Part 1 -- Oh the Trauma!
This past 4 months seem like a year, in so much that a lot has happened. I probably should have been journaling about it as it went on, but I got distracted. Now I feel like I can write about it, and if some other soul out there has the same problem maybe it will help them.
Let’s start with the end. Today with my diagnosis of ‘Seizure Disorder’ from my doctor. He thinks that I likely had this disorder prior to the actual seizure, but that the seizure itself was brought on by triggers. Had those triggers never happened, I’d likely be happily driving my scooter to work by now.
Timeline:
Early January 2006
At work stress took its toll on me. I work in technology and 2-3 times a year, a big production event occurs and it generally does stress people out. I however had tried hard to mitigate the effects by being extra prepared, worked over the weekend to get ahead, worked with the business partners. But to no avail, the project still took a few stutter-starts and a few bumps… before we were successfully done. Perceptions being what they are, I was terribly frustrated and snapped a little at work. Now I didn’t snap in any sort of postal way, but just made an inappropriate comment to a coworker about their lack of help on the project in the context of his extra-long lunches. Anyway, that whole episode got me a couple of days off but my stress levels continued to build over the long weekend. On the Sunday of my imposed sabbatical, I had an epiphany that I should no longer work solely on just the one application. I needed to get some perspective and not have all my work eggs in that basket. So my managers were accommodating with this notion (too bad they hadn’t helped BEFORE I got to that point, but whatever) and promptly got me involved in learning some different applications.
Early February 2006
One particular glaring need for our support team was to be a backup on an application that needs to be managed on the grave-yard shift - 10:00pm - 7:00am. With only the one person assigned to do this, a back up was required to cover this shift when he is on PTO. My manager thought this would be a great opportunity for me, and I agreed to see how it would fit. The plan was for me to work with my co-worker for 3 nights to learn the process.
As changing a sleep schedule is not easy, I was given a day off to get started. My co-worker helpfully suggested that I stay up as long as possible over the weekend so that I could start sleeping during the day. I have to say that I was terrible at doing this. I never could manage to stay awake longer than 1:00am without falling asleep. But I thought, on the first night it would just be really difficult and then I’d have no problems.
So the first night came along. Now, even though I was at this time learning new things the source of my stress still sat right next to me (and still does for that matter) and I still continued to be extremely agitated when allowed to talk about it.
So into work I went on February 7th at 10:00pm. I had a lunch packed and a cup of coffee. I did a great job in learning with very little sleep (I hadn’t slept at all during the previous day). About 2:00am, my co-worker and I ate our lunches and watched an episode of the Simpsons on his computer. Later, sitting at his desk I started to feel really hot (later finding out that the fans are turned off during the night) and I started to sweat. I tried to keep drinking, but it was more of the caffeinated soda rather than good old-fashioned water.
Then I started to feel queasy, but tried to ignore the symptoms of just being overly tired. Eventually - around 3:15am on (February 8th) I had to admit to myself that I wasn’t going to make it. I decided that I might vomit, so I tried to walk to the rest room. I walked away from my co-workers desk (where my desk chair still was located)… I made it maybe 15 feet and my eyes started blacking out. I crouched down at my desk (as I had no chair) and then laid down in my cube for maybe 30 seconds, but feeling the need to throw-up I got up to get to the women’s room.
I walked four more feet, and started blacking out again so I sat down in my co-worker’s chair. Then thinking I might vomit I grabbed his recycle bin… and then realizing that I was in trouble called for my co-worker.
Next thing I know, there were 9 men standing over me - 2 co-workers, 1 security guard, 4 fire fighters and 2 Paramedics. According to the accounts I had been out for about 10 minutes, had a very difficult time breathing and was completely limp. Also, when I was finally aware of my surroundings (remembering how hot I felt, I thought I had sweated through my jeans) - but realized that I lost my bladder control too.
So oxygen over my nose/mouth off to the hospital I went in my first ever ambulance ride.
Once to the hospital, with my IV in my hand and Oxygen tube up my nose (which made me have a horrible allergic reaction in my nose, like I had a cold all of a sudden), I was subjected to several tests. - EKG, CAT Scan (ouch!), urine, blood gases, regular blood and good doctor test. All checked out, so home I went.
I slept like a baby, although it took forever to get out of the hospital, something to eat - it wasn’t until maybe noon before anyone let me actually sleep. I also made an appointment with my general nurse practitioner for the next day.
February 9th - my NP ordered a couple of more tests, a holter monitor to check my heart over a period of two days and an EEG. I had the EEG done that day, it was horrible in that the material they used to attached the metal things were really smelly and gave me a headache BAD. But believing it was just precautionary, I wasn’t too concerned. The EEG was hard though - they do a Strobe Light test, then a deep breathing test (the deep breathing is the hardest in my case). But then the next day I got a call from a nurse saying to not drive my car, that they actually had recorded seizure activity on the EEG. Additionally, because I had the seizure I then had to go in for an MRI on my head to rule out tumors.
Let’s start with the end. Today with my diagnosis of ‘Seizure Disorder’ from my doctor. He thinks that I likely had this disorder prior to the actual seizure, but that the seizure itself was brought on by triggers. Had those triggers never happened, I’d likely be happily driving my scooter to work by now.
Timeline:
Early January 2006
At work stress took its toll on me. I work in technology and 2-3 times a year, a big production event occurs and it generally does stress people out. I however had tried hard to mitigate the effects by being extra prepared, worked over the weekend to get ahead, worked with the business partners. But to no avail, the project still took a few stutter-starts and a few bumps… before we were successfully done. Perceptions being what they are, I was terribly frustrated and snapped a little at work. Now I didn’t snap in any sort of postal way, but just made an inappropriate comment to a coworker about their lack of help on the project in the context of his extra-long lunches. Anyway, that whole episode got me a couple of days off but my stress levels continued to build over the long weekend. On the Sunday of my imposed sabbatical, I had an epiphany that I should no longer work solely on just the one application. I needed to get some perspective and not have all my work eggs in that basket. So my managers were accommodating with this notion (too bad they hadn’t helped BEFORE I got to that point, but whatever) and promptly got me involved in learning some different applications.
Early February 2006
One particular glaring need for our support team was to be a backup on an application that needs to be managed on the grave-yard shift - 10:00pm - 7:00am. With only the one person assigned to do this, a back up was required to cover this shift when he is on PTO. My manager thought this would be a great opportunity for me, and I agreed to see how it would fit. The plan was for me to work with my co-worker for 3 nights to learn the process.
As changing a sleep schedule is not easy, I was given a day off to get started. My co-worker helpfully suggested that I stay up as long as possible over the weekend so that I could start sleeping during the day. I have to say that I was terrible at doing this. I never could manage to stay awake longer than 1:00am without falling asleep. But I thought, on the first night it would just be really difficult and then I’d have no problems.
So the first night came along. Now, even though I was at this time learning new things the source of my stress still sat right next to me (and still does for that matter) and I still continued to be extremely agitated when allowed to talk about it.
So into work I went on February 7th at 10:00pm. I had a lunch packed and a cup of coffee. I did a great job in learning with very little sleep (I hadn’t slept at all during the previous day). About 2:00am, my co-worker and I ate our lunches and watched an episode of the Simpsons on his computer. Later, sitting at his desk I started to feel really hot (later finding out that the fans are turned off during the night) and I started to sweat. I tried to keep drinking, but it was more of the caffeinated soda rather than good old-fashioned water.
Then I started to feel queasy, but tried to ignore the symptoms of just being overly tired. Eventually - around 3:15am on (February 8th) I had to admit to myself that I wasn’t going to make it. I decided that I might vomit, so I tried to walk to the rest room. I walked away from my co-workers desk (where my desk chair still was located)… I made it maybe 15 feet and my eyes started blacking out. I crouched down at my desk (as I had no chair) and then laid down in my cube for maybe 30 seconds, but feeling the need to throw-up I got up to get to the women’s room.
I walked four more feet, and started blacking out again so I sat down in my co-worker’s chair. Then thinking I might vomit I grabbed his recycle bin… and then realizing that I was in trouble called for my co-worker.
Next thing I know, there were 9 men standing over me - 2 co-workers, 1 security guard, 4 fire fighters and 2 Paramedics. According to the accounts I had been out for about 10 minutes, had a very difficult time breathing and was completely limp. Also, when I was finally aware of my surroundings (remembering how hot I felt, I thought I had sweated through my jeans) - but realized that I lost my bladder control too.
So oxygen over my nose/mouth off to the hospital I went in my first ever ambulance ride.
Once to the hospital, with my IV in my hand and Oxygen tube up my nose (which made me have a horrible allergic reaction in my nose, like I had a cold all of a sudden), I was subjected to several tests. - EKG, CAT Scan (ouch!), urine, blood gases, regular blood and good doctor test. All checked out, so home I went.
I slept like a baby, although it took forever to get out of the hospital, something to eat - it wasn’t until maybe noon before anyone let me actually sleep. I also made an appointment with my general nurse practitioner for the next day.
February 9th - my NP ordered a couple of more tests, a holter monitor to check my heart over a period of two days and an EEG. I had the EEG done that day, it was horrible in that the material they used to attached the metal things were really smelly and gave me a headache BAD. But believing it was just precautionary, I wasn’t too concerned. The EEG was hard though - they do a Strobe Light test, then a deep breathing test (the deep breathing is the hardest in my case). But then the next day I got a call from a nurse saying to not drive my car, that they actually had recorded seizure activity on the EEG. Additionally, because I had the seizure I then had to go in for an MRI on my head to rule out tumors.