Hello, and sorry for the delay of getting new stuff posted. If you haven't seen much here lately, it's because I haven't been able to do any posting. But, now I'm back! (I think...)
I offer a cautionary tale on many levels. There are no morals to the story here, just a bunch of stuff that happened that may give you something to take with you. If so, wonderful! If not, hey, I tried.
You know when they tell you you should never ask what ELSE can happen, because it's probably better that you didn't know? Take it from me--HEED that advice, and pronto!
DON'T ask.
Don't even THINK about it!
A combination of family emergencies and personal health crises has arisen over the last several weeks that basically took me out of circulation. It's going to be an interesting road back, and I'm going to have some commentary on some things that have happened, but, the bottom line is that I'm trying to get back into some sort of "regular" life pattern, and we'll see where we go from there.
Unbeknownst to us at that time as being somewhat related, I began having mild headaches around the first of the year. They weren't overly bothersome, but I could take an occasional dose of Tylenol (tm) or other non-aspirin product to get over the edge. In short, it was very manageable, and I didn't think any more about it.
In mid-month, my mother ended up being admitted to a hospital in Cumberland with multiple problems. She had been an active, vital eighty-two year old who was still driving on her own, had a bunch of different irons in the fire, and so forth. It was somewhat unexpected.
Not having a full-time job at the time, I was able to go up, stay with my sister, and help manage some things at that end. The headaches, of course, continued, and got a little worse. Still, what would you think? Stress? Duh.
Mom got better that next weekend, and I came home to start a new project. Headaches? Yup, a little worse. I'd been on blood thinners and decided to risk taking NSAIDs like ibuprofen, even though I knew that I probably shouldn't have, but wasn't getting relief with the other stuff any more.
The first night on the new project, Mom slipped away. I was in Cumberland in the wee hours. The headaches, of course, were kicking harder by then.
After a sort of decent night's sleep, we went about making arrangements, looking over the will, all that good stuff, and planned for a Friday funeral. Mom had done a lot of pre-planning, thankfully, and some of the expected expenses had already been covered, especially at the cemetery.
The head kept going.
I spoke for our family at her service and came home later that weekend, ready to go back to my project. The headaches became near crippling. I called my primary care doc's office for an appointment the following day (Wednesday), and they were able to squeeze me in in the afternoon. That Tuesday evening, I remember driving back home, lights bothering me, doing the best I could so I could down some naproxen.
Wednesday, my doctor ordered a brain CT. We tried to get a late afternoon scan, but to no avail. The radiologist's scheduler looked up my insurance and said that I needed a pre-auth. I duly reported it to the doc's office, and they told me they'd get me one the next morning. I did some pre-registration with the radiology office over the phone, and they said they'd be ready once I had the pre-auth to go from there.
My doctor's office called early in the morning, said she had talked with my plan, no auth was needed, but gave me a reference number in case I wanted to give it to the registrar. A 2 PM CT scan was scheduled.
I could still drive, but barely.
A CT scan without contrast turned into one with and without. I was asked to sit in the dressing room for a minute while they read it. Within another minute, the radiologist popped in and asked, "Say, do you like hospital food?"
"Not particularly," I replied, "but I figure that's where this is headed."
"OH yeah. I've spoken to your doctor, he's getting you ready to be admitted to Harbor. He thinks it's OK for you to grab a few things and get over there, they'll be ready for you."
Last couple of points in this tale:
The diagnosis was a subdural hematoma. Surgery was indicated, and fairly quickly. Blood thinners complicated the process because I couldn't have the surgery until I had plasma infusions and my bleeding time normalized. Surgery was done Tuesday. Recovery 4-6 weeks, though, since I'm able to do net stuff right now, I may be able to do some of my project a bit earlier.
So, there it is. I leave the gleaning of any lessons to you, and thanks to all of you for your prayers and support!
