Hello Everyone!

My name is Becky, I'm new to using this site, although I had my surgery almost five years ago now. Since my surgeries I've had some reoccurring symptoms. They tended to have a schedule for the most part up until recently. I seemed to, toward the middle of every fall semester, have an episode where my TIA symptoms (weakness on the left side of my body) would come back full force, this usually landed me back home (2 1/2 hours away) in the hospital for an MRI scan. Every time these symptoms have occurred nothing new has shown up on my scan and my surgeon has adjusted my aspirin dosage as necessary but sent me on my way.

Recently the symptoms have expanded. I now occasionally get the weakness (once every few weeks to a month, sometimes a couple times in a week) on my left side, but I also have a strange tingling sensation that moves up my arm and stops at my shoulder. Earlier this year I had an episode like this that lasted for a few hours and moved into my left leg and the left side of my face as well. In the past year I've also started to experience migraines they may or may not be related.I went in to see my surgeon and he thinks I'm having small seizures or small TIA's, which might explain why they aren't showing up on my scans. (They aren't big enough to leave a mark). When I inquired about whether or not these symptoms are "normal" for patients he's had he said that they are quite abnormal this far into recovery, and only one of his patients has had significant problems. He said I still have options if the symptoms continue, the other patient, who had much more severe episodes than I'm having, had a second set of surgeries that seem to have been completely successful in solving the problem. I have an appointment in January to have another scan, I'm on a double dose of aspirin for the time being and we're going to go from there. Since I doubled my aspirin I have only had a few episodes and both lasted a significantly shorter amount of time.

Anyway that's my story. I'm wondering if anyone else has had similar symptoms so long after surgery? If anyone else has had to undergo a second set of surgeries and might be able to give some insight into the process and how successful it was.

Finally, a big reason why I might consider having the second surgery more than I usually would given the severity of the symptoms has to do with the chance of being able to successfully have a child without complications. If the second set of surgeries gives me a better chance of this I'd be much more likely to go through with it. I've read on here that many people with MMD are able to have children under close supervision by a team of doctors and through c-section births, but most of the people who said they had been successful also seemed to have successful original surgeries and no further complications. I was wondering if there is by chance someone who has had these further types of symptoms who has or hasn't had a second set of surgeries that was given or not given the go ahead for pregnancy and can give some insight into the pregnancy process, how it went, what it entails and so on. I'm not looking to have a child anytime soon, I'm only 21, but it's something I want to think about now, because it's something I want in the future. Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks everyone! I'm really happy I reconnected with this site, it's been really helpful for me since the re-surfacing of my symptoms.

Becky

Thank you so much Becky!

I'm sorry it's taken me so terribly long to respond to this, I got very got up in my life for awhile there. Thank you for the insight. I am graduating college in May and so stress may be a very big factor in my reoccurring migraines. I have an appointment this coming Monday actually to re-evaluate my treatment plan so hopefully I will get more answers then.

Thanks again for your help! I hope that everything continues to go well with you!

Becky