Good to hear you have it in good hands Mike!

I wouldn't expect anything else from you but still worry nonetheless when I hear about a TIA. I don't have the kind of scientific mind you have but I used to teach emergency first aid and a TIA was always a great topic for conversation amongst the flight attendant group I was instructing. I would usually need to let them share their experiences on board with passengers with this type of medical emergency and then reign them back into the subject at hand "How to treat a TIA".

How did your appointment go with the independent radiologist today? I know how frustrating the cognitive effects from the meds and pain are for you and I'm very interested in the results of your appointment. I hope for you it's just a matter of the meds, something that can be changed.

I'm curious because yesterday we had our first day of heavy cold fall rains here, I knew it as soon as I woke up in the morning, my pain had increased significantly and my brain function seemed to be slowed down to the point of not being able to function properly. I had trouble moving about the house, not to mention navigating the 3 levels of stairs here. But getting the words out was such a struggle; even as I sat to type on the computer everything was jumbled nothing matched on the screen to what my brain was thinking . I have trouble organizing my daily routine, responsibilities when this happens and my husband can see it in my eyes, he just tells me to rest. I thank god for the Google toolbar spell check because I seem to be typing everything backwards. It was very noticeable yesterday and I had purposely decided to stop taking my 1200 mg of ibuprofen because I'd been experiencing very uncomfortable bowel /stomach pain under my left rib for the past few days (this has been going on for a few months off and on). I'm at the tail end of my Lidocaine and have always relied on the ibuprofen as a first line of defence and daily stable but I fear it's now causing harm with my intestines despite taking it with food. I wondered if it was possible to have withdrwals from ibprofen? I had to have one tonight along with a Tylenol 3, just couldn;t stand it the pain any longer and I'm thinking a little more clear now.

So bottom line is I'm not on very much medication yet I can I can feel this type of increasing pain lowering my cognitive abilities. Is this what you meant when you referred to the feeling of the wind –up phase coming on?

I hope you are well today.

MsL

PS: (Please send out some good prayers and positive thoughts for me. Tomorrow we have another showing of our house and we really need someone some help to make the other very interested buyers decide to make us an offer. It's been a tough market to try to sell in and I need all the help we can get to make it a reality so I can to move to one level living and be with my husband this winter)