One Year Down

Friday, March 4, 2011

This right here is one reason why I have become ok with not being a planner. Things never ever go as planned! That is for us anyways! We had come up with several different ideas for what we were going to do for our Anniversary. And well we definitely didn't end up doing what we had "planned" for. 

For the past week I had been running a fever off and on at night. We don't have a thermometer, so I never knew what it was exactly but my skin was hot. We had a super busy week. It was SEPs at school so work was non stop. That Wednesday we had been sworn in as CASAS and it was our friends birthday and he was having a little party. I told Jordan I wasn't feeling very good and wanted to go home but we still ended up going over for a bit. When I woke up Thursday morning I could not get out of bed. Jordan always comes over and gives me a kiss and says goodbye and then I usually get up but that morning I didn't even respond to him. I just laid there. I finally got up @ 8 and I was supposed to leave for work in ten minutes. My neck down through my back hurt. It was almost a severe sore feeling like I had been to the gym and only worked out my neck and spine. I got ready the best I could thinking it would go away once I was up and going. I got to work and was pretty out of it. The kids came inside and I normally greet them and talk to them and I was just sitting in my chair. I could barely walk and was extremely thirsty. As a teacher it is so hard to leave. You can't just call in sick. You have to have stuff ready and a plan set out for whoever comes into teach your class. So in my mind I just kept thinking I just need to make it through the day. Well I made it through about ten minutes and had to leave. By that point my neck, head, and spine were in immense pain. I couldn't walk very good or move my head. I drove home praying the whole time I would make it ok with tears streaming down my face. I'm sure it was pretty funny from a bystanders point. I was going about 5to10 miles an hour. but I made it home. Jordan kept trying to call me, and I didn't have the strength to pick up the phone and even talk to him. I was so weak it was hard to talk. My mom got to my house shortly after I did and took me over to Insta care. After sitting a while a nurse finally came out & looked at me and sent me over to the ER. I was traumatized. I did not want to go. I kept telling my mom to just take me home but my mother is pretty insistent. 

They got me registered and put in Trauma 1. Jordan had showed up while they were registering me. I remember I couldn't hold my head up so I was watching the floor, and I see his black shoes come up next to the wheelchair. I was very happy to see those shoes. I had an IV and was being pumped with fluids and morphine before no time. I was still in pain but it helped. I also had a very high fever. At one point it was 103. 8 or nine I can't remember exactly. 

The best part about all this was my sweet husband. The moment I got put in the room he kept telling my mom he wanted to give me a blessing. He went to do it but the hospital staff kept coming in and out trying to get me set up. He finally just closed the curtain and gave me the sweetest blessing. This was very special for me because growing up I didn't have those experiences of being able to get a blessing on the spot like that. If this would have happened prior to me being married I would have gone that whole day without receiving a blessing. It was very special!

When I was about three months old I  had Spinal Meningitis and was in the hospital for several weeks. Once you have had Meningitis your more susceptible to getting it. So that is what my mom and the doctors were thinking that I had and just had to make sure to rule it out. I had to get a chest x-ray, a head CT, and a Spinal Tap. I was upset about all three of these things. I kept telling everyone I had the flu and I needed to just go home. No one listened to me though. The doctor tried doing the spinal tap in the ER but was unable to get fluid. He poked me several times with no success of fluid. If anyone has gotten these before they know how horrible they are. I hated it! So now I had to go down to radiology to get the spinal tap because they were unsuccessful in the ER.  They were finally able to get fluid in radiology. It still was very painful. Now because of that procedure I had to lay flat on my back for 24 hrs with very little movement. 

We had to wait several hours in between each procedure and to 

Jord what are you doing!? At one point my blood pressure cuff fell down so it started taking my blood pressure on my wrist well Jordan went over stopped the whole machine and tried to put the blood pressure cuff on the right way. My mom kept saying the machine was going to flat line and Jordan's response was I am a CNA I know what I am doing. Haha The funniest one was my bed. I had to go to the bathroom so Jordan came over to lower my bed. Well he pressed the wrong one so it lowered just my head so now my head was lower then my feet. My mom tried intervening and didn't know what she was doing either. She lowered my feet so that now they were lower then my head. They both kept trying to figure it out and the whole time all I could think about was that saved by the bell episode where the hospital bed folds in half on Zach. They sure did know how to entertain.  The thing I am holding out in the picture is what Jordan kept trying to stick my finger in backwards. After I had received my spinal tap my dad made the comment to me "Well that sucks you had to go through all of this and didn't even get a baby out of it!" Haha yes dad I will have to agree with you on that one!:) 

The results came back negative for Meningitis Yeah!!! They said I had a viral infection in the fluid that runs through my head. They told me I could go home if I wanted or be admitted and stay the night there. I of course chose to go home. It was so loud in there. We were right by the door where all the ambulances were bringing people in and I just wanted to be at my house. Well my mom felt like I should stay. Her and Jordan were both leaning towards that but that was not an option for me. I came home and did pretty good through the night and the next day. My fever stabled out and I was feeling pretty good on Friday. I thought by that afternoon I would be up and moving around. That definitely wasn't the case. Saturday came and my fever was back up and I was in some intense pain in my head. I thought I was in pain on Thursday when I went in, but I have never experienced a head ache to this magnitude. Every little noise felt like my head was going to explode. At one point Jordan started the Washer and I had to stop it because the noise was unbearable. I was also experiencing numbness and tingling in my left leg. That was scarring me a little! My mom called them and they told me to come back in. While my mom was talking to the doctor I wanted to see if getting in the bath might help and plus I had been flat on my back and had not showered in days. So Jordan took me upstairs and literally had to hold me up in the bath. I couldn't keep myself up. The pain was too bad I had to get out and as I was getting out I started throwing up in my tub. It was horrible and only intensified the pain in my head. The ride over to the hospital was HORRIBLE. We made it though and they got me all set up to go in and do a blood patch. While they were getting everything set up and we were waiting for the tech to get there you want to know where my dear husband was. Him, my brother and dad were having wheel chair races in the hall. Yes wheel chair races. I don't know how they didn't get kicked out!

 I had a spinal headache from the spinal tap. They were thinking probably because of how many times I had been poked. The tech was awesome who did the blood patch she was fast and good. I knew I had recognized her from somewhere and kept trying to figure it out. Everyone thought I was out of it because they had given me some pain meds. but during the procedure I had finally figured out I had read through her blog. She had adopted a little girl from Ethiopia! 

They told me I needed to rest and lay down for another 24 hours. Our Anniversary was officially shot. I felt bad for Jordan. He did so good with being there and helping me. By Saturday he was pretty done with it he just wanted me to be better and for it to be over. Sunday, March 4, was our official anniversary. We spent the day just laying around. We have absolutely no food in our house and what is in our fridge was expired. It traumatized my mom when she came over at one point to help me. I promised her I don't usually have expired milk and food in my fridge. :) Anyways Jordan went and got us Cafe Rio for lunch and we had a little picnic in my lounge that I had been in for the past four days. And that is what we did for our one year anniversary. Exciting huh? Definitely not what we had planned but its okay. I am feeling better now. I am still resting trying to gain all of my strength back. I am so grateful for my mom and dad and for Jordan. They helped me so much this weekend and showed so much love and support! Family truly is everything!