Pressure

   Shortly after his last surgery, Chris began to have horrible headaches and problems with his eye.  His right eye would not move to look to the right and was causing double vision.  (A problem with the 6th cranial nerve).   Thanks to a referral from an inspired co-worker, we've been seeing an opthamologist who did everything he could to try and help us.   Dr Wong has been one of the most amazing doctors in our journey thus far.   We've been anxiously awaiting an appointment with Dr Warner a neuro-opthamologist at the UofU that was scheduled at the end of the month.   

      Over the weekend, his right eye lost further function and would no longer look left or up and down.   Dr Wong pleaded our case and they were able move up our appointment to yesterday afternoon.   After lots of tests and questions, they are fairly certain in their diagnosis.  The carotid artery is leaking into the vein in the Cavernous Sinus area of his brain.   This area is where the 6th, 3rd and 4th cranial nerves are.  This blood is putting pressure on the nerves which is why his eye will not move.   His also has higher pressure in his eye from blood flowing into it.  There's a very small chance it could get better on it's own, but left untreated there's a very high chance that he'll lose vision in that eye. 

       There are additional tests they can do to confirm their diagnosis, such as a CT Angiogram or MRI, but the test that would give us the best confirmation is a Cerebral Angiogram.   It would be performed by a highly specialized team involving an interventional radiologist and interventional neurosurgeon.  Dr Warner is going to present his case and see if they will be willing to do the procedure.   It is one they don't want to rush into, and they want to make sure they have "all their ducks in a row".   The silver lining is that this invasive test would also be able to be combined with the treatment. 

      While they discuss with each other to determine if they could do this procedure safely, we are off to another appointment with our ENT.   There are signs that his airway is narrowing again which could further complicate the possibility of doing the procedure.

       Yesterday was a tough day, but it is a relief to finally have answers.