(no subject)
Here's a better update on all this, at least what I can remember. Sorry the formatting sucks, I copied this from an email:
Here goes:
On the 7th of February, I
had my first day of Med-Surg clinical at Rose Hospital in Denver. I
made it through the entire 3p-11:30p shift, but I had a headache that kept
getting worse, and I kept getting more and more nauseous with more visual
changes like blurriness and photophobia (when the light makes the headache
worse). So I left my clinical at about 11:00 when we were released, and I went
by the ER at Denver Health, where Scott and I work and receive all our medical
care. ER trips aren’t really anything new to me, I end up there every couple
months, they medicate me and do a CT scan which usually turns out normal, and
they send me home. On this trip to the ER , they did a CT that looked the same
as all the others, gave me some IV meds, and this time they did a spinal tap
(ouch!) because I had had a low grade fever for the previous couple days. The
spinal tap didn’t show anything infectious, so they sent me home.
The next day (Feb 8th), I
had a spinal headache that was to be expected because of the spinal tap, so I
called my clinical instructor and told her I wouldn’t be at clinical that day. I
was just too spacey from the meds they had given me the night before, and I was
taking vicodin to try to get rid of the spinal headache. I’m not sure what time
it was, but sometime that afternoon or evening I told Scott I needed to go back
to the ER because the headache wasn’t going away and I had lower back pain on
top of it that wasn’t getting any better. This is where things start to get a
little fuzzy. I know that at the ER that night they did another CT that looked
similar to the others, so they medicated me and sent me home.
On Feb. 9th, I ended up
going back to the ER because I was acting funny. I almost got to ride in an
ambulance, but the people at the fire department Scott volunteers for weren’t
answering the phone, so Scott decided to drive me himself. Probably just as
well, I get really sick riding down the mountain in an ambulance. So down to the
ER we went, and this time the CT showed enlarged ventricles in my brain
(ventricles are like fluid pockets in your brain.) The decided to take some
fluid off through the shunt (there’s a port on my head they can stick a needle
in and pull fluid out for tests or if I have too much fluid or whatever). The
pressure in my head was so high that when they released the pressure, I promptly
vomited forcefully. That night, they admitted me to the surgical ICU at Denver
Health and put me on the surgery list for a shunt revision the next
morning.
I have to summarize the next week or
so because I don’t remember any of it. The ended up doing a total of three shunt
revisions before they got the stupid thing to work right. There were times that
I was awake and talking, but I couldn’t answer simple questions correctly like
where I was or what year I was married. They tapped the shunt (took fluid off) a
couple times, and that seemed to help, so they concluded each time that the
shunt wasn’t draining properly. My last surgery was on Thursday Feb
17th, and that surgery seemed to work. The CT after that surgery
showed normal sized ventricles and I was finally lucid and awake and coherent. I
wish I remembered more to tell you, but I just don’t. It’s quite scary, really,
to have a week and a half that I just don’t remember.
I left the hospital on Saturday, February 19th, and I’m at home now. I’m still taking meds for the
pain from my incisions and my headaches. The headache comes and goes as my head
adjusts to the new pressures, and my incisional pain is getting better each day.
I have a follow-up appointment tomorrow morning to have my stitches removed
(finally! They are so ITCHY!!!) and to just follow up on how I’m recovering.
I’ve been feeling pretty good. I’m nauseous sometimes, which I think comes from
the pressure change and from all the meds I’m taking for the pain. Yesterday I
felt good enough to have a do-over Valentine’s Day with Scott since I didn’t
remember the one on the 14th. Scott brought food to the hospital from
my favorite restaurant that day, but all I remember is not really feeling good
enough to eat it with him. So yesterday we went out to a movie and to dinner at Johnny Carino’s. I get tired pretty easily, but
all in all I’m doing pretty well. I think I’m going to try to go back to work
next week, and hopefully I can keep up a little bit with my school work from
home so I don’t have to scramble to catch up. I think I’ll probably end up
taking an incomplete in my clinical and finishing that over the summer, but
that’s no big deal. I don’t want to over do it and end up even further
behind. So that’s my last couple weeks! Exciting as it was, I’m glad to be back at home and resting.
Here goes:
On the 7th of February, I
had my first day of Med-Surg clinical at Rose Hospital in Denver. I
made it through the entire 3p-11:30p shift, but I had a headache that kept
getting worse, and I kept getting more and more nauseous with more visual
changes like blurriness and photophobia (when the light makes the headache
worse). So I left my clinical at about 11:00 when we were released, and I went
by the ER at Denver Health, where Scott and I work and receive all our medical
care. ER trips aren’t really anything new to me, I end up there every couple
months, they medicate me and do a CT scan which usually turns out normal, and
they send me home. On this trip to the ER , they did a CT that looked the same
as all the others, gave me some IV meds, and this time they did a spinal tap
(ouch!) because I had had a low grade fever for the previous couple days. The
spinal tap didn’t show anything infectious, so they sent me home.
The next day (Feb 8th), I
had a spinal headache that was to be expected because of the spinal tap, so I
called my clinical instructor and told her I wouldn’t be at clinical that day. I
was just too spacey from the meds they had given me the night before, and I was
taking vicodin to try to get rid of the spinal headache. I’m not sure what time
it was, but sometime that afternoon or evening I told Scott I needed to go back
to the ER because the headache wasn’t going away and I had lower back pain on
top of it that wasn’t getting any better. This is where things start to get a
little fuzzy. I know that at the ER that night they did another CT that looked
similar to the others, so they medicated me and sent me home.
On Feb. 9th, I ended up
going back to the ER because I was acting funny. I almost got to ride in an
ambulance, but the people at the fire department Scott volunteers for weren’t
answering the phone, so Scott decided to drive me himself. Probably just as
well, I get really sick riding down the mountain in an ambulance. So down to the
ER we went, and this time the CT showed enlarged ventricles in my brain
(ventricles are like fluid pockets in your brain.) The decided to take some
fluid off through the shunt (there’s a port on my head they can stick a needle
in and pull fluid out for tests or if I have too much fluid or whatever). The
pressure in my head was so high that when they released the pressure, I promptly
vomited forcefully. That night, they admitted me to the surgical ICU at Denver
Health and put me on the surgery list for a shunt revision the next
morning.
I have to summarize the next week or
so because I don’t remember any of it. The ended up doing a total of three shunt
revisions before they got the stupid thing to work right. There were times that
I was awake and talking, but I couldn’t answer simple questions correctly like
where I was or what year I was married. They tapped the shunt (took fluid off) a
couple times, and that seemed to help, so they concluded each time that the
shunt wasn’t draining properly. My last surgery was on Thursday Feb
17th, and that surgery seemed to work. The CT after that surgery
showed normal sized ventricles and I was finally lucid and awake and coherent. I
wish I remembered more to tell you, but I just don’t. It’s quite scary, really,
to have a week and a half that I just don’t remember.
I left the hospital on Saturday, February 19th, and I’m at home now. I’m still taking meds for the
pain from my incisions and my headaches. The headache comes and goes as my head
adjusts to the new pressures, and my incisional pain is getting better each day.
I have a follow-up appointment tomorrow morning to have my stitches removed
(finally! They are so ITCHY!!!) and to just follow up on how I’m recovering.
I’ve been feeling pretty good. I’m nauseous sometimes, which I think comes from
the pressure change and from all the meds I’m taking for the pain. Yesterday I
felt good enough to have a do-over Valentine’s Day with Scott since I didn’t
remember the one on the 14th. Scott brought food to the hospital from
my favorite restaurant that day, but all I remember is not really feeling good
enough to eat it with him. So yesterday we went out to a movie and to dinner at Johnny Carino’s. I get tired pretty easily, but
all in all I’m doing pretty well. I think I’m going to try to go back to work
next week, and hopefully I can keep up a little bit with my school work from
home so I don’t have to scramble to catch up. I think I’ll probably end up
taking an incomplete in my clinical and finishing that over the summer, but
that’s no big deal. I don’t want to over do it and end up even further
behind. So that’s my last couple weeks! Exciting as it was, I’m glad to be back at home and resting.