What a pain

Last weekend, I woke up Friday morning with the worst headache I had ever felt. Sharp pain in the base of my skull/ neck, down my entire spine. And nerve pain radiating down both legs. I was just a day over the "watch for symptoms week" after having a spinal injection in my back. I worried a little, looked up meningitis symptoms, then thought maybe I was just getting a weird sickness, since I didn't have a fever.

So I put it out of my mind to focus on Easter weekend with the kids. Easter Bunny visits on Saturday, and I woke up that morning to excited kids in a sugar rush...and a fever for me.

By Sunday morning, we weren't happily getting ready to go to church and feel the spirit of the resurrected Christ. Instead, I was on my way to the ER with a 102 fever.

Some blood work, a CT without contrast of my brain, and a chest X-ray showed all normal results. Except a depleted white cell count. So I had to have a spinal tap (awful experience!) which showed a trace of bacterial infection, but not meningitis. A bag of antibiotics later, I was sent home to mend.

James had just dropped me off and was taking care of 4 kids at home. So he came back to get me. The gas tank was empty, but he was hoping we would make it.

We did. Sort of. The car started to shut things down and we were coasting through the intersection. James barely rolled into the gas station parking lot! Luckily, there was a kind police officer to came to help push us up to a pump, and seeing his example then two other guys felt inclined to help too.

Meanwhile I was sitting in the front seat feeling like death. I had never felt so awful, I was kind of scared. I mean, they did just pierce a hole in my spinal cord! One of the men had asked if I was ok, James informed them we just left the hospital, and I proceeded to throw up in the little blue souvenir bag they gave me. So lovely.

By the time we got home, I was in excruciating pain and wanted to lay down. Every time I would sit up, my head was in worse pain than before I went to the hospital. After reading some of the paper work i learned I now had a spinal headache.

So Monday we went back to the ER. They tried a few tricks of helping the pain, but finally resorted to doing a blood patch. I thought the spinal tap was awful, I was wrong! This is where they took a catheter into position in my spine where they had done the spinal tap, then took a vial of blood out of my arm and immediately injected it into my spinal cord. Sheer pain from my tailbone to my skull! After about an hour, my headache eased up, and they tried to get my blood pressure to perk up enough to help me make it home.

But it wasn't for long. Because it was another injection into the spine, the blood helped patch the leak caused by the spinal tap. But it likely caused another leak, and the excruciating pain returned. So Thursday we went back. For the third time.

This time they kept me overnight to monitor me. They said a second blood patch should fix it. But I was less than inclined to have another needle poked in my back. Ever. Instead, I had my bishop and the Elders come by and give me an anointing and a blessing of healing.

The pain was manageable with medicine after that, so I was sent home with instruction to lay horizontal as much as possible and give it a week.

It has been a rough year for us with many trials. But we have had amazing warriors helping us through it. Between the friends who came into my home and cleaned it, who gave me a ride home from the hospital, who fed my family, James's mother mowing our lawn...we have been greatly blessed and sustained through this trial. How can I have any other opinion than that we will be ok through it all?