My Journey Continues...

Well we arrived at the Emergency Room with out me getting sick :)  Good news for Scott! The walk from the car to the ER was the second time I saw the look of concern on Scott's face.  That is a sight I will be seeing for a while.  I am usually a pretty fast walker, I think that comes from keeping up with a fast walking husband, but today I think a snail could have passed me.  I did tell him that we were going to need to walk at my pace and not his.  He was there to support and guide me into the ER, and from the looks of the waiting room, we were going to be there a while.  I am not sure when it was first mentioned, but with all my symptoms we were pretty sure that I was having a stroke.  Let me just say that when you walk into a packed waiting room with symptoms of a stroke, especially at the age of 33, you go to the front of the line.  From the time they took my vitals and heard my symptoms, for the first time, it was only about 30 minutes until I was in a room.  Not to shabby, but like I said before, when you are showing signs of a stroke they rush you to the front of the line.

I was in the ER room, my first room, from about 7:00 pm-12:35 am.  I think I told everyone that came in that my girls had their first day of school on Thursday.  I was not going to miss that, even if I had to break out of the hospital. I had a wonderful ER nurse who was very patient with me about putting an IV in me.  I am as I would say a big baby when it comes to needles, and this very thing is the ONLY reason why I did not want to go to the hospital.  I was pretending to be a big girl and squeezed my eyes shut until it was over.  Oh I do need to add that they had a pulse thing on my finger before my IV.  Scott got quite a kick out of watching my pulse go from 70 (before IV) to 180 (during the IV).  I was just glad I was able to amuse him! Most of my memory from this first room is a blur.  I know they took a ton of blood and I was  given "tests".

These "tests" as I call them were the hardest and most frustrating things for me.  They are should be easy.  They are everyday type things. However for me, they were the hardest and scared me as to what was really going on and how I would be after the fact.  The "tests" that the nurses and doctors had me do were; squeeze their hands as hard as I could, walk to the other side of the room, hop on one foot, walk on my tip toes, walk backwards, pull up my knees while the pushed down, touch my finger on their finger then to my nose, push out my feet while they pushed back, and some other test similar to the ones I mentioned.  I was great with my left side, no problems.  My right side however, was a whole different story.  I could barely squeeze their hands and needed to have assistance while I walked, hopped, and walked on my tip toes.  I have never felt so weak and scared than when I was doing these "tests".  By now I had a new symptom to add.  My right arm kept on twitching and shaking.  I have never thought of my self as a controlling person, but I did not like the fact that I could not control my arm.  I felt almost as if I was a visitor in my own body.

Also during my stay in this first room I had x-rays and a CT scan.  The first time they took me to x-rays they said it was for my left wrist.  I chuckled and said "I really do not think that is correct, my left wrist is perfectly fine."  Needless to say after they called the doctor, it was in fact an error.  I just laughed about that and hey it got me out of the room.  Later they did come back to take me to x-ray for a chest x-ray.  I honestly do not remember having the CT scan, so I am thinking it was no big deal.

Up until the findings of the CT scan we had a neurologist talking to us about stroke trials and meds to give me if I qualified.  Everything was looking towards me having a stroke.  The doctor then came back and said that the window for one of the main meds was "closed" but after the results are in form the CT scan they could still give me one other med.  They also were going to do a test the next day.  I cannot remember what it was called, but I could not eat or drink now because they were going to have to knock me out for the test.  I do know it involved them going into a vein in my leg and go up towards my heart.  As I said before, I am a huge baby when it comes to needles, but knock me out and you can do any medical thing you want.

So now it is about midnight and I am ready to go to a room upstairs in the neurology area.  I am still reminding everyone about the girls first day of school on Thursday.  I am crossing my fingers that I will be there.  But for now it is time for us to settle in for a good nights sleep the night.