911 Is A Drag
Complications, Side Effects November 20th, 2008
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Well, the past few days have been a rough ride. On Tuesday, I was feeling fine in the morning – just going about my normal routine. I left the kitchen to head to the master and almost instantly I was hit with the worst vertigo I have ever felt in my life – no kidding. I had to hold the walls and I was able to get to the bed. The room was spinning out of control – or I was. I couldn’t tell which. I have this way about me of not wanting others to be burdened with my condition so I closed my eyes and just layed there for a few minutes, praying that God would take this from me. I really didn’t want to have to get Rachael involved in it Well, this time I was having to walk through it because it wasn’t going to get better.
At this point, I called Rachael and of course these days she’s sprinting to my aid. She is so supportive. I just told her the best I could what was going on and I frankly didn’t know what to do about it. I didn’t have a remedy. There wasn’t any medicinal remedy like I have for the occasional seizure . I felt sick. To cut to the chase, I reached my limit and couldn’t cope and told Rachael to call 911. She asked if I was sure and I told her yes. In my head I was thinking that the tumor was growing, brain swelling or some other change was causing this – vomitting, vertigo – all of it are signs that a tumor is really on the move.
As I was wheeled out of the house, I never opened my eyes for if I did, I would become even more dizzy than I already was. They got me up from the bathroom, on a stretcher, asked me a ton of questions I couldn’t answer and took me to the ER which thankfully is 2 mins from our home. They gave me zofran which is an anti-nausea, another drug which fights vertigo and decided to admit me. They gave me an MRI which was great news – better looking than 30 days ago! So what was going on?
The culprit? The increase in my dosage of Lamictal, one of the anti-convulsants I take. We went from 800mg per day to 900mg back several weeks ago and it ended up being a toxic dose. It took 2 weeks to build up in my system but I learned that this is a classic result and reaction. By Wednesday morning I was feeling much better except for a splitting headache.
What a few days. All is well as I type this. But geez! I guess as usual you just have to go with it all. You can’t change any of of this but it sure does get old.
More soon.
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All’s well that ends well. I’m very glad that you got this ending to the story. It’s so scary once you know there’s a tumor in your head (or your spouse’s). Every little or big symptom starts a chain reaction of fear for me. It’s hard to believe that patients aren’t monitored better on newly prescribed powerful drugs that have specific toxicity windows. A similar thing happened to my husband on dilantin. Nobody thought to tell him to have his level checked routinely and he had a small seizure that was probably caused by the dilantin being too high. But we went through the whole business of thinking it was the tumor on the move, too. It’s unbelievably scary.
I spent a few minutes in an empty, silent chapel today focusing on the cross. My faith has wavered in all this brain tumor business, but today was good and centering. Sometimes it takes such quiet to remember that God gave up his son for us and Jesus gave his life freely for us. When it feels like nobody else has to deal with a crummy hand in life, i should remember that there is one who truly knows loss, redemption and love beyond understanding.
Sorry to ramble on your comments. I think of you often and hold you, your wife, and sons in my thoughts.
I am so glad you mentioned this. I sometimes think doctors wait for you to fall over till they tell you things. Lately I have been suffering from mild vertigo and also thought my tumour was growing. I was supposed to start taking chemo & radiation and delayed it because we had booked a trip, so I started having a panic attach.
I am on the same meds as you. Well at least now I can also my doctor about this. Thx
d:)
Just to let you know you are thought of often and are missed at the office. My prayers are with you. May you find peace this holiday season which will give you strength to face tomorrow.