My Sick Tale

Let me just say, this was a very rough week for me. I said in my last post, which I wrote before everything really hit the fan, that I am not a very good sick person. So just in case you're interested in what happened to me this week, let me share my story.

Monday I was feeling fine. I went to work and was in my last meeting of the day when I noticed this very intense pain in my lower back. It felt almost like a period cramp but was so intense I had trouble walking out to my car. I went home, got a nice massage from my hubby, and went to bed.

Tuesday I woke up very early because I was going to spend the day traveling to Kentucky for business meetings. Well I still was in a ton of pain, my sinuses were acting up, and I was very nauseous. So as much as I hated to do it, I called one of my colleagues to cover for me and went back to bed. I ended up calling my husband home from work because I ran out of sinus medicine. He brought me medicine and made me some soup, which I promptly lost at the porcelain throne.

This was not going well. I slept all day Tuesday and all that night....

Then the pain started in the back of my neck. It became so intense that I couldn't even stand up. I could literally only lay down flat on my back to find relief from the pain. So I called my mom and asked her what I should do. I hadn't eaten in days, and this neck pain would not go away. She told me to go to the doctor.

So I called my hubby home again and he called our doctor, who told him it sounded like I had meningitis, so I needed to go to the ER. (See how great the week started turning out?). I told my husband I was not going anywhere, as I couldn't even stand up much less walk down to the car and drive to the ER. He persuaded me into the car and drove the 5 minutes to the hospital. The pain was so intense in my neck during the car ride that I remembered thinking "I can't stand it anymore. I'm about to lose it". But then I thought, what would it look like to "lose it"? Well, I found out a minute later when I threw up (mind your I hadn't eaten in 2 days) from the pain. Awesome. Then I continued to cry the rest of the way to the hospital because of the pain (yep, a great big pity-party).

Then I threw up again while the nurse made me sit and tell her how I was feeling. I finally just asked if they would please let me lay down. I got into a nice hospital room and they gave me an IV for fluids. Interesting note, hospital fluids are kept at room temperature and humans are not room temperature, therefore I felt like I was being filled with ice-cold water.

A CT scan and many other tests later, the doctor came in and told me he thought I had a virus, not meningitis, because I didn't have a fever. He said we could check for sure by doing a spinal tap (Which I'd have to lay on my stomach for an hour afterward to allow my spinal fluid to fill in again). That was enough for me to say 100% NO to the spinal tap. I KNEW there was no way I could lay on my stomach with how badly my neck was hurting. So I got some muscle relaxers, mega pain pills, and nausea pills and went home. But first I asked the nurse for a throw-up bag to-go because I didn't know how I'd do on the car ride even though they'd just given me this super intense nausea medicine they give to chemo patients.

Soooo about 3 minutes into our car ride home I made use of the bag at an intersection while the people in the car next to us looked on. Classy.

I got home and stumbled back to bed and fell asleep immediately for a few hours. The rest of Thursday and most of Friday progressed like this. My husband stayed with me the rest of the week, taking amazing care of me. He suggested we go back for the spinal tap, to which I told him I couldn't go because I was sure my body's version of "lose it" this time would involve me dying on the way to the hospital.

Friday afternoon things started to get a little better. I felt a little hungry for the first time in days, and I didn't want to nap as much. My neck still hurt horribly, but I was hoping that would get better. I knew things were looking up after I woke up at my usual 7am this morning. The pain was still bad, but I wanted breakfast. I still had the sinus headache I'd had all week. Then I figured I'd give this guy a try:

This is the cousin of the Neti-pot. My doctor gave it to me months ago and told me to use it every morning any every night to irrigate my sinuses. It supposedly works better than the Neti-pot because it has more pressure. I used it once or twice before but wasn't a fan of it. Well I tried it this morning after I watched the official instructional video on youtube (and yes, I did learn a few new tips). Then I took a nap.

After I woke up for my nap, it was like night and day. My neck pain is significantly better and my sinus headache is gone. My neck still hurts, but nothing like before. My mother-in-law called me to tell me her doctor friend told her today that he sees people with sinus issues have their necks "lock-up". Sinuses cover the entire scalp and a very large sinus pressure point is at the base of the scull, so this was probably just a massive sinus issue I was having.

Can you imagine that?! I still think I had a virus of some kind which led to my exhaustion/nausea, but my neck pain may have never come along if I'd just kept using the sinus rise I got months ago. So my husband has put himself on sinus rinse duty, making sure I stick to a schedule of doing it every morning and night. Who knows, maybe the sinus headaches will stop too???

So I'm back now. I'm still only about 70% but hopefully I'll be even better tomorrow:)