Jim Goings

I went to work on Wednesday with the tail end of a cold.  Other than some linger sniffles, I felt fine.  Around 9am I had a mild headache.  At about 10:30 I started to feel queezy, similar to motion sickness.  I figured I was hungry so I grabbed lunch early at 11.  A small subway sandwich later, I’m back at the office.   Feeling of motion sickness increased and around 1pm it was to the point that I needed to vomit.  I went to the restroom and did so several times, hoping that I would feel better.

No such luck.  My head was pounding and I continued to dry heave.  At about 1:30pm, I called my wife and asked her to pick me up as there was no way I could drive in my condition.  My boss came into my office to check on me and when I told here that Beck was on the way and there was nothing she could do, she shut the door (so others didn’t have to hear my heaving) and left.  My head was hurting so bad that I couldn’t keep my eyes open and I began to sob.  It was unbearable.  I put my head down on my desk and prayed that Beck would get there soon.

Next thing I know I find myself on the floor of my office looking towards the interior window.  The pain is extreme and completely debilitating.   I can see the occasional person walking by and although I’m screaming in my head, I cannot make any sounds louder than a whisper.  No one hears me.

The next thing I remembern is some voices, someone calling my name, and somehow I ended up in the hospital.  My head is pounding, I can’t stand the light, and moving any of my limbs makes my head hurt more.  This isn’t migraine pain, this is “I want to die” pain.  Morphine comes and a wave of relief washes over me.  My head still hurts, but it’s now only a 6 or a 7 on the pain scale.

They do 2 CAT scans, one without dye and another with it.  Nothing.

They then do a spinal tap to check for meningitis.  Although they find that I don’t have meningitis, they do discover that I have high spinal fluid pressure.  I don’t remember the exact figures, but the doctor said something in the nearborhood of about double normal.  This can cause extreme headaches, nausea, vomiting, seizures, sight loss, etc.

After ruling out life threatening issues, they give me a prescription for dilaudid (hydromorphone) and send me on my way and told me to follow up with a neurologist.   We stop by the pharmacy on the way home as the doctor said that I would need to pickup the prescription myself with ID since the narcotic was so potent.  As a note, Ride Aid did not ask for an ID, but it could be because I was still wearing my hospital arm band.  My pain on the ride home was about a 7 and by the time we got home, it had reached 8 or so.  I raced straight to bed, curled into the fetal position and hoped it would subside.  Luckily, it did for the most part and I fell asleep.

Thursday, I woke with a level 5 headache and decided to take a pill before it could get worse.  I’m a serious lightweight when it comes to drugs and man that pill sent me to the moon.  I don’t like the disconnected feeling it gave me, but it did work… very little pain.  By noon, the pill wore off and I had a mild headache (3 or so).  I took 2 aleve and they worked.  My head pain was gone by 3pm.  I called every neurologist that’s covered by my insurance plan and none of them were available until next week.  I have any appointment next Friday.  Here’s hoping something good comes of it.

I returned to work today and although I had a level 3 headache that spiked to level 4 occasionally, it never went beyond that.  I worked all day without much effort and without any medication (well, 2 ibuprofen).

I haven’t had to take any more of the morphine pills although I did take 2 aleve when I got home.  My head hurts only a little now (about a 2-3) and it makes me wince every once in a while with a sensation similar to eye strain.  My eye prescription is current and my vision isn’t blurred, so I don’t think it’s really eye strain.  My lower back started hurting today after I did some low impact aerobic walking excersizes.  It’s sore around the lumbar puncture location, but they said that’s normal and will subside withing a few days.

Anyhow, that’s all the news for now.