So basically, Sunday night the headache that I had had (and still have) since Tuesday got so bad that I was sobbing and decided I just couldn't take it anymore. I called my mom and talked to her for a bit before deciding to get my RD to call an ambulance.
The paramedics showed up and did typical paramedic stuff. Of course, my vitals were fine. They always are. My vitals were fine when I had the staph infection in my brain. My mom called back and said Holly and her roommate/best friend Carmen (who is also my friend; she's lovely) were at a KISS concert, and that they would go to Duke to be with me when the concert was over. The paramedics got the transport truck to come, and while we were riding to Duke, Mom texted and said that Holly and Carmen had left the concert and would meet me there. (How sweet, huh?)
Once I got to Duke, I had the usual CT shunt series and x-ray to check out everything about my shunt and how it was flowing, etc. Thankfully, it only took two tries to get an IV in, and I got some Dilaudid and a drug i hadn't had before, Reglan. Just after midnight, the pediatric neurosurgery resident on-call came in and said my shunt was fine, so they were gonna send a neurologist down to talk about adding a migraine medicine. Well, not long after that, the ER doc came in and said that my usual neurosurgery doc, Dr. F, decided they wanted to admit me overnight to do a shunt flow test Monday morning. I got up to my room a little after 2, and then Holly and Carmen left.
A couple things really sucked (other than the pain, of course): One, the ER doctors told me I could eat, and so Holly and Carmen went and bought me a burger from Cookout, and they got back just as they transferred me to my overnight room, and they told me I wasn't allowed to eat. So I had to sit there and watch Holly and Carmen eat. Boo. And two, I told the doctors in the ER and the neurosurgery resident that came to see me that I had taken Ibuprofen and Oxycodone for days and it wasn't helping at all. Then, instead of Dilaudid, the only thing that had given me any relief, some moronic doc ordered me oral Oxycodone, Tylenol, and Ibuprofen. It was like they wanted me to suffer. (at least in my head at that time)
I didn't get much sleep all night, and around 9:30 they took me down for the shunt flow test. That thing took forever! Three different sets of pictures, and I had to sit there for 30 minutes between each of them. Finally I got back to my room a little before noon and took a nap. About 3:30, Dr. F's assistant came in and said the test was fine, so the neurology team would be in "soon" to talk about adding a migraine med. Holly came back to the hospital at 5something, and the neurosurgery team did not show up till 5:40. We came up with a plan to wean me off the Lyrica, and add a muscle relaxer because the migraines seemed to be starting from pressure in my neck.
Blah, blah, blah, more talking, waiting through shift change to get my nurse to take my IV out, more waiting, and we didn't get out of the hospital till 8:45. Talk about an exhausting day!
I'm just glad that everything is okay, and hopefully this muscle relaxer will help with my problems.
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