Updates on Me

There isn't too much to tell on me. They still have no idea what's going on. I think the last thing I posted was my hospital stay at Christian Hospital. Well, I went back to the hospital the very next weekend with the exact same problem. Numbness and no feeling on the right side of my body. It started in my arm this time and went to my face next and ended in my leg. Nick dropped the kids off at my mother in law's at took me to Missouri Baptist Hospital and they admitted me and again found no answers. They did the same stroke protocol and found no problems. However, this time they also did a lumbar puncture test to check the pressure of my spinal fluid and to check my spinal fluid. Everything was normal except the protein level in my spinal fluid was elevated. After doing this check I felt amazing. No more headache, no more pain, I felt amazing. I was discharged the next day and told to follow up with the neurologist.

I felt pretty good for a bit, but then got another migraine a week later. My mom picked me up and brought me to my regular doctor. I was throwing up the whole way there (don't worry, I brought a bag - thank goodness my mom doesn't have a weak stomach) and I just felt awful. I told the doctor about the lumbar check and feeling better and he thought because of that, that I had a psuedo tumor. So he prescribed a drug to help with that. Acedozolomide or something like that. So I started taking that. I felt ok for a bit and then I started having tingling. Mainly in my hands and feet but it was all the time. So I started freaking out about that! Now I was worried about MS and all sorts of other things.

Luckily I had another appointment with my neurologist. I went to see him and told him about my tingling. He was worried until I told him about the new medicine. That's apparently a side effect of that drug. He checked my eyes and told me I didn't have a psuedo tumor and switched me to a new med, but warned me this also has a side effect of tingling. So now I'm on a migraine prevention med twice a day. He also set me up to do another lumbar check on Dec. 26th to re-check the protein levels.

My dad picked me up at 6 am on the 26th to bring me to MoBap to do the lumbar puncture. I got checked in and set up and everything was ready. My dad went back to work with me promising to call when I was ready to go home. My appointment was for 7:30 and I got back into the x-ray room at 8 am I think, so not too bad. They did the lumbar puncture and everything went well. Not too too painful and I was back in recovery.

I got to order breakfast but had to stay on my back for about an hour and a half. I thought this was weird because when I did the first one I had to stay on my back for 4-6 hours and my paper for my instructions before I went in for this procedure said I'd be in the hospital for 6-8 hours, so an hour and a half was not a long time. Especially with the risk of a spinal headache for getting up too early, but they are the docs right??

Around 10:30 I was completely discharged with the instructions to stay on my back all day and night and drink plenty of fluids. My dad picked me up and I went back to his house and laid in bed all afternoon. Nick picked me up and brought me home where I stayed on the couch all evening until I went up to bed. The next morning I got up for work and it went well, but by the end of the shift, my head started to hurt. Like I was getting a migraine. I was nervous, but went home, took some meds and tried to relax. 

It ended up being the worst migraine I ever had. I made it to work...for an hour or so. I made it home from work and my dad had to meet me there to take me back to MoBap for a blood patch. I had studied blood patches in school but wasn't entirely sure what they were and didn't really know if they would work. What a blood patch is: They basically are giving you an epidural. An anesthesiologist comes in and sticks a needle in your back and puts a tiny catheter in the epidural space in your spine. Then instead of amazing drugs going into your spine to make you feel numb, they put in your own blood. So I had to sit up (which caused my head to throb so bad I just wanted them to kill me, and I wish I was kidding but sadly I'm not), sit extremely still while they got the catheter in the right spot, then wait with the catheter/needle in my back and hold my arm still while they drew out 20 mL of my blood from my arm and then transferred that into my spine...

Luckily it only lasted about 5 minutes for the whole thing. Then I laid back down because I felt dizzy and nauseous. She wanted me to sit up and tell her if I felt better because apparently you are supposed to feel better immediately. I didn't feel better immediately and I couldn't sit up right away. So she left. They gave me more drugs and I slept for a bit. When I was able to get up I still had a pounding headache. Not a migraine, but a pounding headache. I took this as a good sign. They gave me a prescription for a pain med which I was excited about until I got it filled and it was actually Hydrocodone/Acetaminophen which makes me sick...It took 3 days but that migraine is now finally all the way gone. I'm taking my other meds and I'm hoping it's GONE gone.

I'm hoping also that these migraines will STAY away!! Like Nick said: I have school and work and I can't afford to miss anything! I need to be healthy!

Anyway, those are the updates on me. :)