Ruling Out

This past week has been slow in the way of progress. Whitney had a couple of appointments with 2 different Neurologists. One did a more in depth nerve conduction test looking at specific muscles and nerves from the spine down through the legs, hoping to narrow the issue down to certain nerve branches. The other appointment involved a tilt table test looking at her equilibrium or balance. We're not too sure why they ordered the tilt table test, our guess is that they're trying to rule out cerebellum issues. They weren't very clear on explaining their reasoning.
We were told that the labs we had run to further investigate Lyme's and Pesticide/Herbicide poisoning, would be back this last Tuesday. We've checked the online portal given to us to check for updates and nothing has come in yet. The family doctor that we saw who ordered all of these tests, also ran a test to look at a condition called Myesthenia Gravis. This disease causes a lot of neurological issues, some that Whitney is having. However a hallmark symptom is the more active you are the worse the conditions get, and when you rest they go away. This hasn't been the case with Whitney, but the doctor thought it good to at least test. The test looks for a specific enzyme that attacks the neurotransmitters that tell the muscles to contract. That test did come back just a couple of days ago as normal.
This week on Tuesday (6/23), we have a meeting with 2 neurologists to go over all of the recent tests together. Whitney met with one of them last week before the tilt table and more in depth nerve conduction tests were ordered. That particular person is actually a nurse practitioner, who's received his doctorate in nursing and specializes in neurological disorders. In the meeting last week he was leaning very heavily towards Psycho-somatic issues as the root cause of her symptoms. In other words, he's thinking all of her symptoms are stress related. The doctor who's run the nerve conduction test has mentioned that there is obvious nerve de-innervation, and he's never seen that happen in stress induced issues. So we're getting mixed signals from these specialists. When we asked what their recommended treatment was for Psycho-somatic issues, they told us professional counseling. This Tuesday we will see what they come up with after looking at all of the more extensive tests they've run this past week.
All along we've been in touch with the doctor we saw in Las Vegas. With the Radon test coming back within normal limits, the next possibility in his mind is to look at heavy metal poisoning while we continue to wait for the pesticide/herbicide test to come back. To test this, we have to go to a Naturopath in the area to get an IV that will fill her system with a substance that will bind to any heavy metals in her system and will excrete them in the urine. So after the IV, she will need to do a 6 hour urine catch, and this will give us an accurate reading on if heavy metals are in her system. We asked where the heavy metals could come from. We were told that vaccines, amalgams (the metal they used to fill cavities), lead in old paint, copper from copper pipes were some of the more common ways we are exposed to heavy metals.
We are hoping for some more answers this week with the visits to the neurologist and as the labs start coming in.
Again thanks to everyone who continues to help. We've had friends who we didn't know lived here in Utah, show up at our door almost demanding how they can help. We've had meals come in, helps with rides to doctor visits, help with kids, cleaning the house, mowing our yard...its been wonderful seeing everyone help.

If you would like to donate in helping us continue with Whitney's treatments to get her health back, you can do it one of 2 ways:

1) Go fund me  http://www.gofundme.com/wgxdv9h

2) If you have a Google Wallet account you can send it directly my account using my email brian.massimini@gmail.com

Updated Family Picture