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For those of you who didn't get my Chrsitmas letter for some reason, here's what's been going on these past few weeks. Also for those who did , I added a couple of paragraphs at the end to update even more:
You see one night I had this extremely bad headache come on all of a sudden, but then it went away the next day. But the following day after that, I went to bed feeling heavy headed and the next morning I woke up feeling horrible. Well to try and make this story as short as possible, after a few days of having this same headache that wouldn’t go away no matter what pain medication I took (Advil, Tylenol etc…) Dan got concerned, so he took me in to the Urgent Care (walk-in-clinic) and they took my blood and ran some tests and the only thing that doctor could find was that I had a slightly elevated white blood-cell count and so he put me on Penicillin, but since I was in so much pain and discomfort, he also gave me some Oxycodone to help with the pain and sent me home. About an hour or so later he called us and told us to go to the ER to get a CT Scan. For those of you who know me, know that I HATE the ER and so it wasn’t the greatest that I had to go there in the first place and it made it worse knowing I needed a CT Scan. “What the heck did the doctor think I had?”
Anyways my hospital experience was the worst ever! I know I’m a drama queen but how would you have liked to have been poked around 4 different times to try and get an IV started and they couldn’t do it. It took two different nurses poking and prodding me and they couldn’t get anything. The grossest is when they tried sticking it in my wrist veins. EEWW!!! Anyways after that they decided just to give me the pain meds through shots. 2 of them (but 3 in total towards the end of my stay……and also literally in the “end”). OWEEE!!! And just as I expected……they didn’t do a thing. That’s when the ER doc. said the only thing left to test would be for Meningitis and to do that I would need a Spinal Tap.
“Um……okay……I’ve heard of those and don’t those require a big long needle in my spine?!”
So it turns out that that’s the worst thing that I’ve ever had to get done to me……EVER! If you’ve ever had one done, I’m sure you can sympathize. I actually heard they’re worse than an Epidural! Anyways that day I counted all of the times I had some sort of needle in me and it was 11 times! Do I have reason to whine & complain or what?
Anyways all my tests came back clean at the hospital and I didn’t have anything serious. The new pain meds the ER doctor game me, drugged me up pretty badly, but don’t help the pain AT ALL, even thought they’re really strong meds. So I’ve pretty much’ve been a vegetable at home on the couch or in bed, while Dan takes care of me. Another thing I’m grateful for is not only our great Health Insurance that pays for all of this, but for Dan’s relaxed environment & flexibility at work. He’s been able to take sick time for me and even though he’s supposed to be away working with a game developer for a couple of weeks, in Edmonton, Alberta right now (he was actually there for 3 days just before I got sick) his bosses told him not to worry and to take all the time he needs, and that family to them comes first too and just sent really nice emails saying that they hoped I’d get better and if there’s anything they can do for us let them know. Just really eased my mind about Dan having to miss so much work. (He’s been home with me for two & a half weeks now). Anyways I’m totally rambling now…sorry. Anyways since my hospital visit I’ve had another home visit from a doctor (another Microsoft Health Insurance perk) and then I had to go in to see my doctor and that’s when they ordered a MRI/MRA exam for me and referred me to a Neurologist.
Okay so when I said that the Spinal Tap was the worst thing ever to have happened to me, I lied. An MRI is THE WORST! One word: TORTURE!!! I’m not that claustrophobic (I am a bit though), but being in a very small enclosed area, not being able to move a muscle for almost an hour……is plain TORTURE!
Anyways a couple of days later I saw the Neurologist and he said my brain and arteries were totally normal and so he ruled out anything that could be serious. His conclusion is that I have a really persistent migraine headache. He gave me a couple of shots to reduce the headache (not the pain, which is what all of the other meds were for and that’s why they didn’t help) and I was supposed to call him in the morning if it didn’t help. Now that was Thursday the 14th that I went to see him and wouldn’t you know it, that’s also the day that a major storm hit the Pacific Northwest and we lost power for almost 63 hours and since we have a phone through the internet, we couldn’t call him, which didn’t matter cause EVERYONE around here lost power. (That storm is another major trial that thankfully we were pretty prepared for and luckily stayed pretty warm in our apartment and survived with food, but that’s another story).
So we called the Neurologist yesterday and I went into the office for another shot and today I was at the hospital for 6 hours getting meds through an IV (yay me!) But luckily I had a really good nurse who was such an expert that she warmed me up and gave me a local anesthetic and when she put in the IV, I didn’t feel a thing! So I told her if I ever need an IV again, I’m calling her!
Anyways today I woke up feeling crappy again, so the Doc's got me on some new medication. It still sucks to have to do nothing all the time. I'm supposed to be resting, but Dan went to go get us dinner and so I snuck on here for a minute. It sucks too cause my parents are coming Saturday and possibly my brother Steve & his girlfriend Laura too, and I can't even plan and cook the dinner I was going to make for them. I can't do anything! I can't even clean my house and it's a bit of a dissaster. I haven't cleaned my bathroom in two weeks and it's driving my nuts. Dan "cleans" up the kitchen sometimes and does the dishes and I give him an "A" for effort, but it's just not how I would do it, so it makes me a little coo-coo.
Anyways he's going to be back soon, but I hope everyone out there has a very Merry Chrsitmas and good health to you all!
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