For those of you who want a medical update.

I have been accused of being boring in my blog themes, but I don't really know what to do about it. My life is pretty interesting, and sometimes quite unbelievable, in my opinion. I don't see how that can be boring. Besides, this is my blog space. It's sort of like a journal, except that my real journal really IS boring.

The last month has been really traumatic, so I'm not going to go into too much detail. It just takes too much energy.

I had an MRI that showed 4 nonspecific white lesions on my brain. I had a bubble echo cardiogram to test for a genetic/birth defect...came back negative. I also had a series of blood tests to check for a clotting disorder, etc...came back normal.

Friday, Jan. 30—spinal tap. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but the valium helped a lot. Supposedly I'm one of the lucky few who get the spinal headaches. Mark took care of me through the weekend. He bought me my favorite cartoon movie...Mulan I & II and cleaned like a madman. My dad took me to Salt Lake to be cared by my mum while Mark worked. Mom made me all sorts of great foods and seemed really excited to take care of me. It was nice being back home for a while. 

Thursday, Feb. 5—blood patch. Even though the spinal tap wasn't bad, I really didn't want to have to go back and get it done all over again. Especially when I felt absolutely terrible. Mom drove me back to the Provo hospital; I was so nauseated the whole ride down. Mark and Mom stayed the entire time of my hospital stay and were really supportive. The staff had a hard time finding a good vein (that's been happening more and more lately). I've decided that the most painful place to get stabbed is in the middle of my forearm. They got me on the fifth try in my wrist, but the vein collapsed right when they needed it...after they'd prepped my back and had the needle in place. So, they went in my neck. The valium wasn't working as well as the time before. After the procedure, they gave me a demerol shot in my hip...ow(!) and pumped me up with liquids. I slept for the next 40 hours (with a 1-2 hr. wakeful period). Headaches were completely gone. My friend Traci baby-sat me the first day, and another friend David did the second. They brought all kinds of good foods. It was really nice of them...and good to visit.

Over the weekend I started having strange lower back pain that moved into my right hip (not from blood patch). I literally couldn't walk. I had a strong pain in my stomach (to the right of my belly button) and was really nauseated. I was awake most of Sunday night. 

Monday, Feb. 10—I felt good enough to go back to work. Once I got there, I started getting really nauseated again, but it went away by noon. I was awakened from my nap after work by the same pain in my stomach...but it was much worse and accompanied by a severe burning pain in my back. I thought it might be kidney pain, but it was too far to the left. We thought I had appendicitis. Mark drove me to the ER. My mom and dad drove down and joined us in my private room. The staff tried for a vein 3 times and got the IV in my neck...again. (I'm starting to think I'd rather just have the IV put in my neck rather than wait an hour while they poke and prod everywhere else.) I had two embarrassing exams. Then I needed to get a catheter (more embarrassing) to make sure the blood from me was coming from my urine and not somewhere else. Don't know why that was necessary...I ALWAYS have blood in my urine and I wasn't on my period. They gave me morphine, of all things, after that. It made me talk constantly. I'm sure I drove my parents and Mark crazy. Next, I had to take an oral prep for the CT scan. It was six installments over an hour; not too bad. CT scan showed I have a 7.5mm kidney stone on its way down (that's almost half the size of a penny). They said I have a very low chance of passing it on my own since it's so large and will most likely have to get the surgery...which, of course, will require another IV. Sigh.

As of today, I've had no significant pain since that night in the ER. (We were there from 8:00pm to 3:30am.) I went to a much nicer urologist Tuesday morning who gave me some prescriptions and samples to ease the process. I'm hoping he'll give me more time to pass it on my own since it's not giving me anymore trouble, yet. The stone is probably just chillin' and taking its sweet time. Stupid unpredictable high-maintenance kidney stones!

Although spinal tap results are supposed to be ready within two days, I have not received a call from my doctor these two WEEKS. She only works on Wednesdays and Thursdays, so that makes waiting for test results REALLY annoying and inconvenient. (Spinal taps also have a 30% chance of a false negative for MS, so if my doctor thinks I still have MS...I'll have to get another MRI and/or spinal tap. Goody for me.)