Sooo…

For those of you who haven’t heard, it’s been a crazy week around the Blundell household! Tuesday morning this happened:

How that happened you ask? Well, I have a history of vasovagal syncope where my blood pressure bottoms out and I drop like a fly–all within like 5 seconds. Anyway, I was getting a cortisone shot in my elbow Tuesday morning at the orthopedics office (for tendonitis) and about 5 minutes after the shot down I go. Not sure what caused me to pass out–I typically don’t get queasy or anything from shots or stuff like that so not sure what caused them to happen. Well, I was sitting on the exam table and within 5 seconds of feeling lightheaded I was on the ground. Apparently I fell head first and hit the top of my head on the floor and then proceeded to roll over a little and pull my neck under when I fell. So I strained, pulled, stretched and sprained everything in my neck and shoulders. But the orthopedic doctor wanted me to go to the emergency room because I couldn’t sit up without feeling dizzy, queasy or lightheaded. The ortho doctor did some x-rays of my spine/neck to make sure i was ok to drive to the emergency room, which they were. So my mom came and picked me up at the doctors office and took me to Baylor ER where Jonathan meet us. The ortho doc called ahead so they would get me right back, which they did. They did the typical triage stuff and an EKG. Then the trauma doctor came in and ordered an MRI of my brain/neck to look at my head/spine and nerves. I was having some pins and needles like pain which would have been nerve damage. After the MRI, which was miserable because the pain meds they gave me did not do anything, I got back to the room and the nurse said I could have another type of pain medicine…and that was the good stuff!! If anyone ever offers you Dilaudid TAKE IT! This medicine works soo well, once they shot it in my IV it took literally 3 or 4 minutes and like 80% of my pain was gone…the only thing is it only lasts like 2 hours. O’well. Well later on all the doctors and nurses switch and then the group that has no clue what’s going on comes in. FUN! To make a long story short, I had an MRI, 2 catscans and several x-rays and blood work done. It is now around 10:00pm and a neurosurgery resident came in…she said they weren’t sure what the MRI said because they hadn’t seen it–WHAT! go look at it. Anyway, they got another CT because they finally saw the MRI and it looked like there were possibly some micro fractures on my T1 and T2. They got the CT results and it looked ok so the trauma doctor talked to a neurosurgeon and he wasn’t sure about the micro fractures so we’ll never know if they were or were not there.
Well, 12 hours later the trauma doctor came in and said we were free to go and the only other thing they saw was that my white blood cell count was significantly higher than normal, which typically means an infection somewhere. So he wanted me to go see my primary physician in a couple days and then follow up with the neurosurgeon. Oh and now, 12 hours later, I can take the stupid C-Collar off that was on my neck (the thing on my neck in the picture above).
So here I am 2 days later and still in a tremendous amount of pain. I just can’t get comfortable no matter what I do. I haven’t really slept in 2 days and hopefully things will change tonight. I went to see my primary physician today and she gave me some muscle relaxers and an anti-inflammatory drug that will help and not just mask the pain I’m having. She came in and first asked what happened, with kind of a laugh in her voice…I asked her if she really wanted to know and then told her the whole story. She said it was the best story all day! Glad I could help her out! It is kinda funny but still kind of painful at the same time. Specially since I can’t laugh, talk or do anything without pain. I go see a neurosurgeon next Wednesday just to follow up and make sure everything is ok. So that’s the saga of our household…sorry it was so long!