-Just When I think I can Relax-

So I remember the term the doctor use to describe the 'uncomfortable yucky feeling' I have on my side.  Paresthesia.  It burns, it's painful, and sometimes it is just plain old yucky.  People who have had experienced any type of anxiety have had felt some form of it... the feeling of the hair standing on end.

I have it constantly, ten times more severe... and much more painful.  I no longer wear denim, it hurts my skin. 

So I look up conditions that could cause paresthesia, and there are many- RSD, fibromyalgia, lupus, vitamin B deficiencies, anxiety, I could go on...  but I narrowed my search to 'one sided paresthesia', and I came up with this article:

A 48-year-old right-handed female patient with a right aortic arch and history of tetralogy of Fallot repair as a child presented with recent episodes of severe headaches that resolved and episodes of left-sided numbness. On examination, the patient had no neurologic deficit. MR imaging of the brain was performed, which demonstrated tortuous dilated vessels in the right perimesencephalic region and mass effect on the brain stem. Cerebral angiography demonstrated a right proximal PCA dolichoectasia of the P2 segment supplied by a patent P1 segment and posterior communicating artery (Fig 1). Other areas of milder dolichoectasia were present with mild enlargement and tortuosity involving the right intracranial internal carotid artery, basilar artery, and distal right anterior inferior cerebellar artery.

READ MORE HERE 

The one test I haven't had done (recently) is an MRI of my brain.  And this article is, in short, is saying that the patient had a problem with the vascular system in her brain.  The majority of what I have read about one sided paresthesia involves the vascular system in the brain.  That scares me a lot.  My little sister (she was 25 at the time) had a stroke.  The entire left side of her brain basically died.  

 

The other condition I have read about are transient ischemic attacks (TIA) or 'mini strokes'.  These are one third of the time warning strokes to a larger stroke.

Now, I could be blowing everything out of the water, and worrying over nothing...  But I called Boston, none the less, and made sure I let them know I was very concerned, and wanted to know if they had gotten my records yet.  The receptionst found them, and when I told her I was experiancing left sided paresthesia, told me she would mark it as 'Urgent', so I would be seen as soon as possible. 

I'm not sure if I feel any better...  But hopefully I will know what is going on soon.  Until then, I need to just find something to do to keep me relaxed, and pain free.  The more good days, the better.