This Is Spinal Tap

Yesterday, well, it wasn't a lot of fun. But it could have been a lot worse. I'm not sure if it was worse than I had imagine it'd be, even. Still, it's not high on the "to-do again" list.

First off, the doctor on Thursday said not to eat after midnight. Fine, that makes sense. I had a late dinner and figured I'd be good to go. The NLR people were going to call the Russellville doctor at 8:00 and try to get him to call in an order for the procedure. About 9:15, the NLR people called me and said they'd talked to Russellville and I should hear something in the next half hour. Around 10:00, I called back to NLR to let them know I hadn't heard from Russellville, but I had to leave a message. Still nothing. Finally, I call NLR again around 11:00 and I finally get the nurse, who says she's waiting to hear from Russellville too. So I call the Russellville doctor. I get put on hold for close to half an hour before I hang up and call back. They finally pick up the phone that time and say they are scheduling an appointment. So, after holding some more, they come back and tell me it's at 2:00 pm. When I mention I've not eaten, she said the doctor did say particularly not to have lunch, so I continue to go without.

Our friend Beth and her daughter Hannah came over to take care of Benjamin so that both my mother and Meron could go with me to the hospital, which really worked out well. We do the paperwork and then we go upstairs to an outpatient room and wait for a bit. The doctor doing the procedure knew my mother (then again, a lot of people in town do) and had actually lived across from us for a while when I was younger. He was the doctor that gave Meron her epidural when she had Benjamin, as well. He seemed capable enough (which is not always something you can say about St. Mary's) and explained everything fairly well.

He and the nurse ran Mom and Meron out of the room (there really wasn't much room to work, which was the reason he gave, but I doubt they minded not being in the room all that much) and started the procedure. He had me lie on my back and curl up into a ball. Unfortunately, that didn't work as well as we hoped, as there was still pain when he pressed the needle into the back. The nurse helped me scrunch more, but the slight bit of scoliosis I have in my back caused some problems for them. Finally, they sat me up and got the needle in, then laid me back down.

After that, it was just waiting as the fluid came out. That part wasn't painful, and the doctor, nurse and I just talked while we kept waiting for it. When it was done, he said due to the way they'd had to do some things, I was a bit more likely to have a spinal headache from this.

While I was having the procedure done, my mom and Meron went and got me a Subway sandwich, so when I had part of it at close to 4:30, it was tasting darn good. But to add insult to injury, the doctor said there was no reason for me to have not eaten. Lovely! I mean, I know I need to lose some pounds, but starvation isn't the way I'd like to go about it!

To combat the headache potential, I came home and got straight into bed, drinking a lot of caffinated beverages. Didn't get out of bed the rest of the day except for a few trips to the bathroom, which was to be expected after drinking 4-5 cokes! The doctor said I'd probably be fine to move around this morning, but since we are going to our Sunday School party tonight, I've stayed in bed all day today to rest up. Meron and Benjamin came in to take a nap, though, so I thought I'd get up and see if I couldn't move around some.

We'll find out Tuesday what the results of the examination of the fluids and blood work will be, so until then, I'm just assuming it's the Guillain-Barre and not worrying too much about it. What will be will be, of course, so there's no reason to start the New Year with an ulcer!

Thanks to all for the prayers, and may you be extremely blessed in 2006. Happy New Year, everyone!