So a few of you have contacted me regarding a small comment I tried to sneak in the last post....my hospital visit before Christmas. Well I've been in hospital again and have unwittingly became the patient of a Dr. House episode. They are having a hard time figuring out what is wrong with me....I know many of you could offer loads of ideas on the front :) however this was for real. All my tests kept coming back as normal.
However I was and am in a fair bit of pain. Chronic headache, with leftsided tingling in my face. Bloods.....normal, ct head nothing obvious, head MRI results pending. For a while we had a bit of hope that they had figured it out as initial results from a lumbar puncture showed "organisms" but further testing on the sample showed that those bugs were merely a contaminant in the sample.
So after a week in hospital I am back home. My head still hurts, the tingling is still there. The Neuro Dr I saw (and am now under) thinks it may be "atypical nerve pain" and has placed me on a Neuro pain drug to see it that will help at all. But that will take 4-6 weeks for it to reach the right level in my head.
So that is the story. I'm sure many of you will be concerned at this news. Mark and I appreciate your thoughts, prayers and well wishes. But we don't know more than what I have shared now with you all. I have a follow up apt in 4-6 weeks with my Neuro Dr.
Now all of that to say the following, home has never been so good. After eating hospital food for a week meals at home are beyond delicious! Being a patient in a hospital when you don't have a diagnosis is not fun. No one really knows what to do with you or how to assess you. Which can be frustrating. Family and close friends are beyond valuable as they give you the strength to keep fighting for the next test, the right Dr, the right treatment. I had a few great nurses (mainly the night ones) who listened and cared! The value of a good nurse is what patients say...there are no words for how much it means. To have a hand held, to take a few minutes to listen...invaluable to your patient who is on isolation, in pain, scared and who has no diagnosis! Thank you to all of you who do that to us your patients. We are grateful, calmer, and respect you for all you do.
I am ok...sort of. I tire very easily and am slowly getting the strength and stamina back to hold my head upright; side effect of suffering for day and a half with CSF leak before Neuro was able to come see me and we figured out I then had two sources of pain instead of one. I am off work for the next while and waiting and hoping that new drug I started does the trick. So keep us close in your hearts and minds.
