head scan as an outpatient the end of January. 

Thank you if you’ve stayed with me to now. 

Fast forward to today. 

Saw my own GP for the first time this year and in passing asked if I was correct in thinking the head scan was normal as I hadn’t heard anything? 

Imagine my shock when he tells me there are several areas of ischemia. 

So a referral has gone into the TIA clinic, I’m having a fasting cholesterol test tomorrow morning and he wants to start me on aspirin as soon as I’ve had my surgery next week (it was cancelled as I was in hospital in Jan)

My questions are:

Has anyone else had TIAs due to/in combination with eosinophilia? 

Would I be correct in thinking that each time I had a daily episode of leg weakness etc, that was a new TIA? 

Is surgery safe if I haven’t been checked by any clinic or taken any preventative medications?

Thank you so much in advance, i am still in the processing phase. 

2

I see that the US is not the only country where medical care suffers a lot in communication. I got a call the other day about a blood test results and a nurse called me with the results of a blood test. I knew I had not had a blood test in ages. She looked it up and it was a blood test I did on January 29th! And she's finally calling me in March with the results! Fortunately for me the test was negative. But this kind of behavior is inexcusable of every doctor you saw. I don't know anything about that particular disease you had but I think that the first doctor you saw should have ordered an MRI or a CT to rule out a stroke or TIA and that was very bad doctoring. The eye and vision changes you experienced are typical stroke symptoms. And of course your GP who never contacted you about the results of the MRI is irresponsible too. Personally I'd get another doctor. Actually I did get another doctor. I was with mine for 25 years and in the last 7 or so years his service has gone down so I made the decision to move on to another doctor.

3

My feeling is that it would be wise to check those neurological symptoms before having surgery. Too many unanswered questions! And shabby treatment too. In that you're not alone though that's no consolation. Best wishes and hope you get resolution.

4

Morning

All the way through this my head was shouting Sepsis.

Take care x

5

Thank you to the folk that answered my message. I have taken on board your comments. 

I’ve decided to go seas with the surgery on Tuesday as it’s been cancelled twice already. 

I’m very grateful for the time spent on replies.