Soly's Blog

The yuck wins again.

Yuck 4, work 0. I'll be heading to the doctor this afternoon. Maybe I need antibiotics or something to conquer this bug. I tried to go to work this morning and was feeling so awful on the drive in that my sweetie suggested perhaps I shouldn't be going to work... so I turned around and came home. He settled me into bed with a glass of warm water to drink and a cat to lie on my legs, and headed back out to work himself.

I *hate* feeling like crap.

Yuck, and Pressies

So, here it is, Wednesday. I've been sick since Saturday night and it hasn't been nearly as much fun as it sounds like it should be. I mean, I could've been sick because I was bitten by a radioactive cat and was developing superpowers or something, but no! All I was developing was lungs full of yuck. That's not a very cool superpower.

On the upside, though, I am feeling mostly better, which is a relief. And, another upside thing - a present I ordered for Paul arrived today, so I get to give that to him tonight. :) Yay for pressies.

Missing my friends and family. Feeling they're far away. Owroo!

Cat up your nose?

My sinuses and I have a "hate/hate" relationship. But, reading a book, cat on my chest, so, otherwise comfy.

Dang!

Zowie. What a day. I think I walked about 10,000 miles at work. It was picture day at school so I was coordinating all of that - herding kids and trying to keep the photographer busy, you know, so he didn't end up just sitting, wasting his time. So. Zum.

Watch it!

I heard someone tell someone else this at work the other day... "Grownups wear watches." I dunno what the context was, or anything about the people involved, just that bit. And I realized it does look more professional to wear a watch. And it definitely looks unprofessional if you don't know what time it is. Or what day. I'm trying to post a pic of the watch I wore today. It's not for everyday wearing, but it's awesome.

It's a Timex, and I think it used to be my dad's. It keeps great time. Mom, any history on this? I'll email you a picture, it doesn't look like I can post one here.

Love you.

Laura

Ssh, it's bedtime.

Had a nice birthday. Quiet and relaxing. The sinus infection that was threatening didn't quite pull it off (thank you, Vick's). Face still tender but nobody needs to be poking me, got it?! Good. I keeeeel you!!

Now I'm 45. So not prime. Not at all. Not like Ben, who is 19 and therefore quite prime. He's going to write a little doohickey to tell us what ages are the "least primest" ... eventually. When he's less busy being prime.

BTW - Speaking of prime, Prime Minister Stephen Harper twitters. Look for 'pmharper' on Twitter. Could be cool ... :)

Home safely from 12th Night in Minneapolis. We even escaped relatively unscathed from our trip to SR Harris. It was a busy day yesterday, but good.

Zum. Really. Any time now.

Didn't sleep well last night, moving blearily about getting ready for work. Will post more later, but wanted to say...

Ben came home over the holiday. The house felt *normal* again. I miss him so much! He's doing well at Dal, and says he likes living in res.

More later, gotta go out into the cold and dark pre-morning. Whee.

It's been a bit then, hasn't it.

Life is good. Mom and Dad visited for a week. It was SO good to see them, to be with them again. As I feel my own age advance, my greatest fear is that I will never really know them. I mean, my mom used to be a down hill skiier, apparently a pretty good one, till she had to quickly avoid an idiot playing snowbank and went off into the trees. I had no idea! What else don't I know??!

It felt so good to be with them. I miss them so much and they are sooo far away.

I love you much, Mutter und Vater. Glad you got home safe.

Your daughter,
Laura

Mr. Burns had it right...

... when he wrote, "The best-laid schemes o' mice an 'men/Gang aft agley"

Our plan was to get up on Thursday at the normal time, head to my office for the weekly Weight Watchers meeting, then hit the road for Canada. With such a nice early start, we'd have lots of evening in Thunder Bay to play tourist and relax. I was really looking forward to a cheery, no pressure holiday.

Things went agley. My head started to ache just after we left home. It got progressively worse until I finally had to admit it was another migraine from the lumbar puncture. We were nearly to my office but we turned around and headed back to the St. Francis hospital. By the time we got there I was pretty much toast, by which I mean I couldn't think, stand up, or anything. My sweetie fetched me out of the car and muscled my shaking self into emerg. He answered all their questions and petted me and told me over and over that it'd be ok.

After putting me flat, wrapping me in warmed blankets and dosing me up with a *fabulous* narcotic cocktail they did another blood patch. Apparently in a very small minority of cases these patches don't stay over the hole in the dura and the csf can start leaking again. Whee. The doc said that a 10 hour drive wouldn't likely cause me any harm but it'd be damn uncomfortable.

We were home by early afternoon with more narcotics. Paul put me to bed and figured out two configurations in the car that allow a nearly 6'1" Soly to lie flat, and he spent a little time on the phone. Then, zoom. We went as far as Superior WI on Thursday, then to Thunder Bay on Friday. Grad on Saturday. Home again in one jump on Sunday.

So, remember that beaten-up feeling I mentioned before...? Holy crap. *Now* I feel beaten up.

Two things...

1. Headache is gone. Feeling really beaten up, though, which I think is understandable. Went to work today, and lasted all day.

2. I don't play the violin. That part was a joke.

Packing for Thunder Bay. :o)

Tuesday

Friday I had a lumbar puncture. Nasty. Yesterday and today I got migraines when I stood up. When I lay down, they either diminished or went away completely. I tried to go to work today... no dice. On the firm advice of an MD friend, I followed up on getting looked at, and, no surprise at all, he was 100% correct both in diagnosis and in the required treatment.

Apparently I was leaking cerebrospinal fluid from the puncture site into a small area between the layers of wrapping that surround the spinal cord. This meant my brain didn't float high enough in the bathtub of my skull, and it really doesn't like that. Really a lot.

So back into the hospital I went, to be pumped full of IV fluids and to have a blood patch done. This would have been less un-fun if they could have gotten my veins to give them any blood to use for the patch. Seems it's all been used up with the blood testing I've had done lately. They did finally get enough although I may never play the violin again. The headache seems to have abated.

Tomorrow will tell. Hopefully I can make it to work! It'll be my only day of work this week - we're off Thursday and Friday for my grad from LU. At long *freakin* last.

I could be happy with a little dull, now and then. I really could.

Resting

Spent a quiet day today, resting, reading, relaxing. Haven't gotten a headache from the spinal tap yesterday, which is a bonus, but my back has been really sore. A combination of stress and all the tests, I expect.

Paul and I watched "Fanboys" yesterday evening. It was amusing, but I'm not yet sure if I'd recommend it to people ... that could be more *me* than the movie, however, so make your own call on that.

I've been reading Steven Saylor's "Roma Sub Rosa" series. They're really pretty perfect for my frame of mind these days - they are definitely escapist entertainment (yay for escapism), but they carry quite a lot of historical detail. The writing is certainly good enough to draw me in, and I like the characters; the plots are based on actual events, about which I know too little, but they're well explained and intriguing anyway.

The real issue of the day is - why does the cat want to lie on my *shins* as I'm lying here in bed??

Life.

Hiya, all.

So, I�ve been trying to decide how to write about what�s been keeping me from blogging these past several months. I know I tend to shut up and disappear when life gets �interesting�, and the longer I wait, the harder it is to start back up again. It�d feel like lying to just jump back into journaling and ignore the gap, (�Dear diary, what a nice sunny day it is today!�) so I guess I will say something about it, *then* ignore it.

Those of you who read my hubbie�s journal will have had some clues.

We�ve been really busy and very stressed out, because we�re trying to figure out a medical problem. Shortly after my back surgery, I started having intermittent neurological symptoms in my torso and feet. Over time, the symptoms increased in duration, spread up my legs and into my hands, and increased in severity. I mean, I can still do almost everything I could before. Walking can be a little wobbly, but I haven�t fallen� though last summer when I was fighting in the Baronial Champs tourney my legs both gave out for a sec and almost dumped me on my ass. Fighting is completely off limits till we know what�s going on. Anything else that I�m capable of doing, I can do. If that makes sense.

My GP ordered a lumbar MRI to rule out cauda syndrome, which is nasty, and I�m glad to not have it. Since that came back clean, he sent me to a neurologist. The neurologist examined me, then sent me for MRIs of my thoracic and cervical spinal cord, and had about 17 litres of blood sucked out of me for testing. She called me with the results - the blood work came back clean, but the MRI showed some white spots in the spinal cord in my neck (the spinal cord should show up in an MRI as a relatively uniform grey). White spots = scarring, probably from inflammation. She said there didn�t appear to be any active inflammation showing on the MRI, but she couldn�t say for sure what the problem was without more info.

So, more tests: brain MRI, EMG (nerve conduction testing), more blood work, and a lumbar puncture... welcome to the Week of Suck. Tests on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday (today), and they�re done. The doc who did the EMG testing told me what the results were as she was going along; the signal transmission speed of the nerves in my legs is good. The rest I have to wait for.

(As an aside, I�m writing this entry on my laptop while lying flattish in my bed, per the discharge orders after the LP I had earlier today. What an awful name, �lumbar puncture�. It brings to my mind a dirty, rusted old 4� nail, the kind a car tire would pick up and get a puncture/flat from� yeah, the mental image is one of those yucky nails stuck into my back. Nice! I mentioned to the nurse during the procedure that they should come up with a better name than �puncture�. She agreed, but then she laughed and told us about the pain clinic where she had worked previously, where all staff were instructed to never use the word �needle�. Their term was �access device�. The doctor working on me and the other nurse both snorted� perhaps they have a touch of swine flu.)

I dunno if the neurologist will call me with the test results (and possibly a diagnosis) this time, or if I�ll have to wait until my next appointment with her, mid-June. I hated having to go through the tests themselves; now that they�re done, I�m hating having to wait to get the results. There *is* just no pleasing some people.

So� given the symptom picture and the test results so far, the cause could be a lot of different things, none of them any fun. There are a whole list of contenders, including several inflammatory conditions/diseases, some vitamin deficiencies, and MS. So, we�ve been preoccupied, and I�ve been hiding from the world� now you know why.

I�m not posting this to get sympathy or anything else from you� I�m doing it because Paul pointed out to me that if I want friends to be a part of my life, I have to be willing to share my life with them. I�m not good at sharing, but I guess most anything will get easier with practice� I hope.