Last week was a pretty intense week. On Tuesday Paul called me at school and asked me to come home and take him to the ER. Henhad a really severe/intense headache that he couldn't get rid of. I came home got him to the ER and they did a CT scan and an angiogram. At first they thought it might be a brain anyurism or a tumor. I didn't think a person could ever be that frightened, but I guess you can be. All the tests came back clear and they called it a migraine. We came home, the next day he was wiped out and on Thursday it happened again, but the pain was even worse. On a pain scale on Tues. he said it was a 10, on Thurs. he said it was worse than a 10. Now to really understand all of this you all need to know that Paul has never been to the DR. other than his anual physical with the CG, and he had not been to the hospital except when he had his appendics out when he was 18, so for him to want to go to the ER and for him to rate it off the pain scale we knew it was bad. They did another CT scan and a spinal tap and finally figured out they were "Cluster headaches", otherwise known as Suicide Headaches. They are a neurological disease that affects only .01% of the population. There is no cure for them, but they can be treated with oxygen and meds. Best we can figure is that he may be in remission now for years or he may get another one tomorrow. It really is a wait and see. So our house has been pretty tense. On top of all that he caught some nasty bug during all of that and was sick as a dog all week. Probably from the ER germy areas. The kids were troopers through all of it. I fed them almost 20 dollars worth of vending machine food in two days and prayed nothing was going to really freak them out in seeing Paul so sick. A few things I learned about all of this.
1. Make sure you have these phone numbers in your cell phone
your in-laws
brothers and sisters for both you and hubbie
command
HS
ombudsman
church person
school
2. Keep a copy of hubbies tri-care card in your purse, give him a photocopy of yours and your kids for his wallet.
3. Be nice to the ER ladies.
After a pretty crazy week. Kathy came to visit. I am on Spring break, so we are running around checking out all local fun things and neighboring towns. We went to downtown Hollan, Muskegon and Spring Lake. Today we went Wine Tasting, Cheese Tasting and Chocolate Tasting. We are going to have a feast while watching survivor. Tomorrow we are going to Saugatuk. It is a small town with a lot of little shops and art things. Saturday is G's b-day party. Tonight she is going to a girl scout troop meeting to see if she likes the girls and wants to join. Her bestest friend in the whole world is going as well, so maybe we will be hocking cookies too. (Melissa, you can keep the thin mints, just pass the samoas over this way) I heard from Kathy that the best places to sell cookies when they come in is the college and in front of home depot. Kids love the cookies and men won't say no to the little girls.
Laurie-I hope H isn't going through shunt failure. I also hope he doesn't barf in the car!
I am off the drink wine and eat cheese. Have a good week everyone.
3 comments:
Oh, good grief. How horrible. Well, let's hope for the remission for years. I suppose you have to go to the ER for the oxygen treatments and the alledged oxygen that's piped into the casino's in Vegas doesn't count.
I tend to not be too concerned about H. Half of the county is sick right now. The schools are wiping all the desks and chairs at least one a day to kill 99.9% of the germs so the others turn into super germs. H is congested on that deformed side and probably not getting the quality of sleep he should. But then you know I really have such a hard time finding the happy medium. I'm either wanting to cue on every little thing or forcing myself not to only to wonder if I'm going too far to the other extreme. Anyway, I too hope that he doesn't barf in the car. If it's just the two of us the smell seems to disappear much faster than if W is in the back seat reminding you it's still there. (Plus W's new phrase is "that smells so bad it's going to make my eyes puke!!!")
Good luck on the cookies. D bought a box from some local girls that horned in on the cub scouts pinewood derby last weekend. I think I got one cookie and have no idea where the rest of the box went. If she likes the other girls, she should have lots of fun.
Hang in there!!
You are off the drink wine? Sounds to me like after your week you should be drinking MORE wine - LOL, I know that's a typo :)
That is HORRIBLE about Paul - there is nothing they can do? So you just keep an oxygen tank at home and hope nothing happens?
Prayes for Paul, and thanks for the tips. Hopefully he will be in remission for a long time. That must have been scary!
Have fun with your mom. Sounds like you have lots of fun things planned!
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