the worst headache of my entire life - yeah, it's a fun post

On Thursday morning, I woke up with a headache - or rather, a headache woke me up. It felt like another cluster headache, but since I'd just had one recently, I was worried it was the start of a cycle. Time to get to the doctor. First, though, I had to throw up. A couple of times. It was loud enough to wake my room-mate - who graciously volunteered to take me to the doctor if I could get an appointment in the morning. I called into work and left a message, then called the doctor's office and made an appointment for about 1/2 hour later.

Then began the longest car ride of my life. Instead of getting better after throwing up, I got worse. Much, much worse. I was weeping by the time we finally got to the doctor's office and went downhill from there.

My motor skills shut down and I had no balance or strength. In a few minutes the sensitivity to light had overwhelmed me and I nearly collapsed.

The next time period is... vague. I remember trying to answer questions and follow commands, but even though I thought I understood things, my responses were coming up as gibberish. I apparently got a couple shots in the butt, had a hospital gown put on me, and had a cat scan taken. No memories of those things. I do remember them trying to take my temperature, but I couldn't even follow those simple commands. Apparently, about the only things I said that made sense were the swearing - which I feel really bad about.

Finally, whatever it was, passed. The initial results of the cat scan indicated a stroke - but they gave me some cognition tests that I managed to reboot myself into working through. My head still hurt so bad to lift it up that on one of the tests I leaned forward just enough to see the board, then leaned back and described it from memory.

I had since been transfered from the doctor's office to the hospital in the same building - but they didn't have the facilities to really help me out. So, I got transfered again to another hospital and got stuck in the emergency room for several hours. I wasn't allowed water or food and they took a lot of blood for tests. There were several waves of cognition tests and finally I was taken up to a room. More blood - some really wretched "safe food" after a swallow test - and finally lights out. My room-mate had been on the phone to get everyone in the loop and my co-workers, my parents, and my sister and brother-in-law were planning on coming up on Friday. I was awakened every couple of hours for more tests - then in the morning I had an MRI, an EEG, and a vascular ultrasound. I had a surprisingly good late breakfast, then my family arrived along with one of my co-workers. Found out that my sister had awakened not long before I did on Thursday morning and knew something was wrong, but not what. She stayed up and played playstation till she got the news.

The neurologist stopped by in the early afternoon and said that he thought that the initial dianosis of a stroke was wrong since they couldn't find anything. He said it was most likely, "just a migraine". The rest of my co-workers arrived and we talked for a bit. I still had a bit of a headache, but I was in good spirits.

So, with a suggestion that I carry a mega-dose of Motrin with me at all times, I was discharged. My co-workers headed out and my parents followed my room-mate and I back to our place. I got cleaned up and we went out to lunch. We did a little shopping while I tried to gauge my recovery. We had dinner with them before they headed home and I went to bed.

At 4:30 Saturday morning, I woke up again with a headache. I took a couple Motrin and went back to sleep for 6 hours. Then woke up, took 4 more, then slept until evening. Even still, the headache lingered until late in the evening. It was gone this morning, but a coughing spell brought back a trace.

So, not a stroke. Which is good news, especially since I'm only 34. And yet, I find it a little difficult to believe it was just a migraine. I was gone, and I scared a lot of people with my behavior. Looking back, I had all the symptoms of a stroke and chalking up the "mis-read" of the cat scan to improper positioning on the scanner seems a little off.

I'm still a little off - still a little not back in gear with the world. I'm going to try and go to work tomorrow and see how it goes. And I'm going to have flowers sent to the nurse I swore at when the bottom fell out.

It may be the single weirdest time of my life so far. Thanks to everyone who helped me through it and who visited me in the hospital. And especially to my room-mate, who got way more than he bargained for when he volunteered to take me to the doctor's office.

And that's about it for now... later.

1/4 mile, headache, move

I swam a 1/4 mile today at the pool. I think it helped that the rest of the lanes were taken over by a high school swim meet - I was motivated by the people racing past me in the other lanes as well as the screaming crowd. They weren't screaming for me, obviously, but it was still nice. I feel pretty good and I think it was more than a fluke. My next goal will be to do the 1/4 mile non-stop.

I said "headache" in the subject area - but this was a cluster headache. It started out as sun glare, which I later discovered was a trigger, then it turned into that visual incident when you glance at the sun and see spots. Then another, more funky visual distortion, and then the headache kicked in. Wikipedia describes these as the "suicide headaches" - and I can believe it. I thought I was going to be okay, but then the nausea kicked in. So, I left work early and went home to rest. I was better after awhile and was able to fight my way past the pain and finished up the move out from my old apartment. I left the keys there and shut off the lights. Just a tiny bit sad - I'd lived there since 98 after all, but it was a good decision.

So, that's about it for now - time for me to get back to work and save the day. later...

catching up, moving, swimming, work, candid, Kathy Griffin, weekend

It's been a while since I blogged, though it's not for lack of news. Nope, I've just been very busy with work and with home as well.

The biggest news is that I'm moving - or rather, nearly done moving. Got a new place with a garage, and a new room-mate. So, I've been working on moving all my stuff to the new place day by day - though we've made a few trips in a borrowed van as well. It's been tiring and I feel like I've been moving forever, but I think I'm in the home stretch. Just a few more items, then some clean-up and I'll be done. And then I have to start on sorting out the cardboard disaster in the basement - it's been the dumping ground for all the boxes that we don't know what to do with.

I've been keeping up with my swimming, bumping up to 7 laps a couple of times. The other day, the hot water was out in the pool building - which made for a very cold shower. My stamina is improving and I think I'm getting a stronger so once things are settled in my new place I think I may start using the bowflex again.

Work has been busy, doing a lot more with graphics and some programming. Trying to learn more about CSS - I think I may end up redoing my site again in that format.

Along those lines, one of my colleagues looked though my site and said that he was surprised at how candid I was and that I must be pretty secure here. Which struck me as a little odd since I thought I tended to be circumspect and not use names + keeping things a little vague. I think my boss has seen this and since he hasn't said anything about it, I guess I'm in the clear.

Also in work news...I conducted a really good training session yesterday for a student group. Seemed like they understood what I was talking about and they laughed at my jokes - so, it was cool, though my voice started to fade out. I also trained some folks with the board of trustees and got some really nice compliments.

Went and saw Kathy Griffin last night - freaking hillarious. She was on fire from the moment she walked on the stage and didn't let up. Great stories, a lot of swearing, totally funny.

This weekend I'm heading down to visit my folks for my sister's birthday. Should be a fun trip and I'm really looking forward to cake and some time in the hot-tub. Though not at the same time. I've been tired and sore from the cold and the move - and I've already got my suit packed.

Well, that's about it for now - time to get back to work...