prognosis

I have been slowly drafting this thoughtful response to Dan's post today, and then I got a call from my doctor and it's all out the window. I will post it later.

My MRI came back "negative" which is actually a positive. That means there is no bleeding or swelling in my brain, so I'm all cool to get back on roller coasters and mechanical bulls.

What could possibly be causing the numbness and cold feeling :

• pinched nerve in neck [new #1 candidate]
• spasm in a blood vessel
• small stroke that had quickly remedied itself with major damage, but has this particular after-effect

She has ruled out that it is :

• a dermatological issue [she says it's an inside-out problem, rather than being the skin freaking out and bugging the nerve]
• Bell's Palsy [there is too much facial movement to qualify]

This is all very good news, except the part when she told me that it is very possible that this could be a permanent affliction and that I am really lucky that it's not a palsy or something worse. To be honest, I would like this cold feeling to go away, because it seriously bugs, but I am getting used to it now so it's not the worst thing in the world. As long as I can have my mechanical bull, I'll be ok.