Spinal Taps
Alot of my friends probably know this whole story, but for those of you who don't I feel compelled to tell you what has been happening to me in the past few days. It's in a cut because it is very long.
Well this will be a doozy of an entry but it's a good story i promise so try to read all of it. I guess i have to start from the very beginning. Well the church picnic was on Sunday and that was really fun and that night i went over to Kelsie's. At about 10:00 all of a sudden i just got really cold i was freezing so i had on my jeans and a blanket wrapped around my legs and a t-shirt and a sweatshirt on. We went and into the other room to watch The Talented Mr. Ripley but only got about half way through cuz i was SO cold and couldn't stand it...so i went and changed into my p.j.'s and felt my legs and they were boiling hot but inside i was still freezing...so kelsie gave me a back rub and i gave her a hand massage and we went to bed...well i tried to but by now i had a headache and was a little bit delirious, i kept seeing these people like they were in a kalaidascope zooming in and out and twirling around and they were red and yellow and green like life savers colors and when i dozed off a little bit i kept dreaming about snow and lumber...yes that's right...logging and lumber. and i'd wake up every five minutes...so about 3:00 in the morning i finally called my mom and asked her to come pick me up. i put on another coat over the sweatshirt and she came and got me and drove me home but i thought i was going to throw up in the car. I had a fever of 102 but i got to sleep. i woke up on Monday but most of that day is pretty hazy for me...I sorta drifted in and out of restless sleep. I had a pounding headache and i couldn't walk anywhere. In the afternoon I crawled upstairs to go to the bathroom (literally crawled) and then i saw that i had a rash all over my legs...and then i saw that i had it all over my arms and my hands too. When my mom got home i showed it too her and i still had a temperature but it had gone down to 101. She got online and started checking out my symptoms...she was asking me questions like did i have a rash on the bottom of my feet (which i didn't) was my neck really sore (which it was) and were my eye's sensitive to light (which they were). After all of this she wouldn't tell me what was going on, but i could tell that she was sort of worried. She called the doctor but because it was was labor day they weren't open. We got a call back from one of the nurses and my mom told her my symptoms. She told my mom, "you need to get her to the hospital...i mean like, leave right now." So we did, i bundled up and got in the car..it was not a fun little trip, my head was throbbing, my stomach was queasy and she almost missed the exit. When we were about two blocks from the hospital along Bellevue's auto row, our car overheated. We were stopped at a light and a noise kept pinging and the temperature gauge was as high as it could go...luckily for us, the light turned green and we got to the hospital before our car broke, My mom dropped me off at the emergency entrance so I went in and sat down while she parked the car. After the car was turned off it spilled coolant all over the ground and the car wouldn't start again. She got my name on the list and told them my symptoms and they let me right into triage, ahead of everybody else, which made me even more worried, but they still didn't tell me what they thought was wrong. I got a bed and the doctor came and told me they thought had meningitis, they weren't sure if it was bacterial or viral and they would have to do an I.V., draw some blood, and do an LP (spinal tap). The nurse came in to give me my I.V. I'm not scared of needles at all, in fact I like getting my blood drawn, which is lucky for me because they sure poked me with alot of needles. The nurse accidentally collapsed two of my veins before she finally got the big vein on the inside of my elbow to take the I.V. That hurt more than you would imagine. After she finally got it going they made me wear a mask so i wouldn't "contaminate" anybody, but it was really hard to breathe. Then another nurse came in to draw some blood,which was actually pretty cool because i couldn't feel anything at all since she took it through the I.V. and it was bright bright red...which was also awesome, but bad because that meant that i had an infection. After waiting around forever (you always have to wait in hospitals, it is SO not like ER) The nurse came in with the LP kit and said that my parents had to leave, i was worried enough about the spinal tap and i really wanted my parents to be there but the nurse said they would just get in the way (she was a really nice nurse, though). The doctor had me lay on my side all curled up so that the spaces between my vertebrae would open up. He explained that meningitis is basically an infection of the tissue surrounding my spinal cord and brain so they have to get some fluid out of my spinal cord to test it for bacteria and viruses. He then washed the area on my back and used my hips as markers to tell where the spaces that he would poke were. They had to be really careful that my skin was extra clean so that not bacteria actually got into my spinal fluid and i got an infection that way. Then was the worst part, the lanocane. They used it to numb my muscles so i wouldn't feel the big needle but i have such a high metabolism that the lanocane wore off in about 45 seconds and they needed to have the needle in my back for a few minutes so they upped the dosage but as they were putting it in they accidentally hit a nerve in my back which sent pain shooting down my left leg, i could almost see it like a lightning bolt. Apparently i couldn't hunch over enough to open up a big enough space so they had me change positions so i was sitting up hunched over a little metal table/tray with a pillow on it. This worked fairly well until i started getting really nauseous from the pressure from the 3 1/2 inch needle that was in my back. I had to hold absolutely still but i also thought i had to throw up...that was the most excruciating part. After it was finally over and i layed back down (i was crying by now...ashamed to admit it but i was) then my parents came in and looked kinda shocked because i was so ghostly white. When they checked my blood pressure it was 79 over 42...it's usually supposed to be about 120 over 80...not good. They monitored me while waiting for the tests to come back. The test came back positive for viral meningitis (the non-lethal kind) and so they gave me vicoden and sent me on my way. Man, that vicoden has been wonderful...i can barely stay concious if i don't have it because of my headache and my backache but other than that, i'm feeling alot better. for the first 24 hours after my spinal tap i had to stay on my back, which nearly drove me insane but i had to give the little needle holes time to heal..if they didn't heal and started leaking spinal fluid, i'm in trouble. Fortunately, it is looking good. We're still waiting for the final test to come back on Thursday to confirm that it's not a bacterial infection (that would be really bad) but it's almost 1 in a million chance, i'm not too worried.
Thanks Kristen for the cookies and cake! they are quite delicious. And thanks Liz for the vouge and rollos! you have made my misery less miserable..i'm still not quite strong enough to go to school tomorrow so i hope i see you all friday. Miss you guys!
Well this will be a doozy of an entry but it's a good story i promise so try to read all of it. I guess i have to start from the very beginning. Well the church picnic was on Sunday and that was really fun and that night i went over to Kelsie's. At about 10:00 all of a sudden i just got really cold i was freezing so i had on my jeans and a blanket wrapped around my legs and a t-shirt and a sweatshirt on. We went and into the other room to watch The Talented Mr. Ripley but only got about half way through cuz i was SO cold and couldn't stand it...so i went and changed into my p.j.'s and felt my legs and they were boiling hot but inside i was still freezing...so kelsie gave me a back rub and i gave her a hand massage and we went to bed...well i tried to but by now i had a headache and was a little bit delirious, i kept seeing these people like they were in a kalaidascope zooming in and out and twirling around and they were red and yellow and green like life savers colors and when i dozed off a little bit i kept dreaming about snow and lumber...yes that's right...logging and lumber. and i'd wake up every five minutes...so about 3:00 in the morning i finally called my mom and asked her to come pick me up. i put on another coat over the sweatshirt and she came and got me and drove me home but i thought i was going to throw up in the car. I had a fever of 102 but i got to sleep. i woke up on Monday but most of that day is pretty hazy for me...I sorta drifted in and out of restless sleep. I had a pounding headache and i couldn't walk anywhere. In the afternoon I crawled upstairs to go to the bathroom (literally crawled) and then i saw that i had a rash all over my legs...and then i saw that i had it all over my arms and my hands too. When my mom got home i showed it too her and i still had a temperature but it had gone down to 101. She got online and started checking out my symptoms...she was asking me questions like did i have a rash on the bottom of my feet (which i didn't) was my neck really sore (which it was) and were my eye's sensitive to light (which they were). After all of this she wouldn't tell me what was going on, but i could tell that she was sort of worried. She called the doctor but because it was was labor day they weren't open. We got a call back from one of the nurses and my mom told her my symptoms. She told my mom, "you need to get her to the hospital...i mean like, leave right now." So we did, i bundled up and got in the car..it was not a fun little trip, my head was throbbing, my stomach was queasy and she almost missed the exit. When we were about two blocks from the hospital along Bellevue's auto row, our car overheated. We were stopped at a light and a noise kept pinging and the temperature gauge was as high as it could go...luckily for us, the light turned green and we got to the hospital before our car broke, My mom dropped me off at the emergency entrance so I went in and sat down while she parked the car. After the car was turned off it spilled coolant all over the ground and the car wouldn't start again. She got my name on the list and told them my symptoms and they let me right into triage, ahead of everybody else, which made me even more worried, but they still didn't tell me what they thought was wrong. I got a bed and the doctor came and told me they thought had meningitis, they weren't sure if it was bacterial or viral and they would have to do an I.V., draw some blood, and do an LP (spinal tap). The nurse came in to give me my I.V. I'm not scared of needles at all, in fact I like getting my blood drawn, which is lucky for me because they sure poked me with alot of needles. The nurse accidentally collapsed two of my veins before she finally got the big vein on the inside of my elbow to take the I.V. That hurt more than you would imagine. After she finally got it going they made me wear a mask so i wouldn't "contaminate" anybody, but it was really hard to breathe. Then another nurse came in to draw some blood,which was actually pretty cool because i couldn't feel anything at all since she took it through the I.V. and it was bright bright red...which was also awesome, but bad because that meant that i had an infection. After waiting around forever (you always have to wait in hospitals, it is SO not like ER) The nurse came in with the LP kit and said that my parents had to leave, i was worried enough about the spinal tap and i really wanted my parents to be there but the nurse said they would just get in the way (she was a really nice nurse, though). The doctor had me lay on my side all curled up so that the spaces between my vertebrae would open up. He explained that meningitis is basically an infection of the tissue surrounding my spinal cord and brain so they have to get some fluid out of my spinal cord to test it for bacteria and viruses. He then washed the area on my back and used my hips as markers to tell where the spaces that he would poke were. They had to be really careful that my skin was extra clean so that not bacteria actually got into my spinal fluid and i got an infection that way. Then was the worst part, the lanocane. They used it to numb my muscles so i wouldn't feel the big needle but i have such a high metabolism that the lanocane wore off in about 45 seconds and they needed to have the needle in my back for a few minutes so they upped the dosage but as they were putting it in they accidentally hit a nerve in my back which sent pain shooting down my left leg, i could almost see it like a lightning bolt. Apparently i couldn't hunch over enough to open up a big enough space so they had me change positions so i was sitting up hunched over a little metal table/tray with a pillow on it. This worked fairly well until i started getting really nauseous from the pressure from the 3 1/2 inch needle that was in my back. I had to hold absolutely still but i also thought i had to throw up...that was the most excruciating part. After it was finally over and i layed back down (i was crying by now...ashamed to admit it but i was) then my parents came in and looked kinda shocked because i was so ghostly white. When they checked my blood pressure it was 79 over 42...it's usually supposed to be about 120 over 80...not good. They monitored me while waiting for the tests to come back. The test came back positive for viral meningitis (the non-lethal kind) and so they gave me vicoden and sent me on my way. Man, that vicoden has been wonderful...i can barely stay concious if i don't have it because of my headache and my backache but other than that, i'm feeling alot better. for the first 24 hours after my spinal tap i had to stay on my back, which nearly drove me insane but i had to give the little needle holes time to heal..if they didn't heal and started leaking spinal fluid, i'm in trouble. Fortunately, it is looking good. We're still waiting for the final test to come back on Thursday to confirm that it's not a bacterial infection (that would be really bad) but it's almost 1 in a million chance, i'm not too worried.
Thanks Kristen for the cookies and cake! they are quite delicious. And thanks Liz for the vouge and rollos! you have made my misery less miserable..i'm still not quite strong enough to go to school tomorrow so i hope i see you all friday. Miss you guys!