Sunday, April 28, 2013

In a moment everything changed

I have always been very healthy. My doctor even made the comment a few weeks ago "We haven't seen you in 4 years" That is because I hardly ever get sick. Around the beginning of April I started having headaches and went to visit my doctor. The nurse practitioner said it looked like my pain was more in the neck and prescribed muscle relaxers. I took it once and it didn't help at all. I had tried everything from Advil, Aleve, to caffeine and chocolate. Nothing worked so I started taking Excedrin Migraine. That seemed to help so I started taking 2 Excedrin everyday for about 2 weeks. I also started a new Zumba class to get fit for our upcoming Hawaii trip. I did several Zumba classes and liked it but it wasn't something that was gonna make me lose the weight I wanted. So I started a kickboxing class. The first class I was exhausted but loved it. I never did sit ups or push ups and did 50 of each at the first class. I couldn't wait to go back. I went back last Tuesday but couldn't do the things I had done in the first class. My abs were killing me. Once I got home I cleaned the house and did my usual Tuesday stuff while the twins were at school. The time came to pick up the twins and my abs were hurting a little more. Preston had a game that night and I needed to bring a meal to someone. Around 5:30 I bought the meal and by the time I got back home I could barely walk into the house. Aaron saw me and immediately though I had appendicitis. We called the neighbor to come over and watch the kids so we could go to the emergency room. Once we got to the ER the dr gave me morphine for the pain. She also assumed it was appendicitis as well but needed to do a ct scan to confirm. The CT scan came back and she was surprised that it wasn't appendicitis but what she called a huge mass in my abdomen. That scared me right away. We went to a stand alone ER that isn't attached to a hospital, which meant I needed to be transported to the hospital. About 10 that night I got to the hospital got more pain meds and went to sleep. Early Wednesday morning I got an MRI. The dr came into visit and I explained I had been taken Excedrin, started exercising and am now in pain. Before he even reviewed the MRI he said I had a rectus sheath hematoma. A combination of the aspirin in the Excedrin combined with my new exercise routine thinned my blood and caused an artery to bust. I lost about a until of blood but it's contained within the muscle. The only thing that will help is rest and relaxing. Oh and not lifting anything over 10 lbs for a few weeks. That's a hard one since Carly weighs 17 lbs.
Once we figured out the abdomen pain he wanted to know why I was having such bad headaches. I told him where my pain was and he ordered a CT Scan. The scan did come back abnormal and he said I probably have one of two conditions but wanted to get an MRI done to be sure. The 2 conditions he thinks I might have are:
a condition involving the greater occipital nerve
or
I could have been born with the chiari 1 and it may or may not have anything to do with the pain I am having.I need to call on Monday to make an appt to go in and review the results. He said that in most cases both can be eased with medication depending on how much I can tolerate the headaches. Right now nothing helps the pain. They sent me home with Vicodin which is a joke. They did give me a steroid shot of prednisone that helped alot but they said I can't go home with that. 
So that is where I am and how life can change in a moment. 

4 comments:

Tracy said...

Thanks for the update! I will be praying for you.
When Aaron was dropping off Carly this morning I said to Preston, "Hey! I heard you got to snuggle with Mom in the hospital! Did you?!!?" He looked at me a little hesitantly, nodded, and then said, "Wait...is that on your phone?!?!" ;)

Patti O said...

I am glad you are home and on the mend. I know 2 people with Chiari Malformation. I can put you in touch with their parents if you like. Both are minors. The 1st is a friend from Colorado. She had surgery a year ago, and is what they call a zipper head. Unfortunately, her severe symptoms were only resolved temporarily and she has reverted slightly. She cannot eat without gagging and has severer foot pain, and cannot do much of anything. The other child, is a friend of Emma here in Cypress and she has some very severe diagnosis associated with Chiari Malformation.
I would be happy to connect you with these mothers, to get info on their experiences with Chiari Malformation and share their knowledge with you.
Just let me know. I am glad you are home and hopefully back to your old self soon.
Patti

Patti O said...

I am so relieved you are home and mending. I know 2 people with Chiari Malformation. They are both minors, and both have quite severe symptoms. I would be happy to connect you with their mothers, so you can get more knowledge on their personal experience with Chiari Malformation and perhaps get connected with other information.

Patti

Unknown said...

HUGS momma xx i know it cant be easy but try and stay positive, this is a blessing in disguise, i know the drs know what they are doing now they know whats been going on. thinking of you!