I just could not escape

[Angel269]

Hi Rory

I read your story and could relate to the braces at school to a degree.

I was generally bullied alot and the thought of braces after seeing them on other people horrified me. I became dental phobic after refusing braces and refrained from visiting the dentist for about 7 years-I got there in the end and just needed 3 fissure sealants.

I realised that fear of braces and my general dental phobia were making me miserable-my teeth made my conscious to meet and talk to people let alone smile. When my son was born and began teething and also had a midline diastema I realised I had to deal with my teeth otherwise my fears would prevent my son from having braces if he still needed them as a teen.

I'm now 3 months in and have seen drastic improement in my teeth (feel free to look at my pics on my sig/link).

I hope that your upcoming appointments go as well as possible.

[crooked rory]

Hi, I have not posting much in a while. My mouth is doing well My head is not. I complained to my orthodontist on Tuesday about frequent headaches (3 to 5 days a week) which gotten been getting worse. He asked me if I grind my teeth, which only happens when stressed, and not while asleep. He thinks I may need orthognathic surgery, but he still wants avoid that. He gave me an appointment in 1.5 weeks to get rubber bands to try to close my bite. Two days later, I had to the go ER because a sudden loss of 3/4 of my right vision. I only had this happened twice, one during my stroke, and one where I got pretty bad hypothermia. One neuroligist (Dr. G) said that I had a TIA, and was transfered to a trauma-1 facility, westchester medical center. They did EEG, MRI, CT, and found no signs of new damage, and even the WMC neuroligist was surprised how my brain healed from the stroke. I was very surprised that Dr. M told me that I likely did not have a TIA, though prescribing a stronger anticoagulant. He said that I likely had a very rare migraine with aura, but with no headache or other symptoms. He felt that migraine used the neurological damage from the stroke to focus in its neural pathways. It seems to make sense to me as I have had unilateral headaches for years. He let me go home from Neuro-intensive care unit after 24 hours. I am confused because I had always assumed the headaches were from jaw issues. I always assumed that the headaches will go when my mouth is fixed. Now I feel that I am back to square one.

[Kipepeo]

Hi Rory, great to hear from you. I'm sorry to hear about your episode. Maybe the elastics will help get your bite right, and perhaps that will help with headaches, even migraines.

I once had a visual aura with no pain. I've never had a migraine that I'm aware of. It was a classic visual aura with the geometric flashing shapes in a sickle formation. I had no idea it was rare.

[lilone]

Hi Rory. Just wanted to say that I'm sorry you have been dealing with headaches. You have been through a lot in the last while and I hope this problem is soon resolved and surgery is avoided. I also get migraines and I have once had a painless visual migraine. If didn't lose my vision but did start seeing spots and streaks and everything seemed to have a brightness to it. A very odd thing to experience! Hopefully it is a one time thing and you don't get a TIA scare like that again. Best of luck!

[crooked rory]

Hi Rory, great to hear from you. I'm sorry to hear about your episode. Maybe the elastics will help get your bite right, and perhaps that will help with headaches, even migraines.

I once had a visual aura with no pain. I've never had a migraine that I'm aware of. It was a classic visual aura with the geometric flashing shapes in a sickle formation. I had no idea it was rare.

Well, I noticed I missed a detail about the very rare comment. Aura's without a headache are not common, but are not in any way rare. He strongly suspects that I have Call Fleming Syndrome, which is also called Reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome. Oddly he diagnosed a TIA, with no written diagnosis of the syndrome. Dr. Call and Dr. Fleming did a study in 1988 at Mass General, and found that arteries constrict can cause headaches and related neurological issues. Dr. M from WMC said this from when I was first admitted in August, based on drug interactions. My local neurologist, Dr. O, does not believe the Call Fleming diagnosis, based there no way to diagnosis it unless you can get into a brain CT angiograph while ongoing symptoms.

My orthodontist seems to be nervous about my treatment. Just felt a vibe... I mentioned the TIA when scheduled for rubber bands. He just checked my mouth, and he had to make some calls (related to me) and rescheduled. I'll find out on 4/8/13