Sunday, March 29, 2020

Opening Up About My Health

Hello Everyone,
This post will be different from all the other posts on my blog in that it is not about Genealogy so much as it is about me.

You may notice that as time has gone on the frequency of my posts has decreased and several series posts never got follow ups. The reason is that for the past 2 years or so I have become increasingly disabled with a mystery ailment. The condition I find myself in is very complex, but to sum it up when my head is turned laterally I experience varying degrees of syncope (also known as passing out). It can be as minor as losing vision in one of my eyes for 20 seconds or as severe as a syncope-induced seizure.

Over these past two years I have experienced 3 concussions, gotten a minor nose fracture (which healed on it's own), crushed a number of cardboard boxes, broken a ceramic part of a shower, dented my rooms drywall, and more. As you can imagine this is not particularly pleasant for me. I have had to quit college and my job until everything is figured out. My cognitive functioning is not great as a side effect of the neurological effects constant lapses in consciousness have.

It looks like the end of my nightmare is finally drawing near. We discovered that I have mild to moderate bilateral venous thoracic outlet syndrome, a rare condition with my subtype being extremely rare. Unfortunately because of this crazy Covid-19 epidemic I won't begin treatment (which would include either physical therapy, surgery, or both) until at least May. vTOS doesn't explain all my symptoms, so I may need to continue searching for answers later.

This has been an update on my life, and I look forward to continuing my blog after it is all solved. Until then posts will probably be infrequent. Once this is all over I will definitely make a celebratory post letting you all know how I turned out.