In order to rule out seizures and arterial inflammation in the brain, the neurologist had me do an EEG and MRA as well as do eight hours of testing with a neuropsychologist. I finished all those tests at the beginning of April and met with both the neuropsychologist and neurologist last week. I have neither seizures nor arterial inflammation in my brain. Yay!
What I do have is Cognitive Disorder Not Otherwise Specified.
Joyfully, this seems to be a subject that even a librarian is having a hard time finding any information about so all I can really go on is what my doctors told me, which is that I have impaired:
- motor skills (fine and gross)
- processing speed (or alternately, LD self-advocacy; just scroll down)
- working memory
- concentration
What this all translates to is that my brain is slow. Really slow. Some of my scores were so low that a sloth (or slow loris) picking random answers would probably have scored better than myself on the neuropsychological testing. The EEG showed significantly slowed brain wave reaction (long, rounded peaks) to having lights shone in my eyes; normally, and understandably, having a light shone in your eyes when you're half asleep results in sharper brain wave spikes. This occurs in some 35-75% of Lupus patients according to my doctors.
So I'm really sick! Yay! And it is normal! Double yay!
Sometimes I worry about my excitement over new issues with the Lupus but it really is a major stress reliever. Now I have a diagnosed issue rather than an issue everyone just attributes to me being flighty or an artist or another random excuse that they can ignore.
Also exciting was the fact that my boyfriend came with me. He has come to the doctors' with me but never into an actual appointment before. He doesn't really like doctors or medical stuff and it was pretty stressful for him. It is kind of nice to have him experience the stress I go through(though it's well hidden thanks to eight years of being sick). Perhaps now he will understand why I have to spend time crying before my appointments.
On a side note, the dizziness has nothing to do with the cognitive disorder. The neurologist sent me to an Ear, Nose, & Throat doctor and it looks like I might have something called a "fungal ball." I have two more tests to do to find out about that.
