Thank you all for the welcome. My AN is 2.9 long and the "body" of you will is 2.1 is all around. It kind of looks like an apostrophe but the tail isn't so curled. I started suffering very funky headaches about 2.5 years ago. I would get these flashing lights in my eyes and I would have to wait as it spread from a pin point all the way out around my eye and disappear at the side. (20 mins or so) once the lights were gone I'd get this fabulous headache. I saw a neurologist for it and he said I had migraine. Easy enough to diagnose really since it fits the bill. Then I started getting a numbness in my left cheek and half my lip. I spoke to the dentist and the neurologist. The N said come see me if it gets worse. (
) The dentist thought it was kind of odd and sent me to a dental surgeon, who after confirming no problem with the nerve in the jaw, asked if I"d had an MRI. She tried to get me into a neurologist and amazingly enough I got referred back to my same N. I then went to the family doctor and asked for an MRI.
During the past 18 months I've also found that when I stand up I get a pounding and rushing in my head and ears. If I sit down quick enough I can make it go away in about 10-15 seconds. If I can't sit down, I'll get the funky light show etc. This is pretty simple except that I'm a cop, so I can't just plunk myself down in the middle of a call.
About 5 weeks ago now I noticed I've lost the hot/cold sensation in my tongue on the left. I've had great sensitivity to all things hot and spicy for about a year. Not intolerable, just extra hot and extra sting.
I have moderate hearing loss in that ear which at the time I attributed to an incident (1998) where I fired my handgun without ear plugs. I suffered tinnitus right away and have had it since. Sadly the AN is too large to attempt to save the hearing in that ear.
I'm a 44 year old mother of 2 little ones, my youngest is heading to JK next week.
So that's my story.
oh and the only people that know around me are my husband, my parents and my mother in law.