Saturday 6 October 2012

Mama Drama

OK, be forewarned, this post is about me, mama.  And my drama of the last 24 hours.  I have been having migraines for about a year now- can't imagine why.  But seriously, this one started yesterday, really before we even did our little play session for Nate.  It wasn't too bad, but it was there- I have been having serious back pain anyway, it's where I carry all of my stress.  The women in my family have a history of migraines, my mom, my sisters.  My grandmother and her brother both had brain tumors also.  Which is a little scary.  I have Imitrex, which I try not to take.  I am very drug naive and it knocks me out, literally.  I waited until after work to take it, about 5 last night, then again at 7.  I finally passed out at about 10pm...still in pain, but exhausted.

I woke up at about 2:30am in the most excruciating pain I have ever felt.  To put it in perspective, I did not have an epidural when I had Nate, and this was worse, by far.  I spent about an hour in the bathroom getting sick and then woke John up because I was getting scared.  He tried to rub my back, but I couldn't tolerate it, couldn't tolerate any touch at all.  I think I scared the crap out of him when I started mentioning the ER.  He has seen me have many of these headaches, and I am pretty tough about it, I get through them, usually even work through them if I need to.  We tried to get a hold of someone to watch the kids but we were unsuccessful.  He asked me if I could wait until we could, and I said honestly, no.  It was just that bad.  I was terrified that I was having an aneurysm.  Poor John.  He kept trying to make things up to reassure me, like saying that brain aneurysms are painless.  So false, but so sweet.  I told him to call an ambulance.

I have been a nurse for almost 13 years.  I have never been in an ambulance.  The last time I was in the ER for myself I was coughing up blood.  I do not take these things lightly.  That's how scared I was.  I got sick the entire way there, even after IM zofran.  The EMT put an IV in me, although I could tell immediately that it was not in my vein....it was actually distracting me from the pain of my headache because it was painful too.  I was taken to Baltimore Washington Medical Center, had never been there before.  I still have no idea what it looks like in there, lol.  Anyway, it took forever to get anything ordered for pain, but when the nurse finally came in to administer it, she said, hmmm, this IV isn't flushing.  I told her I was positive it wasn't in the vein and she agreed, put another one in.  After she was done, she said sorry, and I told her she would never get a complaint from me, I am a nurse too.  A nice nurse NEVER tells her nurse that she is a nurse until after any procedures have been completed.  When I was an L and D nurse, I had to put an IV in an OB with preeclampsia (for those that don't know, this means she was very very puffy and veins are very difficult to locate) while her anesthesiologist husband watched.  That day I vowed to myself that I would never reveal my credentials in a context where it might make someone nervous.  They took me for a head CT, which was negative.  I am really relieved to have had that.  Sometimes it's hard to believe that you can have this much pain and have nothing serious going on in your brain.  I felt bad because by the time they took me for the scan they had given me drugs, and apparently my head kept lolling to the side.  Told you I was drug naive. 

So I have spent the whole of today completely drugged.  Both grandmoms ended up coming to the house, and then John could come get me.  He left me in the Starbucks attached to our grocery store to go get my script and I was out cold when he came back to get me.  Slept till 5pm and am about to go to sleep again.

Shout out to John- thanks for taking such good care of me and the kids.  He was supposed to go away for the weekend this morning, and changed his plans.  Without complaint, at all.  Love you honey, and thanks!  Everyone say a quick prayer that I can stop taking the drugs soon....I have no idea if this post is even coherent.  That's lots of fun.

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