Well, we finally had a not-so-bad appt for once! I took Logan to see the neurologist today about his cranial muscle atrophy, twitching eye and tremoring jaw! Of course I had myself convinced that it was probably a nerve or brain tumor by the time we got to the appointment! I really liked the doc and her assistant. She's affiliated with the hospital we've been going to (and I was trying to sort of avoid that), but I was pleased. So, nerve damage from the surgery is not the issue. Actually, it's not anything nerve-related at all. It's strictly muscle related and has been singled out as an auto-immune issue. Basically Logan's immune system has decided to attack his own muscle fiber. Luckily, because the masticulatory muslces are such a specific type of muscle, the issue should not be seen in any other muscle group. This isn't necessarily related specifically to the cancer, and we really don't know for sure why Logan has this and why now. There are lots of tests we could get done to find out exactly why (muscle biopsies, etc.), but we see no need. The doc thought perhaps (in her words) "the cancer pissed off Logan's immune system and now it's lashing out"! lol. So - doc assured us that she is confident Logan is in no pain or experiencing any discomfort due to the atrophy. She feels the jaw tremor is simply weakness since his mandibulectomy, and the eye rolling/twitching is because he no longer has a sufficient muscle structure behind the eye. She told us to keep an eye on his jaw movement (if it becomes difficult for him to open or close his mouth, it could evolve into something more serious). She suggested that we go for two blood tests at some point to rule out toxoplasmosis and one other thing that I wrote down but don't have in front of me. If Logan tests negative for both of these, then prednisone long term should not be an issue as long as it remains a very low dose.
Well - that's it for now!
Good night!
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