Six years ago today, I woke up w/ double vision. Quite frankly, it's a miracle that I awoke at all. But on that Saturday morning of Memorial Day Weekend 2004, I had no idea what was happening to me. After about 45 minutes my vision returned to normal, and later in the day the girls and I went to a nearby flea market where Doug's parents had a booth. I told them about it, and we all agreed it was odd, but I was scheduled to see my doctor in a few days anyway b/c of severe headaches and inordinately high blood pressure. I was already on hypertension meds so I figured the doctor would get to the bottom of it when I saw him. The next couple of days continued w/ the same pattern in that I awoke w/ double vision, but it would dissipate within an hour. I saw my regular doctor here in town who wanted to keep me in the hospital overnight, but I told him I would rest and we would proceed w/ some urine tests to see if I had kidney problems that were impacting my elevated blood pressure. I also promised to return the next day for x-rays and a head CT. I also went to our local eye doctor, who took my blood pressure but didn't seem at all concerned about my vision problem and then proceeded to spend more time talking about sporting events than about my double vision. Yea, I found a different eye doctor the next day. The new eye doctor sent me to an eye specialist in Spencer, who was the first person to use the word stroke.
By about the third day, I decided to carry on w/ my plans of scraping one of our sheds in preparation for painting it. By this time, however, the double vision wasn't leaving. I was constantly seeing ghost images of everything........one behind the other. I was also teaching two online classes and conducting chat rooms w/ one eye closed so I could read students' responses and my own typing. Back to the shed.....I was literally outside in 90+ temps scraping paint. I had to wedge a piece of folded, black construction paper behind protective eye gear to cover my left eye. Doug came running out to tell me he'd been talking w/ a cardiologist friend of his from Des Moines who, after hearing all my symptoms, told him to get me to Mason City (it's closer than Des Moines) to see a cardiologist colleague of his there.
In Mason City I underwent a barrage of tests. The locker I had been given to store my personal belongings was #3, my lucky number. At this point I was looking for any sign of good fortune, but for the most part I was numb. I went from one test and doctor to another relaying my condition and waiting for what I had to do next. I had a complete body MRI for which I had to have an IV for contrast to be administered, and I had to drink some type of barium, I believe, over the course of several hours. Since I was beginning to suffer from White Coat Syndrome, I asked if I could have a reprieve and release from the hospital. Doug and I went to my favorite store.........Goodwill. While we were in the parking lot, I contacted the eye specialist I had seen in Spencer to ask if he could make a special lens that would override my double vision. Back at the hospital w/ the MRI completed, I was in the holding area waiting for an endoscopy to examine my heart and lungs. The cardiologist came in to tell me, however, that we wouldn't be doing the procedure b/c they'd found a lesion on my brain stem and a mass on my left kidney. At that point she said I needed to go to Mayo Clinics in Rochester, MN.
My first impressions of Mayo were of efficiency while maintaining warmth. I saw a cacophony of ologists: neurologist, oncologist, nephrologist, urologist, and optometrist. I had more and more and more tests over several days until they decided that the lesion on my brain stem must be dealt w/ first otherwise it was unlikely I would survive any surgery on my kidney. I was functioning on auto-pilot at this point. Thank God for my husband who became my ears and my consciousness. They said the lesion could be a tumor, which would mean brain cancer or it could be an aneurysm. On Friday, 18 June 2004, the surgeon went in through my groin and, similar to how an angiogram is performed, ran a camera up to the brain stem to have a look around. On the operating table my head had to stay in a helmet-like device to prevent any movement, obviously. Discovering that it was an aneurysm was really the best-case scenario. I returned on Monday, the 21st, for the surgeon to place a stainless steel coil to essentially block off the aneurysm and relieve the pressure it was putting on the fifth optic nerve of my left eye. The coiling procedure went well, but I had to spend the night in ICU for observation. The next morning I wanted to get up and move around b/c I knew the doctors wouldn't even consider sending me home unless I was ambulatory. To my request for a walkabout, the ICU nurse responded, "I don't know. No one ever walks around in ICU." Later that day, once the doctors knew the surgery was successful, I asked the same nurse if I could go home now. Again she responded, "I don't know. I've never discharged anyone from ICU before." She did, and I left.
No comments:
Post a Comment