First of all, the baby and I are okay. Here’s how the last 48ish hours of my life unfolded. Thursday at work, I started reading while on my lunch break and was seeing small dots or white splotches but only with my right eye. I thought this was somewhat strange but thought maybe I had been looking at a computer for too long. I decided to go get some fresh air and called my OBGYN to see if I should take any action or if this was just normal. I had left a message and decided to wait for the return call while sitting in my car. I tried to read again to see if the dots were still there. They were; so I made myself try to read out loud. I could see all the words, even the simplest words, but not read them out loud. I would get two words into a sentence and get stuck on the word ‘the’. So I shut the book, tried again in another 10 minutes, same results. Now feeling a little uneasy, I went back into work, in case something would happen to me. During this time, the dots in my eye went away and I developed a headache.
I went back to working on the things on my desk when the portion from my fingertips to my elbow on my right arm went numb. Thinking maybe I hit my funny bone or something I could shake if off. The numbness feeling got worse and more powerful. I called my doctor again and explained the situation. While on the phone, the right side of my face and tongue went numb. Talk about not knowing what was going on or what to do. Through many phone calls, my friend Colleen ended up driving me downtown to the Mercy ER because along with my symptoms, I am 30 weeks pregnant. After being admitted, they did an EKG and CT scan and told me I would need to spend the night in order to see a neurologist in the morning. Jay had switched spots with Colleen at this point and we just sat and waited for a room to open up. They explained to me they have seen this before in pregnant women. Sometimes it is a migraine, but I had never really had one of those, a thyroid problem, or a TIA (a mini stroke) but they thought I was too young for that.
We waited…got to our room and then they needed to check on our baby. We had an ultrasound and girl has she grown! They guessed that she weighs about 3 lbs 10 ozs. So growing strong. It was amazing to see her bow structure from the first time we had seen her to now.
After that, we went back and tried to get some rest. Jay slept on the cot next to me which was so comforting to know he was right there if I needed something. He got up early the next morning and headed to work because all they were going to do was cart me around and do testing all day. I saw the neurologist first and did an ultrasound of my neck. Then I was sent to the heart floor where they did an ultrasound of my heart. Finally I was going back to the room. We waited most of the day to hear the results. The neurologist came in at about 2:30 and told me that everything looked good. What he believes happened is that my brain was over stimulated and couldn't process the many things that were going on. With that the process of a migraine comes in. But this was an abnormal migraine that can impair vision, numb parts of your body even to the state of being paralyzed for a brief time, and allow you not to focus. He said this happens to some pregnant women and if it happens again to allow myself to lie down, relax, and try not to let myself become over stimulated.
As scary of an event this was, it was mind blowing to remember how much of life you don’t have control over. I was so thankful for each set of hands that helped me while I was there. From Colleen getting me there, the former pastor, newly expecting mother, grandmother with strangely named grandchildren, a women just getting back from serving in Iraq, proud grandmother of 10, Harry Potter fan, medical students, the cleaning lady who says “God bless” to each patient, to my husband, I was thankful to come home and be able to say it was just a migraine and not something like a mini stroke.
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