timeline of 2011-2012 part 1, the first 2 doctors

In the second half of Feb 2011 Soeun arrived in Aus after finishing up semester 1 of teaching back in Cambodia. The first month he had sort of a cold and was feeling gross etc, we were waiting for him to recover from the semester and flight so he could get into study and Aus life properly.

However, a month after he got off the plane he woke up in pain, a sore neck I think. Vomited and felt dizzy. It was alarming.

From then on he had a lot of discomfort. Ear fullness, dizziness, tinnitus, nausea etc etc. I had said goodbye to him in January in Cambodia, and had been looking forward to seeing him again after a month apart, but he wasn't himself.

We went to a nearby doctor. After asking lots of questions he helpfully he did heaps of test straight away and ruled out lots of things. He couldn't find anything interesting except cholesterol a bit high and he has strange shaped red blood cells. Maybe somehow related to thalassemia. So after a few visits and getting back all the test results we came away with a referral letter to see a blood specialist.

Meanwhile a friend's dad who is a doctor was in the area and made time to come and see him in our on campus residence. From his brief visit he concluded it was an ear problem and we should get a referral to an ENT.

From my blog at the time, on Friday April 29, 2011

Yesterday, I went to get the rest of Soeun's test results ( we now have a bout 20 pages ). The doc gave me a diagnosis and referrral letter. However, another doc has looked at all the results and has some other ideas, so we'll see how it goes.

Chronic. Invisible. Debilitating. and hard to diagnose

Chronic.  Invisible.  Debilitating.  and hard to diagnose

Three words to describe Soeun’s physical discomfort when he is in Australia.

In 2011 he started having symptoms of a vestibular disorder. We began searching for a diagnosis and treatment, trying to pinpoint possible triggers.  Five years later we still don’t really know much except that his symptoms begin after being in Aus for a month.  He still sometimes gets sick here but it’s not 24/7 debilitation that it is in Aus.

Our feeling is that visiting Aus for more than a month would be useless and even detrimental to us. So we will probably have to make more frequent and shorter visits. We have at least 3 places we need to visit.  Each trip is a big disruption and expense so previously we have tried to see everyone in the same trip.