Adam was in the shower after being home for only 4 days and still wasn't feeling the best. His headache was still terrible and he just wasn't feeling right. He said his left leg was feeling "strange". He didn't know how to describe it but it was like it was going numb all the time. He was standing in the shower and it would do it.
So I called the neurologist and explained what was going on. She said, "You need to get him out for an MRI right away." So I called my mom and asked her to go with me so I didn't have to be alone if something happened again.
We took Adam out to the hospital for his MRI and by the time we got him there he could hardly walk. His left legs just wasn't working. It was like he was having a stroke or something but just with his leg. They take him back and get the MRI done and we get him in the truck and head to the neurologist's office.
Now, it is only about a 15 minute drive from one place to the other and in that time, Adam wasn't able to walk anymore. He couldn't put any weight on his leg.........AT ALL!!! IN MINUTES!!!
We get him in her office and she has the MRI scan back just as we get in there. She looks at us and says, "I am at a total lose at this point. The mass that was on your brain 4 days ago has TRIPLED in size in FOUR DAYS!!!" I looked at Adam and we both just burst into tears!
At this point we are both thinking it has to be cancer or something terrible like that. Then Dr. Struck says, "I am sending you to Iowa City where I believe they will be able to make a better diagnosis and treat this. I don't believe it is cancer, but they will be able to help you better than I can here."
So.........again, scared to death, the two of us load up in an ambulance and head east to Iowa City for what ends up being a lot longer than we ever expected!
We arrived in the ER at the University of Iowa Hospital in the evening and my mom had my brother and his family take her over so she didn't have to ride alone. My dad was out of town for work and she didn't want to have to drive alone.
The first doctor we saw was NOT my favorite to say the least..............he thought we should just go home for the night since Adam wasn't in any immediate pain and come back in to the clinic in the morning. Now, if you don't know me very well, I don't handle stress very well AT ALL!! I didn't handle that suggestions AT ALL!! I NOT so nicely told the good ER doc that we would NOT be doing that and we rode in an AMBULANCE for a REASON! We are not leaving the hospital until they figure out what is wrong with my husband!
The University of Iowa is a teaching hospital for those of you that don't know. It is a WONDERFUL hospital and has great doctors and nurses there!! It is not, however set up for long stays in the rooms. It isn't set up for much of anything in the rooms to be quit honest with you. Once I found someone in the ER that wasn't going to just send my husband home, we were moved to a room for the evening. We went to the Neurological area of the hospital. It was very late by this time and this area of the hospital is usually shut down for new admissions until morning so it was not a "smooth" transition but we got in there.
So there we were, Adam in his hosptial bed, me in yet another terribly uncomfortable chair (no couch or anything to sleep on in their rooms there) and my mom and Adam's parents. No answers, No idea what is going on, and we are supposed to sleep until the doctors make their rounds in the morning. So the parents lay on the cold hard floor and try to sleep while I try to sleep in the chair and eventually make my way to the floor in with them.
Lets just say none of us really got any sleep...........
Teaching hospitals............Great resources.......very confusing for patients and their families! We had different doctors all the time, Adam had to try to explain things to doctors and nurses all the time, he would get confused by all the people coming and going with all the different tests (so did I, it was like a revolving door!) All in all it was WONDERFUL but lets just say we hope to NEVER go back there again!!!
So they start off with do countless spinal taps. Ladies, this is much like an epidural if you have had one of those except they are withdrawing spinal fluid out. It gives you a terrible headache I am told and it is much more painful! They did a couple of these and found out the one done here in Des Moines was a false negative and he in fact DID have Spinal Menigitis with Herpes Simplex Virus. Now the big questions was.............How do you get rid of it? They also did countless MRI's and I don't know how much blood work.
By this time Adam was not able to stand on his own and could barely even sit in a chair up right without assistance. But if you tried to tell him that he would just look at you and say, "I can too, now get out of the way I am going to take a shower!" So he would try to get himself out of bed and wouldn't make it very far as he would either fall or get into the shower and couldn't stand in there alone.
By the middle of December he couldn't move his left or his right side. Every day the doctors would come in and ask Adam to lift his leg, wiggle
his toes, move his foot, or anything to show that he had function in
his lower body. He couldn't do it no matter how hard he tried! It was like watching someone slowly let the air out of a balloon. His muscles were getting weak because all he was doing was laying in bed, and he couldn't do anything about it! It was horrible to watch!
He had so much medication he was taking that it took almost an hour for him to get it all down. Between the vomiting and just trying to get him to swallow them. They finally just put most of them in an IV form as it was much easier for the medicine to start working.
I can't remember exactly when it was but the doctors decided they were going to try physical therapy to see if that would help with getting him up and around. Maybe build up his muscles and his strengthen. So the first person they brought in was very nice and helped him sit up in bed and get a sponge bath.(Every man's dream!)
The next therapist we had.......ASSHOLE!! He basically told me that my husband was going to be in a nursing home and he wouldn't be able to walk again! That was it. He couldn't do anything for him because he didn't have much muscle left and his legs wouldn't come back.
I didn't know what to say! He was 30 years old, we were married for a year and this was what our marriage was going to be like for the rest of our lives?!?!?!?!
I lost it! I couldn't take it anymore! I didn't know what else I could do! So, I did the only thing left I knew what to do..........I called on the closest person I know to God! My Aunt is a Minister and I called her I had just gotten this news and could barely speak I was crying so hard. I don't remember much about the conversation but I remember this:
"How do I know if I am praying the right way?" I said. "There isn't a right or wrong way to pray, you just talk to God and he will listen to you," my aunt said. "I don't know if I am praying enough!" "You are praying as much as you can and God knows that" she said. "Please help me, I can't lose the love of my life!" "Let's pray together right now over the phone," she said.
I will never forget that moment for as long as I live...............I am crying right now just typing this part. I don't think I have ever felt closer to God at that point!
A couple of day later the "new" neurologist on rounds came in and went through the same rounds of questions. "Adam, can you lift this leg? Can you lift this foot, can you move these toes?" The answer of course was no. The team of doctors stepped out of the room to talk about things while I stayed in the room. The one doctor asked me to step out and have a word with them.
It was about a week before Christmas and there I was standing in the hallway of the hospital with all these doctors around me and the lead doctor says something to me that I hope I never hear again!
No comments:
Post a Comment