Thursday, May 28, 2009

A Funny Thing Happened ...

A weird thing happened on Monday, and I have struggled to describe it to two doctors so far. I'm not sure I'll do better here. It's all kind of foggy.

I was having bad vertigo, which happened a few months ago when a sinus infection settled in my inner ears so I wasn't thinking too much of it other than to complain to Scott that I felt drunk without the fun part. Room spins and such.

Scott was starting to chop veggies for a stir fry for dinner, Ellie was watching something on Noggin, and I got out of my recliner to refill my water bottle with Crystal Light. It's 8-10 steps from my recliner to the refrigerator and when I got there, the dizziness hit me so hard that I grabbed the counter with both hands and tried to hold on without fainting. I didn't faint. But I did collapse after a moment or two that seemed to last forever. Scott went to get me a cool washcloth without saying anything, and that felt good. I asked him to give me my water bottle, and he held it out to me and I realized that I couldn't seem to lift my arm more than an inch or two. He took my pulse, which was 130ish, but my "normal" these days is 100-110 at rest and I was definitely freaking out so that's not as big a rise as it could be.

I couldn't get up off the floor, my right leg wasn't really working either. I lay on the kitchen floor for awhile and eventually regained the ability to move. (I also decided that if I'm going to collapse and not be able to get up, I need to lose enough weight that Scott can lift me off the floor when I'm dead weight!) We talked about calling 9-1-1, but I was mortified at the idea of being carried out of the house on a back board to an ambulance. Yeah, I know that's silly. But I clearly wasn't dying and ...

Even after motion came back, I still didn't feel "normal" on my right side. Tinglier, heavier. I was shaking/trembling. Another weird thing was that the right side of my mouth was shaking too. So weird. By bedtime, I could walk, but couldn't lift my right leg high enough for the stairs.

By the next day, everything worked pretty much as normal if a little shaky and feeling like it took extra effort.

Tuesday, I called my internist, who verbally rolled her eyes at my not calling 9-1-1 and told me in certain terms that if it ever happened again, I was to get to an ER either by ambulance or my own steam, immediately. I told Scott she said to ignore me if I told him not to call 9-1-1 again.

Today I saw my neurologist for an appointment that was already set up. She says that next time I need to call her asap (and she agreed with my internist that it was ridiculous that I hadn't called 9-1-1).

I think the scariest part was that she was talking about the need to notify the DMV if she thought it was likely that I could have another episode like that and lose control. I rarely drive other than to doctor appointments and occasionally to the pharmacy, but boy I'd hate to lose my license.

She says there's way too many possibilities for what it could have been to know. I'm scheduled for an EEG on Monday to see if it looks abnormal. And I'm scheduled for a lumbar puncture (spinal tap) on June 10, which may or may not help with my diagnosis and/or ruling out multiple sclerosis and several other autoimmune diseases.


2 comments:

Miss Waxie aka A Comic Life, Indeed said...

ooooh, i'm not going to add my voice to the chorus of "you should've called 911'. nope. not me. never.....

Eeeep! Girl, you've got to let the see you at your worst so they can have the best chance of proper diagnostics! I really hope they can get to the bottom of this soon!

And...no more scary fainting spells, okay?

Aviva said...

Yes, ma'am, Miss Waxie! :-)

I guess I'm not good at the "let them see you at your worst" part because when I'm really at my worst is the times I tell Scott I'm too sick to go to the ER or the doctor. Sigh. It just takes so much energy to deal with doctors, especially if I'm going to see one(s) that doesn't know me and my history.