Bam! Found Something; Can't Believe I Didn't Think of It Before

Must be the sleep deprivation.

Yes, that's it - sleep deprivation!

I've obviously slept in the past dozen years, but I haven't slept well. I average about five hours of restless sleep a night, and sometimes I take long (one- or two-hour) naps. Even if I napped daily (I don't), I wouldn't be getting my eight hours in. Now, it's true that many people don't need eight hours. But even people who don't need much sleep need good sleep in order to function properly.

My sleep isn't good sleep. I probably don't sleep deeply more than once or twice a week. Most of the time, even as I'm sleeping I feel like I'm semiconscious; I often recall looking at the clock every hour, though I don't recall the time in between these looks.

Sleep deprivation can cause serious cognitive impairment and, yes, even aphasias. It can even cause clumsiness, vertigo, and dizziness - so I guess it's kind of a tossup whether those symptoms are being caused by my spondylosis or just my lack of sleep.

Yay! I might get my life back!!!

I Might Have an Answer

The cervical spine MRI showed cervical spondylosis, or degeneration of my spinal joints. These joints have formed bone spurs, which are taking up room and making less room for my nerve passageways.

I have "minimal" canal stenosis, or narrowing of the spinal canal, and "mild to moderate" neural foraminal narrowing, which is narrowing of the passageways that lead off the spinal canal.

Limb (arm and leg) pain, numbness, and parasthesias are symptoms, as are balance and gait problems and bladder and bowel incontinence. Fatigue and dizziness can be caused by spondylosis as well, but I've had a much harder time finding scientific evidence that hormonal dysregulation, muscle fasciculations, and semantic paraphasia can result. I have seen a few papers and articles that deal with all of these issues except aphasia in the general context of spinal cord damage, though, so I'm hoping everything is related. It's hard not to think that even the aphasia is related, since it's been a problem only since all my other symptoms have become unbearable this year.

I have an appointment with a neurologist in early January, so I'll ask him my questions and discuss treatment options (which can evidently range from cervical collars to surgery) then.

Latest Doctor Visit

I said in an earlier comment that my arms showed no reflexes when tested at a previous doctor visit. Well, thankfully, this time both arms tested fine. My doctor explained that if a patient is nervous or tense, his or her reflexes will often be subdued.

My legs showed hyperreflexia, though, which the doctor said may or may not mean something. He said hyperreflexia is seen across all disorders that affect the upper motor neurons, but is also commonly seen in the population at large.

My labwork all came back normal. My vitamin D was 39.9, which is good; it's at the lower end of normal. However, I take high doses of a vitamin D3 supplement (5,000 IU [international units] three or four days a week), so it seems a little odd to me that I'm not on the higher end of the scale. My doctor didn't seem too concerned, though; he just told me to continue with the high doses.

The doctor said that for now we'll look at my symptoms separately, since an overarching cause isn't clear. I don't really like that, since I'm certain there is one problem at the root of all my symptoms, but since he's the first doctor to take me really seriously and continue looking for an answer when one isn't immediately apparent, we'll do things his way. Who knows, maybe by looking at things in more detail, we'll start seeing clues that have been overlooked.

The doctor is ordering a cervical MRI to make sure I don't have pinched nerves in my neck (I've actually wondered about this myself, but there is just so much other stuff going on that it seems like it has to be connected). He's also sending me to another neurologist; he says this guy is really good and takes his time listening to his patients.

That's it, really. No news, but I wasn't really expecting any so soon.