My Brain

I woke up on the 17th, a month after my stroke, with new pain in my wrist and knee. Previously the evil had withdrawn from those regions. I was worried that this reversal of progress might indicate a new stroke. My wife drove me to A&E, where I had a new battery of tests. They called my consultant, who ordered another MRI scan, and asked to see me after that. I swear that scanner is getting noisier - still, just the one scan this time.

I went straight up to see the consultant and she had the scan on her system straight away, which was pretty impressive. I know, that shouldn't be impressive these days, but…

A slice of my brain.

Anyway, I took this snap with my phone. It shows a slice through my head, viewed as if from below. It doesn't show the stroke damage - that's lower down than this slice - but I liked this slice because it shows my eyes and optic nerve, so it's quite easy to read. You can also see one ear (I've played with the contrast a bit, and you can't see the other one), and my "wonky nose" as the consultant put it. The black 'holes' near the front of my eyes are actually the lenses, not the pupils.

The good news is that this particular scan can show new stroke damage - that is damage that's occurred in the last ten days. And we didn't see any. So, I'm somewhat reassured that my brain isn't just gradually melting away. And, I've been prescribed some new drugs to help with the pain. They're gabapentin, which is also used to treat epilepsy.