Monthly Archives: February 2015

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Mystery of the Day

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Mystery of the day. I woke up with these mysterious puncture wounds on the back of my arm with blue ink that won’t come off with an alcohol swab. And they hurt. I have not noticed them before and I have been in the hospital for the past 6 days now. No idea. The nurse says it looks like I got tazed (no idea how to spell) or like fang markings??? What the hell!!!!!! She said the wounds look 15-18 hours old like maybe I wad scratching myself. I am wearing a blue shirt but it is the wrong color. I really feel like I need the help of Mulder and Skully or shaggy and Scooby or something. Anyone have any ideas? Oh and the head is feeling a bit better today and I am hoping to go home today that is unless they discover I was taken for
alien experiments in the middle of the night.

Feb 26th 1

Responses on FB

Kelly Sheets Long Too weird.

Edward J Bradford Vampires with blue teeth.
Marybeth French You are a mystery..I am baffled??!! 
Apryl Mizener Yoder They look like a staff infection….

Joy DeSimpelaere That’s really odd, has the doctor checked them out?
Edward J Bradford It looks like these are attempts at an IV…but that’s really odd placement

Heather Loose Johnson I’m telling you I was abducted

Jamey Burger   Lost time?

Heather Loose Johnson I’ve been in the hospital for 6 days who knows

Rachel Crowley If you had cuts on there before and they left the blood pressure cuff on for whatever reason, most of them are blue. If they were new cuffs, the color could bleed through. Not in IV start, hole too big and he is right, not a spot they go. Not really angry enough for a staph infection, but maybe, doesn’t explain the blue though. Good luck smile emoticon
Stephanie Jordan What in the world…
 Christy Young Kelly are you sleeping on a needle?! what the hell??!
 Heather Loose Johnson Another pic. Blue is likely from my shirt and I likely scratched it in my sleep. But mystery is more fun 
Heather Loose Johnson's photo.
Christy Young Kelly Are the medications making you itchy?

 Heather Loose Johnson I got the IV out and the tape off. I think it irritated my skin a bit.
Michelle Hanson Litke Wow they are perfectly round too
Sandi Davidson glad to hear there is a little improvement. Hope it continues.
Susan Krawczak Johnson There was a full moon last night….
Julie C. Wiles How weird!
Terra Sadek way too creepy Heather..

Michelle Hanson Litke Maybe a nurse was secretly stabbing u

Julie C. Wiles How far apart are the pokes?

Julie C. Wiles Vampire bat?
Heather Loose Johnson Now that’s more like it

Katie Marl You are still there?
Heather Loose Johnson Home now smile emoticon

Katie Marl Oh good!

Stephanie McLaughlin I would go with the characters on “Bones” They are pretty smart too
Debbie Smith-Wright Wow Heather I think you were taken by Aliens! Hopefully they did something to you to help your head aches. Glad to hear you are coming home soon. I bet your sick of being there by now. And I’m sure the family misses you too.

Cassie Harder Rittenhouse Weird!

Merry Dunne Blades I second that – Very Weird !

Heather Loose Johnson Yep weird.

Whitney Skeaze wth??
Heather Loose Johnson Update on the craziness. Going to put antibiotic cream per moms instructions today. What next. Really!!! What next??

Heather Loose Johnson's photo.
Heather Loose Johnson Any nurses in the area want to make a house call. I am not going back to the hospital!!

Staci Gordon Jackson Yikes!

Shanon Smith I think you need an urgent care visit as that doesn’t look any better that’s for sure

Heather Loose Johnson Not going anywhere:). Ha! If puss starts coming out I will go in.
Sandy Cushman Howell I think when you were sleeping they let med students practice their shot giving skills.

Heather Loose Johnson With a ginormous needle. It looks like the puncture wound from a cat bite. Maybe a blue cat? But now the blue is turning black. Oh well I am all bandaged up

Joy Gooch Ketchum Shock therapy maybe!

Whitney Skeaze Definitely aliens.

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No more IV…Yay!!!

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I got my IV out!! Yay!!!! Ok so I am thankful for little things. It was in my right arm so it made everything a little more difficult. I am feeling quite a bit better today but the headache remains ever stubborn. The new meds have given me slight reprieve and for that I am truly thankful. But the best medicine of all was the paczki from Roma Bakery. I was just as surprised as you that my Dr would order such a thing but thankfully my friend Stephanie Jordan got the memo. Hoping to continue on this road to recovery.

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Paczki

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I wonder if I could order a paczki from hospital room service?

Responses from FB

Stephanie Jordan Are you up for visitors?
Rebeccah Burns I’m pretty good at smuggling things into hospitals . .. . probably could talk Kevin Shoemaker into being
convinced that is part of my job for today!
Heather Loose Johnson Yes today I am feeling much better.
Heather Loose Johnson Lol. Too funny. Not sure I should actually eat one since the only activity I have had since Friday is walking to the bathroom:)
Stephanie Jordan If someone were to pick you up one, what flavor would you like
Rebeccah Burns I approve of your hypothetical question, Stephanie Jordan!
Stephanie Jordan So are you smuggling her one or should I Rebeccah Burns
Vicki Kuhlman Johnson I love this thread
Heather Loose Johnson The anticipation is killing me . Haha!!!
Stephanie Jordan Got her a strawberry on
Heather Loose Johnson And it was fabulous!! Just what the Dr ordered I think
Rebeccah Burns You must have the BEST, SMARTEST dr around

Feb 17th

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And “The Plan’s” Begin: The Plan v 1.0 – Sparrow Hospitalist

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The last 24 hours have been horrendous…no pain meds at all, only the magnesium.  Oh and in the midst of this horrendous pain, they decided to do the MRI.  MRI + Massive Pain = severe anxiety and no MRI.  As I sat waiting for my turn in the MRI I began have a panic attack because I knew there was no way I could possibly make it through…my nurse finally came down and pumped me full of morphine.  It was as if I could feel all of my worries and pain melting away.  I made it through the MRI and brought me back to my room.

A neurologist finally came in and laid out a plan to treat the rebound headache.  And so it begins. They have given me the first round of medicine, Topomax, to treat this, what should I call it, shitty headache. I’ve been told that the side effects could be interesting. For example my nurse who had also taken this medicine told me it made her stupid. She would order food at a fast food restaurant, go to pick it up and wonder who ordered it for her or she would get up to go to the bathroom and couldn’t find the bathroom in a one bedroom apt. so this should be an interesting next couple of days.

They tell me it could take 2 to 3 days for this medicine to work, if it works, and if it doesn’t work they try something else. so it looks like I will be in here for a little while yet. On a positive note and even though I feel bad, I am really happy that my mom and Bob are coming home. When I was going into the MRI and was in so much pain all I could think was ” I want my mom” and now I get my mom. Up until today Dan had been so sick he couldn’t come up to the hospital.  I was so glad that he was feeling well enough to come visit today and bring me a few things from home. I am so thankful for such a supportive family and so many supportive friends I love you all and thank you for all you’ve done including all the prayers. I’ll try to update again tomorrow.

feb 16th meme

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Rebound Headache

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Valentines Day!  What better way to spend the day than to spend it with people waiting on you hand and foot.  I got a Valentine Day card this afternoon.  The doctors decided to admit me after doing an MRI and running a bunch of blood tests.  They decided that I have a rebound headache.  Apparently when you stop all over the counter and narcotic medication all of the sudden you can be left with one of the most horrible headache ever.

“Rebound headaches (medication-overuse headaches) are caused by regular, long-term use of medication to treat headaches, such as migraine. Pain relievers offer relief for occasional headaches. But if you take them more than a couple of days a week, they may trigger rebound headaches.”

So they stopped any and all pain medication instantly and started me on Magnesium for 24 hours.  The pain was the worst pain I had ever experienced.  The photophobia was horrendous as well as the phonophobia.

“Photophobia is a symptom of abnormal intolerance to visual perception of light.[1] As a medical symptom, photophobia is not a morbid fear or phobia, but an experience of discomfort or pain to the eyes due to light exposure or by presence of actual physical sensitivity of the eyes,[2] though the term is sometimes additionally applied to abnormal or irrational fear of light such as heliophobia.”

“Phonophobia is an anxiety disorder, not a hearing disorder. Phonophobia is a fear of loud sounds. Phonophobia is also called ligyrophobia. The name “Phonophobia” originates from the Greek words for sound and fear.”

Today I learned many new terms and discovered that head pain could really be that bad.

But today I also felt like a new woman for about five minutes and it was fabulous. A huge shout out to my friend Dawn Tomlin for bringing me toiletries so I could shower and brush my teeth and balloons too. It looks like I’m going to be here for a at least a couple of days as they try to both determine the source of the headaches and to control them.  Thank you for all of the prayers and please keep them coming.  Tonight’s probably going to be a rough night as the first step in trying to find a new medicine to control the headache means eliminating the pain reducing medicines.

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Clean Hair!!!  It is a wonderful thing.

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The great feeling of the shower only lasted for about 15 minutes, but it sure did feel good to be clean.

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ER visit #3…I have the best friends

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I went to work feeling ok…still a mild headache which had remained constant all week.  But I didn’t take any medication at all this week.

I did however make great strides in helping out at work.  After combing through lots and lots of notes, it truly was back to the beginning we needed to go.  So I gathered up what information I had found and went over it with my boss.  At 3:00 pm we had a meeting with his boss to discuss our findings.  At this point we were all very hopeful that this would solve the problems the facility had been having for the past 7 years.  But we wouldn’t know until all the final details were worked out and we actually tried it (for which I would not be there, but on this day I didn’t know that it would be the very last day I worked at this place of employment).  The meeting ended at about 4:00 and at approximately 4:15 pm unbelievable pain struck above my right eye.  It came on so fast and so hard that I wasn’t sure how I would get home.  But I made it and went straight to back to bed.

My first thought was that the spinal headache has returned. Back to bed I go hi ho hi ho.  Laying down helped a little bit, but the pain wasn’t completely gone when I laid down, so there was a chance that it wasn’t a spinal headache either.  I just didn’t know what to do, but by 10:00 pm the pain was so severe that I decided I needed to go into the ER, but this time I was going to go to Sparrow ER.  Now to be done with this bleeping headache (little did I know)!!

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The only problem is that the boys are in bed and I can’t drive myself.  Social media to my rescue.  I asked for a ride to the ER and luckily my dear friend Christina stepped up to the plate.  She even stayed with me until 2:00 am.  By that point they said I would definitely be there until morning when Dan could come get me unless they were going to admit me…at 2:00 am they still didn’t know what they were going to do.  Back in the ER to get a 2nd blood patch (at least I thought this was the problem). Hopefully this will be the last procedure I have in 2015 (If only this were true!)

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This was a smile of relief.  They gave me morphine!

All tucked in for the night at Sparrow. Looks like I will be here for a little while, likely until Monday when full staff is available for testing. But I am nice and warm, my pain is being managed and it is very peaceful.  Counting all my blessings on this very very cold and blustery evening.

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It’s Back to work I go again

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Feeling sooooo much better today. Which is good because I had to go to work…no more leave, so it was off to work I go again.  But I was still taking meds for pain…mostly Flexeril, Ibuprofen and Benedryl.  The headache wasn’t completely gone, so I wanted to keep on the same routine so that the migraine didn’t return.  However when I got to work today I felt really weird, like I was floating on air…pretty sure it was the Flexeril.

Thank you for all the prayers for today. I was however able to work the entire day with little to no pain. Still working the desk job trying to solve the problems at work.

I even felt good enough to play a board game with Dan when I got home after we put the kids to bed. It has been a very very long 3 weeks and I am so thankful that it has all come to an end.

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ER Visit #2: Blood Patch

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So the pain didn’t go away on its own…I could not stand up at all (but I could continue to lay down with no pain).  So took me in to Hayes Green Beach Hospital Emergency Room (I should have gone to Sparrow, because I don’t think these people had ever actually done a blood patch before, but the convenience won out and I paid the price).

So what is a blood patch: An epidural blood patch is a surgical procedure that uses autologous blood in order to close one or many holes in the dura mater of the spinal cord, usually as a result of a previous lumbar puncture. The procedure can be used to relieve post dural puncture headaches caused by lumbar puncture (spinal tap).

I ended up getting the blood patch. It was some of the most awful I have experienced to date.  They had me lean over simply holding onto a pillow while they not only shove a needle into my spinal column while also trying to draw blood out of my hand (which didn’t go so well).  The nurse and Dr. were so nervous it was weird.  The moment they started, the nausea hit and hit hard.  My coping mechanism for the nausea was yawning.  So now I have a needle sticking in my back, I’m extremely nauseous and every time I yawned the pain was excruciating.  As soon as they finished they did give me Zofran and that seemed to help a bit, but then the diarrhea hit and wouldn’t stop.  They finally brought in a potty chair.  During the time that I was supposed to be prostrate in bed I had to keep getting up to sit on the chair…yes to much information, but this blog is for that sort of thing…a place where I can speak freely about what really happens.  The nurses left Dan and I in the room alone with all of this happening and we had to keep calling for someone to come in and empty the chair.  The procedure, the service, and everything that occurred during this visit was horrible.  It was also one of the most embarrassing and painful visits to an ER I have ever had.

Ok enough drama for the day. I now have a Drs note that says I can’t do
anything for 48 hrs.  So off to bed I go!!!!

What a hell of a couple weeks. Not really sure how my head feels yet but it seems to be better.

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Home now and feeling some better but comfy on the couch hangin out with the fam eatin pizza.  Life is much better now smile emoticon. Thank you for thoughts and prayers over the past 2 1/2 weeks when this all started. Hoping and praying that by Monday I will be feeling good and ready to go back to work.