One hell of a week

So, my health decided to take a shit this week.

Monday i went to work as usual. Only to have my stomach go all butterfly on me. My stomach just would not settle. I couldn't tell if I was going to puke or shit myself. After about two hours I couldn't take it anymore and went home after putting in for Tuesday off.

I spent most of Monday fighting the urge to puke. Everything I ate just wanted to come up. I didn't thankfully. Last Saturday was when the puking was going on. That prompted the whole rant about hamburger the other day. Tuesday wasn't too bad. I was just a bit tired.

Woke up Wednesday feeling fine. For the first 45 mins at work, I was fine. I drove the forklift around and started getting my machine ready to actually run something for once. Only when I got back to my machine after putting the forklift back, I could see the beginning smug of an ocular migraine starting. I took some acetaminophen right away to try and cut it off. No such luck. Within a half hour I couldn't really see.

This was just the beginning of the problem. I kept trying to push through the blur and get my order running. Only my head started to pound really bad. So I took some ibuprofen. Yes, I know I took them too close together but my damn head hurt. I was feeling kind of light headed and wondered if maybe I was hungry so I went off to grab a sandwich.

By the time I got to the break room, I was feeling dizzy. I put that down to being hungry maybe and grabbed a sandwich. I couldn't taste a damn thing. And because it was too hot my right hand was spasming. I've got nerve damage that makes my hand sensitive to heat. Instead of just jerking away from heat like normal people, my hand jerks and spasms as it pulls back. It was really overreacting to the hot sandwich. Plus, I noticed that when I tried to talk to a coworker in the breakroom that I was having trouble concentrating. Everything was sort of sounding hollow.

On the way back to my machine, another coworker called me over to ask a question. That's when things really started to get weird. I was really starting to get dizzy and I was really having trouble finding the words I wanted to use. My coworker really started to get freaked out. She kept asking me to go to the doctor. I kind of brushed her off and said I would think about it. I was still trying to blame it on being lightheaded from the headache.

When I got back to my machine, I just couldn't ignore just how wonky I was feeling. I kept losing my balance and my head was just pounding. So, I grabbed my paperwork and went over to the computer. I put in to have Thursday off in the system. I still kept trying to convince myself that I was ok and was being a baby and I should go back to work.

It took me a few minutes to finally call up my mom. I just really did not feel safe driving. Well, when I got mom on the phone I confused the hell out of her. I wasn't making any sense at all. I knew what I was trying to say to her but I couldn't get the right words to come out. Yeah, she freaked a bit. She figured out what I meant and said that my dad would bring her over and we would take my car to the doctor.

By the time I hung up with my mom, my one coworker came over to check on me. I was crying by this time and saying I just didn't know what was going on. I told her my mom was coming to get me and she ran off to get my boss. Who knows what the hell he was thinking when he came over to find me crying and incoherent. It's not the first time I've broken down crying in front of him because of my health but it's been a few years. He said it was ok and he would take care of my paperwork. I had been trying to fill it out but I think I messed it up pretty good.

By the time I got my stuff together and made it outside with another coworker to walk with me, my folks had shown up. They drove me over to my car (it's a pretty decent walk to the parking lot) and I had to try and tell my mom how to make my car work. It's keyless entry and you don't actually need to use the key in the ignition. Plus the seats move on their own and stuff.

She wanted to take me to the ER, but I convinced her to take me to the acute care clinic. I didn't want to have to pay for an ER visit if they could just give me something at the clinic for a $25 copay. kwim? Signing in ws not a lot of fun because I was still confused and having trouble talking. When I finally got into a room and tried telling the nurse what was going on, it wasn't much better. I still couldn't find my words and had to keep trying to substitute so I could get the ideas across. Once the PA came in, I knew where things were heading. She talked to me for less than two minutes and shook my hand and sent me off to the ER. Yeah me!!

Still wasn't making much sense when I got to the ER. My speech wasn't really slurred but it was halting and disjointed. They decided to give me some drugs and send me for an MRI. Well, the nurse had trouble putting in the IV. The veins in my hands are a bit scarred up from various hospital visits over the years. So they skipped the drugs and sent me off to the MRI machine.

To give an idea of how out of it I was, I wasn't even freaking out about the MRI at this point. It wasn't until they had me on the machine bed and were strapping my head down that I realized they were going to stick me in an MRI machine. I'm fairly claustrophobic. Having a towel over my eyes and having my head in traction was enough to start making me nervous. When they first put me in the machine I thought I would be fine. I thought it was one of the bigger ones. Finally they pushed me in the rest of the way and the machine started to push on my arms and I really started freaking. I wanted to start yelling, "Can this be over now? Please take me out of here!" I knew it was only going to take about 5 minutes but that was about 5 minutes too long. I managed to stay still somehow and they sent me back to the ER.

The nurse finally got the IV line going and pumped me up with some benadryl and some pain killers. The worst was being left alone in the room with the lights off and no noise. Makes me crazy. After about a half hour the nurse came back and said the MRI was clear and that I was free to go home when I was ready. I was down to about a 5 after being up at an 8 at the worst, so I elected to go home right away.

They said it was just a bad migraine. Pretty much what I had been saying. I ended up sleeping most of the rest of the day. Nick was super great asking how I was and getting me stuff. Yesterday was pretty much more sleeping and resting.

I'm still a bit weirded out by the whole thing. I have to go grocery shopping this afternoon and I'm making Nick go with me. I'm not really worried that anything will happen, but I'll feel better if he is there with me. He needs a haircut anyway. Dude is getting shaggy as hell again.

Part of me is thinking about getting back in touch with the neurology department. I'm sure they have pain meds that would help me more than OTC stuff can. I just don't want to end up on 15 pills a day again. I haven't decided what to do yet.