Peace of mind knowing I don't have an extra piece of mind.

Sometimes we get blessings in disguise, sometimes they aren't disguised at all...

For a while now, sometimes my head would be a little funny and I wouldn't be able to see quite right. My spelling was beginning to falter and at times the simplest words would be hard to find. I thought it might be something wrong with my head; I often wished I could get a CT scan and put those worries to rest.

Careful what you wish for.

Late Monday afternoon while we were shopping at Maxi (Quebec's version of SuperStore), I came down with some pretty scary aneurysm-like symptoms. I toppled over backwards (thankfully Tom caught me) and there was a piercing pain in my left frontal lobe. (Interesting.) We went home and when I attempted some school work, the left side of my face began to tingle and my vision began to blur.

Tom said we were going to the hospital.

We were in the emergency waiting room for just over 7 hours, and I was admitted (4:30am) shortly after telling the doctor what had happened. Within one hour I had that CT scan I had been wanting. Thank God, in the most sincere sense, that the scan came back clean. No aneurysm, no tumor. The doctor then took a sample of my cerebral-spinal fluid to check for infection or bleeding of any sort. Again, thankfully, the results came back clean. So did the blood tests. Still bewildered as to what the problem is/was our doctor managed to get us a consult with the neurologist on duty. We headed home around 4:00pm, with a prescription for migraines in hand and macaroni for dinner.

Unfortunately, my symptoms (extreme headache and motion sickness) worsened. I was extremely sensitive to motion, light, and sound. I woke at 5:30am Thursday morning in the most pain I have ever felt in my entire life. It made me nauseous to move, think, feel, or even breathe. Tom said we were going back to the hospital. I told him I would never survive the waiting room.

Tom said we were going to the hospital.

So, there we were, my strong-like-ox husband nearly carrying me down the stairs (did I mention we are on the fourth floor?) to car that he already pulled around and filled with our hospital essentials. Because the sun was starting to rise, he had me wearing my big white shades (like a movie star) and, because my head was going to explode, I had a half-frozen bag of beans on my head. And, because I was vomiting after performing any large physical movement (like walking down the stairs), I had the mop-bucket under my nose.

As you could imagine, when my husband wheeled this sight for sore eyes into the emergency room (where I threw up a few more times due to the motion, then actually proceeded to crumple out of the wheelchair to lie on the floor because I couldn't take sitting up any longer) we were admitted straight-away. Did I mention that the sunglasses or bag of beans didn't come off yet? I have no idea how people managed not to laugh.

We stayed in the hospital again for the day. I am so thankful they gave us a small, quiet room and meds to relieve the pain and grant some rest. I remember waking at one point and seeing my adorable husband sleeping in a hard wooden chair beside my bed. His bottom in his chair and his head on my bed. He must have felt me move, because he woke up right then. The hospital blanket pattern remained imprinted on his face. I nearly melted from the look of love he gave me.

A few hours later we were on our way out of the hospital again, this time with a few more meds in hand. All tests had come back clean, so the doctor chopped it up to being a viral infection. He said I need to take it easy for the next while. He said I'll probably be able to get back to school by next Thursday.

So I lie here in my bed, with an ice-pack on my head, counting the hours until I can take another med :)

I'm pretty curious as to what is going to happen with my classes, considering its that time of year. Nothing I can do about it though - just thankful to be home. Tom is thankful I can get to the washroom on my own now too, I'm sure.

I spent all morning watching a beautiful tulip bloom. It took nearly 2 hours. So I do not ask for your sympathy, life is pretty good. I do ask, however, for your entertainment.

P.S. I guess I don't have anything to blame my spelling on ;)