Not the adventure I was expecting.....

My plan today was to wake up, go to the doctor's and head in to work.  I had an appt with my primary physician because after my stomach virus of the weekend, I had developed a strange tingling and numbness in both legs.  When it started on Sunday, I just figured I had slept wrong.  My Monday was uneventful except that the numbness and tingling persisted and it got worse at night.  After Bella woke up the family with her barking at 2 a.m. (Thanks Bella), I wasn't able to find a comfortable position to fall asleep, tossed and turned for an hour, paced for 30 minutes, and then went downstairs to watch a movie in hopes that the tingling and numbness in my legs would subside. 

Three hours later, it hadn't but I decided to ignore it and go into work.  Yes, I know - smart move.  At work, I was basically on fumes because I didn't have any energy and the numbness had traveled to the middle of my gluteus maximus - aka, my butt.  Think about it - how comfortable is it to sit on your butt when it feels like a "charlie horse"?  So not the best feeling in the world at all!  So after my last meeting of the day, I told my boss, not asked him, told him that I was heading home.  Once home, I got on the couch to rest and realized that the numbness and tingling in my legs was getting slightly worse again.  Took some Motrin and then decided - you know, enough and called the doctor's office.  They of course chastised me for not calling earlier and scheduled me for the first appt that they could - 9:50 a.m.

Woke up today and the numbness/tingling had slightly subsided.  I thought - leave it to my body to decide that there was no issue - afterall, it wasn't as bad as Monday, it was starting to feel better.  It's like when you make an appt to get your haircut and the day of the appt is the day your hair looks it's best.  I mean the tingling/numbness was still there but just less so.  So I went into Cambridge from NH and saw my primary, explained my symptoms, had my temperature taken, reflexes and strength tested in both legs, hell, I was even weighed.  But in the end, my doctor said that the symptoms to her seemed neurological - that sometimes when you have a virus, the same viral infection can attack your nerves and in my case, the nerves in the leg.  There is some fancy name for it that escapes me right now.  In any event, she called her neurologist at Brigham & Women's Hospital, who didn't even let her finish and within 10 seconds told her that I should come immediately to the emergency room there for testing and observation.

I was floored!  I mean, hello, I only have tingling - I can walk and talk at the same time, hell I even drove back and forth from NH 3 times this week already.  I have no fever, my blood pressure is fine - what the hell do I need to go to the emergency room for?????   Well, apparently, this is pretty common so I shouldn't panic, right?  Shouldn't be worried, right?  Then, my doctor said that the neurologist wanted me to be sent to the ER in an ambulance.  Oh, hell no!  I, being my mother's independent daughter, decided to drive there from Porter Square.  I can do THIS, I thought.  I am a healthy 37 year old woman with no surgeries, only two broken bones ever (coxic and thumb bones - don't ask - story for later), and no allergies - I can certainly get to the ER on my own.  And of course, I did.

Probably not the smartest move but here I am.  Still in the ER and blogging.  And I have to say, I am really glad I got here earlier than the dreaded evening ER experiences of the past where it is jam packed and the weight is like 5 hours.  I only had to wait for 90 minutes and then was given a "stylish" hospital gown and a bed in the hallway.  Hey, I entertained myself by people watching - very interesting stuff when you are in the hallway! 

I now have a room where I had some very unique experiences since being here today.  I got my 600 mg of motrin - yeah!  Then had blood work done - easy peasy and then, drum roll please, I had not one but TWO spinal taps.  They kept telling me, have you ever had a baby because it's like having an epidural.  If they ever tell you that - DON'T BELIEVE THEM!  Epidural is for putting some wonderful medicine in your system so you don't feel a thing when you give birth.  Spinal taps - the exact opposite - extracting spinal fluid!  Great!  I really had one but it took two tries - the first one, I almost fainted while I was sitting up and they couldn't get the right angle - but they tried REALLY, REALLY hard - hence, why I started feeling light headed.  After inverting the bed so I could get a wonderful blood rush, they tried again and this time I was lying down.  Picture me in a cannon ball pose as a needle is inserted into my spine - can you imagine how much fun that was???? Actually not so bad the second time around and they got what they needed - whew!

So, now I am just waiting for the results - for them to tell me nothing is wrong and I can go home.  Yes, I am blogging from my comfortable, private ER bed, waiting for the results.  hmmmm, could use some room service.....just kidding.  They are treating me really well here. Just would really like to know what's going on...hopefully will find out soon.