Last 48 Hours

I am awake at 3:30 am either because I am hungry or because of the caffeine I was made to drink. What? You were made to drink caffeine? Well, let me tell you about my last 48 hours.

Monday started out as a regular day. I felt fine. I worked until 5:30pm and had all these plans to work that night. About 6:00pm I heated up my leftovers from the night before and sat down to eat dinner. After dinner I cleaned up the dishes and went into the the TV room and sat on the couch. The little pouch climbed into my lap and immediately a wave swept over me. I suddenly felt nauseous. I mean like an overwhelming surge. I curled up in a ball. Brenda came in and asked me if I was okay. I could barely speak. A few minutes later she came back and I was laying on the couch. That was when it was suggested that I go to bed. It was 6:45pm.

Not only was I nauseous but I had this pain in the back of my skull down at the base. It was very painful. On a pain scale I would say 100.

I tried to go to sleep but sleep was not my body's plan. No, it was no. The plan was obviously to go through hours of chills, muscle cramps, vomit, and pain. WAY more fun, don't you think? We were actually wondering if I had some sort of aneurism. It was a LONG night and just a pre cursor to the day ahead.

Some time around 3 am I fell asleep and around 6:30am the pain subsided. It didn't go away but I could at least get up and take a shower and drive to my 1pm doctor's appointment. I went to see my rheumatologist but on the way I left a message at my primary doctor's office telling him what occurred the night before. The minute my rheumatologist saw me she asked what was wrong and told me I needed to go to the ER immediately. I hate when doctors tell you that. I know I look bad but to have confirmed by a medical professional is always so depressing in a way.

So, in comes the wheelchair and I get whisked off to the ER. Well, yesterday must have been THE busiest day for the ER. There were at least four wheelchairs besides me in the waiting room. I saw the check in person and the triage nurse fairly quickly but since I was not bleeding or having a heart attack I was low on the list. I got to the ER at 1:30pm. I got in the ER doors at 3:40pm. I had told myself that if I had not been sent through the doors by 3:45pm I was going home. A girl can only take so much. Oh, don't get me wrong there was some interesting people watching. There was the poor lady with dementia/alzheimer's who asked her healthcare person every few minutes in a demanding voice "how long until we go in" and when the lady said they had to wait their turn she would demand that she "go ask the lady how long it be." Every time the nurse would come out she would ask her how long it would be. This would go round and round. Poor thing.

Finally I went in. The doctor who was on I had seen before and was a no nonsense, lay it on the line kind of person. She gave me fluids and morphine and told me I could have a brain bleed. A WHAT! Okay now you have my attention. Yes, migraine sufferers who present with pain that is not typical of their normal migraine could have bleeding on the brain. LOVELY!

To find out if one has bleeding on the brain there are two procedures 1)CT scan of the head. Okay. I am down for that. 2)Spinal Tap (lumbar puncture). NO, NO, NO. My biggest fear come true. You know how you have that procedure that you just never want to get? It just terrifies you? When you see it on TV you have to turn away? Well a spinal tap is that procedure to me. On TV the person is often crying and screaming and curled up on the bed. I didn't want that.

I was told that since I didn't come in while in the throws of the horrible pain (who wants to get in a moving car when they are vomiting and have muscle cramps and have head pain? Raise your hand. I see no hands raised!) there was only a small chance she would see anything on the CT scan but that was the first procedure. I voted CT scan. So off I went (after the prerequisite 45 min waiting period all hospitals have before any procedure) to get the CT scan. Then the wait for results. And of course it was the busiest night the hospital had seen in weeks.

The scan was clear. Good and bad news. Now I have to get the spinal tap. I start to cry. The doctor asks me what I am afraid of. I tell her I am afraid of the pain. She says most folks are afraid because she is behind them and they can't see. I tell her that is not my issue. She tells me it is not what I think it is. So I agree to do it. It wasn't bad. Imitrex shots hurt more. I am not saying I would like to get another one but it was not the crying, nail biting or screaming procedure the TV makes it out to be. I have conquered my fear!

The caffeine comes into play here.  It turns out that spinal taps can give you awful headaches.  One way it has been shown to not get a headache is to drink caffeine directly after having a spinal tap.  I drank two cups of Lipton's tea at 8:30pm.  No wonder I was wide awake at 3:30am!

Now comes hours of waiting. I do mean hours. Through all of this time I have out lasted three roommates and three nurses. You can image how long I have been in the ER. I had this one roommate who was so tired that she fell asleep when she arrived and slept through her blood draw and two procedures (one was an EKG).

Finally at about 9:20pm the doctor have the good news: clear fluid from the spinal tap! No meningitis, no infections and about three other things she listed. But no answer about the headache. Now I have to go see my primary doctor to sort that out. At 9:45pm I left the hospital and for those of you counting that was a total of 8 hours and 15 minutes and countless thousands of dollars! I think I have met that pesky deductible in record time! I could write a book on how to meet your $4,000 deductible in 31 days or less without really trying.

I went home to Brenda and the doggies where I finally ate something and went to bed after watching Alcatraz (can't figure out if I like it or even understand it.) The pain in my head has wained and I hope it stays that way. What a crazy 48 hours!