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| ME WITH MY SISTER'S DOG SCOUT. |
At the end of July, when I told you I was going to take a month away from Scribbles, I had no set-in-stone plans for my August off.
Maybe I'd go to my pal's camper for a few days, perhaps catch up on my reading, or spend more time enjoying my garden and big backyard. Maybe it would be a perfect time to start a new project. So many possibilities, it was a blank canvas for me to fill.
As it turns out, I did not do any of those things, and also found myself cancelling other August plans, including attending a wedding and a big picnic.
Why the change in plans? My damn health. Mid-August, one Saturday afternoon, I thought I was having a stroke and ended up soaring down the highway in an ambulance on route to the Heart & Stroke division of a hospital in Niagara Falls. My chest was sore, my face felt frozen, my fingers and toes tingled and my blood pressure was a bit elevated. They ran tests and could not rule out a TIA (or "mini stroke".) I saw my doctor two days later who added a daily aspirin and something for cholesterol. He ordered more tests on my blood and to check for a clot or blockage.
The tingling feeling and dumbness never really went away and a week after my first scare, I found myself calling 911 again, This time I was taken to the St Catharines hospital, because my symptoms were not as bad as the previous weekend, still it was scary to be in the urgent care ward waiting for some type of relief. I was given a 2 week prescription for a blood thinner, by the doctor on call at the hospital.
When the test results were all in, it was back to my doctor's office to discuss them, There's no blood clot -so that's a good thing- and the other tests came back with good results as well. This meant the blood thinner and a couple of other pills were removed from my daily meds.
While this news made me happy, it didn't explain the extreme pain I had been experiencing in the past few weeks. It now appears I might have Trigeminal Neuralgia, which is described as an extremely painful neuropathic disorder. This does make sense, given my 35 years of living with chronic neck and back pain.
The new pain can get so bad at times, all I can do is take my meds and lay in bed waiting for the pain spell to go away. Sometimes it lasts hours, other times it only lasts a few minutes. Yoga, gentle exercise and brief walks have helped, as has being more aware of my posture and knowing my limitations,
I am waiting for an appointment with a neurologist and an MRI (both of which will likely be weeks and weeks away.)
Now it's September, we're back with new posts and it feels like I didn't do much of anything during our hiatus, except worry about my health.
Man! That's one "stay-cation" I could gladly have done without.
Enjoy our new posts and the final days of summer 2016.
Ken