The Hospital: The Sequel

Well, turns out my discharge may have been premature . . . I was discharged shortly after I wrote the last blog entry on Thursday afternoon.  I felt pretty good.  I stopped by my parents' place to shower & get ready (our hot water was out), and I went to the office to see what I missed out on, to make Friday a bit easier.

Friday was a normal day at work with no issues, nothing too stressful, etc.  But, early Saturday morning, everything fell apart, again . . . but far worse.  I woke up a bit after 5 am with extreme headaches and vomitting.  I knew immediately that I'd be going back to the hospital, so I started getting ready and getting stuff together to go to the E.R.  I didn't want to wake Novie up, since she's pregnant and needs some sleep.

But, some peculiar things happened this morning.  I was getting confused and forgetful.  I had my normal shower routine, but afterwards . . . I started washing my face with toothpaste.  Instead of putting on deodorant afterwards, I put on Cologne.  Instead of grabbing underwear, I grabbed hankerchiefs.  But, that wasn't the scary part.  The scary part was when I got to the E.R., I couldn't write my address . . . I kept writing jumbled letters.  This scared me to death.  I couldn't write a word I wrote all the time.  Even worse, I couldn't say it when asked of me!  At this point, I think I broke down in tears, since I couldn't even tell people my address.  My parents and wife were really scared seeing me like this, too.

Of course, I checked into the E.R., and they were trying to control my pain . . . which was outrageous.  Later on that night, we got the pain controlled.  We also did another MRI, this time with contrast.  I've been here at the hospital since that Saturday, getting another MRA test, giving various samples, getting an E.E.G. test, and much more.  We are not quite sure what is going on this time . . . but hopefully we'll figure it out.  My wife and parents have been here with me a lot of the time, and so many of my wonderful friends have visited, dropped off food, etc.  And especially Z, also, for taking care of the homefront, my dog, etc.  Christina even dropped off a care kit that had car magazines, some tasty foods, and more.  Very thoughtful!  Thanks to all of you!

Again, I hope to get out tomorrow . . . but I'm not pushing and lobbying for it.  I feel pretty good right now, although I have a couple minor chest pains.  I will need to slow down and maybe do very short days at work once I get back for a little while.  I don't think there are any more scheduled tests . . . this visit to the hospital has certainly been very scary; brain stuff is very scary. :(

I just wanted to keep everyone updated here with what's going on, and I think the blog's a good tool for that.  Talk to you guys soon!

Yeap, I'm Sick . . .

Hi Everyone!
               I am writing you from Plano Presbyterian Hospital of Plano.  I’ve been here for a few days, and I thought I’d put up this post so I can give you the general story of how I wound up here.  It will save me some typing time, or at least some copy/paste time.  First, I just wanted to thank everyone for their phone calls, E-Mails, messages, visits, and all their support.  It was very appreciated and welcome.
               So, back to how I wound up here.  On Friday Night, May 29^th, I felt fine.  No issues or anything.  Continuing to Saturday morning & afternoon, I still felt great.  Then, all hell broke loose.  Starting Saturday night . . . I developed a fever, (pardon the graphic terminology), I was vomiting every 3 to 5 minutes, having cold sweats, and having tremendously strong headaches.  The worst was that every gag, cough, or action preceding vomiting caused immense pain in focused spots in my head.  Since the flu is going around, I figured that was what I had.  I took some Advil for the fever & headaches.  Needless to say, I didn’t sleep much that night.  I slept through the entire day on Sunday, too weak to eat or walk around, and I woke up around 11 pm for an hour and a half.  I immediately went back to sleep again, now showered and on clean sheets.  I woke up early for work, and I had a very productive day at work.  I thought, at this point, I was cured and must have had a 24 hour bug or something.
               That night, things got worse, and it was certainly not a 24 hour bug.  The very severe headaches continued, all around the surfaces of my head in varying order.  The vomiting started up, again, every few minutes like I had before.  I got the Cold Sweats back.  I woke Novie up and asked her to take me to the Emergency Room.  So, on this Tuesday morning, we drove right past Trinity Medical Center and proceeded to Presbyterian Hospital of Plano because of their reputation.  I made it pretty close before we had to pull over so I could vomit.  We then went straight into the E.R.  They saw me almost immediately, where I was still vomiting and having severe pains.  My parents joined Novie & I not too much later.  All three of them were pretty much with me off and on each day.
               They started by giving me Anti-Nausea medication, crazy pain medication, and they took me in for a C.T. Scan of my head.  They were looking for aneurysms and the like, and they fortunately did not find anything.  Next, they performed a Spinal Tap on me.  This was lengthy and painful, and talking about it was even scary.  I had to lie on my back for a few hours afterwards, have more caffeine, etc. in order to properly heal the “hole” they pricked my spine with.  There were other precautions, like getting up slowly to avoid related headaches, etc.  It was scary, and I think Novie watching that convinced her to have a natural birth without an epidural in the fall!
               Unfortunately, the Spinal Tap revealed that I had Meningitis.  Because of some cell count or something, they were able to confirm that it wasn’t the nasty bacterial Meningitis that infests college campuses about a decade ago, but it was a viral type.  Now, they were trying to find out what type of viral meningitis I had.  There are only treatments for a couple of them.  Meningitis is the infection of the lining of the brain; scary stuff, for me at least.
               They then transferred me from the Emergency Room to the rooms upstairs.  Room #C-697 was my new home for a few days.  It was very nice.  It had a full private room, nice hardwood paneling, countertops, excellent meal service, fold-out sofa for visitors, wireless internet, direct phone number, and more.  I slept most of the day because of the medications they gave me.  Zach came by and visited, and he even snapped a picture of me in the hospital bed for his FaceBook.
               Wednesday was a very challenging day.  I woke up, used the restroom, like normal.  It was early, and I came back to my bed to sit down.  I then felt my foot fall asleep . . . not a big deal.  Then, I felt my leg also fall asleep.  Then my left arm fell numb, to the point that I couldn’t control my fingers and such.  I then had some numbness on my face and in my mouth.  This episode lasted over 40 minutes.  I was terrified, and a million thoughts were running through my head?  Did something happen with the spinal tap?  Is something pressing somewhere weird on my brain?  They were paging my doctor.  In the meantime, I was having *tremendous* headaches, and they gave me strong pain medication and some anti-nausea medicine to keep me from throwing up.  The doctor ordered that I get a Brain MRI, and that showed no major concerns.  So, we’re still unsure what caused this little episode.  But, I proceeded through the rest of the day just fine.  Ronnie spent the better part of the afternoon with us, while Blake spent the better part of this evening with us.
               Thursday is going a bit better:  Milder Headaches, No Nausea, etc.  Eric Scher dropped by for a couple hours to visit, and I am actively lobbying for my release from the hospital (although it makes me a bit nervous leaving a place with all the medical care).  But hey, worst case . . . if things get much worse, I can always come back, right?  Strangely enough, during the entire hospital stay . . . I didn't have a fever.

               Anyways, back to trying to get out of here, but after I finish my Chef’s Salad, Cake, Fruit, and Tea. J Can’t wait to shower many times a day at my own house, sleep in my own bed with no I.V. to tread carefully over, etc.  Thanks again to everyone for the support!

New Addiction . . . FaceBook Texas Hold 'Em

As many of you already know . . . FaceBook started allowing applications a while back, and a sleu of good ones popped up.

I must credit my friend Charles with introducing me and getting me addicted to Texas Hold 'Em on FaceBook.  It's on FaceBook, and it's not real money . . . just a play game on FaceBook, but it's so addicting!  They have "Sit and Go" tournaments, Weekly Tournaments, regular Points games, etc.  You can play with your friends or random people around the world.

In addition to sharing my new addiction to this virtual game, I share with you the best hand I've ever had . . . the pinnacle of Texas Hold 'Em Poker, the Royal Flush.

Awesome. :) This was followed by everyone in the room cheering "vnh" and "wow, nh" and other shorthand equivalents in the FaceBook world of "Nice Hand."

I have had my ups and downs in this game . . . you get 500 chips a day, and I have been all the way up to $3.4 Million, and now I am back down to $275K.  I'll certainly have to stay off the "big boy tables" for a while.  While I was "up top," I even passed $50K a time to my friends just getting started in the application.

It's not only this application that has me logging in relatively often, it's this oddly addicting one called "Speed Racing" where you race against your friends, earn points, and modify/upgrade/trade-in your car.  In that world, I just stepped into an Enzo Ferrari. =P But, this one has the potential of losing my interest and everyone else's relatively soon since the novelty is starting to wear off.

Anywho, hope to see some of you on FaceBook. :)

More Wildlife . . . Pests in the Garden

Well, as you guys have seen from a prior post, it appears that my place has become somewhat of a wildlife preserve.

But, now that we recently got into gardening and the yard (more on that later), we have discovered a new set of animals . . . but these are becoming increasingly unwelcome.

First, as anyone in the North Carollton area can attest to, rabbits are out of control.  I guess we had a coyote problem a while back, and then the city fixed that . . . so now we have a rabbit problem. =P If you plant anything nice . . . flowers, vegetables, etc., rest assured that you are spurring on the rabbit population.  The fearless rabbits don't even leave when you walk up to them.  I didn't take any cute/fuzzy pictures of rabbits, because I generally am armed with Toby instead of a camera when I see rabbits.

Now, recently around the Spiral Juniper we planted, we started to see a huge hole dug right into the roots.  While I have no idea what this is, we initially feared it was a snake.

I don't know what this is, but after some Googling . . . we suspect that it is how rabbits breed.  Yes, another way, besides eating and destroying my garden, rabbits are getting at us.  Anyone in my Xanga viewing public have any idea what is going on here?

We filled that up with soil, mulched it back up, and then it happened again on the other side of the same plant.  We repeated the process, and we hope this will stop occurring, or undoubtedly the Spiral Juniper will begin to suffer.

Next, we started to notice our Tomato plant was having trouble.  A closer eye revealed that what at first glance appears to be part of the plant . . . was in fact a plant predator, a giant creepy caterpillar.

This was, by no means, the largest one we found . . . but it was super thick, full of green plant juice, and stuck on that plant like crazy.  The plant is doing much better now. :)

It's a jungle out there . . . ;)

The Dentist . . .

I wonder if the 10th dentist who does not recommend Sensodyne is also the 5th dentist who does not recommend Trident?

DUN Dun dun.

Must be my dentist . . . I'll ask him at my appointment tomorrow.