Thursday, September 24, 2009

As if life wasn't already interesting enough....

We moved into our new duplex. Everything went fine there. Spiderman started his new school and loves first grade. He is still very gifted and is doing basketball and boy scouts. Superman is potty trained mostly. He was going to go to a preschool and be a peer in a special ed. class but he isn't compliant enough. He is just compliant for a normal three year old, not overly compliant which they need to put him in as a peer, so we will be home together another year.

I have started selling jewelry that I make. And I've been building up my portfolio of photography by taking senior pictures of my sister and family pictures of my other sister and baby pictures of my new nephew and niece.We got a puppy. His name is Scrappy. He is my little lovey. Such a sweetie. We should have gotten a girl dog so I could be less outnumbered, but oh well. He is my bud and cuddles with me more than the boys do.Ok now on to the not so good part. This past Saturday I had a busy day. I didn't get much sleep the night before. I got up early, went to some garage sales, loaded up my car for my plans out of town. I went to my little sister's volleyball tournament. Then I threw a bridal shower for my future sister in law. I didn't eat much with all my running around. After the shower, I loaded up my car to head home and picked up my little sister cause I was going to take her senior pictures Sunday morning. I had a little headache on the hour drive home but just figured I was needing some food. So we got home and I ate a PB sandwich and took 3 aleve. Well my headache escalated into a horrible migraine. So I woke up my sis who was exhausted from playing volleyball for 8 hours and told her that Batman was taking me to the hospital cause I was in too much pain. She would have to stay home cause the boys were sleeping as it was about midnight. So she just went back to sleep I think. Lucky.

So I get to the northland hospital and I have on pj pants and a tanktop and slipon shoes and a zip up hoodie. I had taken out my contacts and left my glasses so I couldn't see a thing. My hand is over my eyes cause the light hurts too much. They get me into a room and Batman turns off the lights as much as he can in the room. I wasn't really in the waiting room too long but it was agony when I was there. There was a crying baby and a loud lady. I was almost crying.

I get a nurse that puts in an IV but it takes her two tries. They never listen to me. My veins are small and roll. Don't give me a new nurse for the love of god. Then they send me for a CT cause its my first migraine that has sent me to the ER. So I don't really remember the CT. I think I was on a dose of meds that included something like morphine, nausea meds, and benedryl. So after the CT a frantic looking doc comes in my dark room and is muttering that there was something suspicious on the results and they have to immediately transfer me to the downtown hospital to get an MRI. I will have to go by ambulance.

Well Batman has to drive the car to the new hospital so I have to go in the ambulance alone. He stops at our house to get my glasses and some extra clothes. I am strapped down to a gurney and given more drugs to relax me. My nose itches so much from the morphine I think its going to fall off. They give me a thin white washcloth to cover my eyes to ease the pain of the lights. Obviously it serves little good other than to use to itch my nose.

I get my own private room at the new hospital and learn I am being admitted. Batman has been thru migraine routines before with his mom and never was admitted. He said she got a few shots and they sent her home and she slept for two days. I was not getting any sleep. And my head was spinning and still very painful. They were asking me which drugs I wanted to make the pain stop. Like I have a dictionary on what narcotics will help me. I've never had narcotics before, I don't know squat about them. I muttered something about tylenol 3 and they were like no you don't want that. Well don't ask me then. Obviously.

Soon I get taken to the MRI. There are 3 techs that put earplugs in me and strap my head down and try to make me comfortable. HAH! Then I am forced to lay perfectly still while listening to the loudest annoying noise ever with a migraine. Who is in charge of this crap??
They tell me that when its over the Dr may read it by 9am so I should know something by then. So I prepare myself to go up to my room and sleep til noon. Well at about 4am, a neuro surgeon comes in my room and asks me fifty questions like, close my eyes really tight, smile with teeth showing, follow his finger, lift my hands in the air, count backwards, touch my nose, lift my leg, lift the other leg, breathe in, breathe out, etc....

Then he says that the MRI showed that I have what's called a cavernous angioma. Basically a cluster of blood vessels that is packed in my brain stem. I was probably born with it and if it had been up in my brain lobes, I may never have noticed it was there, but since its in the brain stem, its causing symptoms. I will probably just get lots of bad migraines and could possibly have siezures. So I get out of the hospital finally on Monday evening. It was very scary and I don't remember much more than that.

I am feeling fine now. I have a couple prescriptions for pain meds as needed. Basically just super excedrin and nausea help. The most I need is to catch up on the sleep I missed those two days when nurses and drs came in every 30 minutes to ask me the same questions over and over. Have to get the kids less confused. They see the bruises from the IVs on my arms and they ask a hundred times a day if I am sick. So hard for them to understand. We just have to pray it goes away and doesn't bleed again. So for now I am just trying not to worry.