Thought I might fill you in on some of the lovely details about my stay at the hospital this weekend. After having bad headaches since the end of November, this is what happened this weekend.
It started on Saturday morning when I woke up and had a horrible tingling in my face, and my tongue had swelled up so much that I couldn't talk properly, including saying Evelyn's name.
I assumed it was part and parcel of the dead arm I had, coupled with the fact Evelyn had been in our bed the night before (and before, and before, and before) so I had spent a lot of time sleeping hanging off the bed.
I took Evelyn downstairs and we decided to have breakfast and watch Peppa Pig, and during the first episode I was talking to her as I usually do, but totally unable to say what I wanted to say. For example, I would try to say "Silly Daddy Pig fell over!" and it came out as "dilly dilly, ig..."
So we went and woke Ashley up and I told him that I was not able to talk properly, that my head had started to pound again. So he decided we could either go to NHS walk in centre or we could go to the hospital, and based on past experiences at the NHS, we chose the hospital.
By this point I could hardly walk or talk properly, so I was seen quite fast in casualty.
I had to go through the symptoms for what seemed like the tenth time that morning, and the doctor thought it was a severe type of migraine and that can sometimes cause a paralysis down one side. A nurse came and took some blood, and then I lost all feeling in my right hand side - leg, arm, face. I was trying to get the doctors attention, and by the time he came in I was a little hysterical and so he made me lie down and said I would have to have a CT scan, and that although strokes would be rare at my age, it would rule it out as well as some other things. It took me about ten minutes to tell him that Ashley was outside with Evelyn.
So by this point, Ashley decides that it is time to tell my parents what is going off. So then they turned up, at which point I was worse - still unable to move one side, throwing up and generally being sick/ dizzy.
Various bits happened that I cannot remember much of (I remember telling everybody within earshot that if I died, they were to make sure Evelyn was looked after, and that she knew how much I loved her) and everybody left except Ashley, who gave himself the poor job of sitting next to me while I was semi conscious, being prodded and poked at etc. I had the CT scan which was horrific - I was not expecting my temperature to shoot up so much when they put the dye in me, and they then left that bloody needle in my hand "just in case" which was so painful!
I was taken back to the ward next to casualty, where I stayed with Ashley waiting for a doctor to come and discuss the scan with me (I think I had that about three / four?). I had two "thorough" neurological exams - lots of complicated questions and random things to do with my hands - sequences etc to keep up with. Also some complicated sentences, and at eleven thirty when I'd been in there for twelve hours, and I was still suffering, and they wanted to say silly little hippopotamus, I could have cried. By this point they couldn't do anything about the CT scan as it needed to be looked at by a specialist.
Ashley went home at this point, though very worried about what the doctor had said, as they were saying a best case scenario was a severe migraine, worst case I could have had a blood clot / mini stroke. At twenty six, that was not my best news.
At about two in the morning they monitored my heart with those sticky things they stick all over your body (bear in mind they woke me up to do this and stripped me off, I was not a happy bunny) and then at four they woke me up again to move me to a orthopaedic ward as they had some spare beds up there.
I stayed in hospital all Sunday and was told that I may have to have an MRI scan to go with the CT scan (joy) but they seemed to decide against that. I saw more doctors this morning and they told me they were going to release me as I had "hemiplegic migraines" which roughly translates to bad headaches which can cause a temporary paralysis.
I have to go see the nurse tomorrow, whether they will do anything I don't know, but hey, it will be a nice round to my weekend!
So, that was my fab, fab weekend at the hospital (worst thing being that I saw Evelyn for about two hours in total over the weekend, I haven't seen her at all yet today, so I was feeling pretty miserable, and it is not like you can even say I had some nice sleep, seeing as they kept waking me up and it was cold!)
I will catch up on everybodies gossip and post shortly (well, after getting Evelyn and chilling out at home for a bit!)