Ten Days Lost

If you read my previous post, Ashley got it right on my germ warfare idea. No matter what you call it-mucous, postnasal drip, snot-it's some bad stuff! I truly think I'm right on this course of action. We could defeat any terrorist group! : )

So, yes, for about a week and a half I had a horrible cold or sinus infection, but I woke up during that time to horrible face pain. Great, I thought, the damned nerve pain is back and great again that I have this horrible cold already. Let's see, this was on Friday, January 23. I decided to go ahead and take some medication my mom had brought to me, CVS's version of DayQuil. So every four hours, I took it. Friday night, I kept waking up with the feeling I was suffocating. Saturday morning, I was all but in a full fledged panic attack. I had Pat take me to minor care where they proceeded to take me right in since I mentioned I was having shortness of breath. (Keep in mind that my face hurt so badly by this time and was so swollen around my left eye that it was basically closed. Can you say "Arrrghh!") I get three shots in the ass, an antibiotic, and what the nurse said was a steroid for my eye swelling. I felt a little better as far as the breathing and everything, but the eye pain continued to increase and my left eye just was not going to open. Forget bright lights, moving my head to fast, anything like that. Sunday, I was out of it all day. Nothing relieved the pain. About $200 spent so far.

Thanks to my dad (I couldn't drive at all.), on Monday, I went to my regular doctor who after finding out all my symptoms suggested I see an ophthalmologist because he was afraid I had acute angle glaucoma. I explained that the last time I had this pain I had seen an ophthalmologist, and my eyes were fine. Still, he wanted me to do this. Okey dokey. Oh, and that steroid for the eye swelling...an antihistamine. Dang nurse. $62.00

On Tuesday, my poor dad came up again to take me to the ophthalmologist. Nothing wrong with my eyes. Steroid eye drops. Knew that. $217 poorer.

The worst of it was after we left the ophthalmologist. I already had nausea with this pain, so I guess after the eye exam really stirred things up, that was all I could take. We didn't get very far when I had to tell my dad to stop the car. Guess it's just good we didn't stop in a restaurant parking lot or customers would have ran screaming. And let this be known that I would rather have 1000 needles stuck anywhere on my body than to vomit. Oh. My. Goodness.

The rest of Tuesday was spent trying to sleep through the pain with the help of some tramadol, but as much as it had worked for me in the past for another type of pain, it wasn't cutting it with this. Wednesday was no better and finally when I woke up on Thursday with still no relief, I called my doctor again. I begged him to look at my chart and see that I was given Lyrica in the past for this. Lyrica is a drug given to people with fibromyalgia and nerve pain specifically. I asked for a prescription to be called in. Well, another $236 later, that I would gladly spend again, I had my prescription. By late Thursday night, I could feel some relief coming. Friday morning, I could raise my head and even touch my face a little. Yes, even touching my face was like sending an electric current through my head.

By Saturday, the light sensitivity wasn't too bad, the swelling had gone down considerably, but I had blurred vision and it seemed my eyes didn't want to work together. I'm sure with my eye being closed for so long that it has to accomodate again to working like it should. Sunday was a tad better.

Now it is Tuesday and although I am so much better, I still have some facial numbness at my temple and my left eye is struggling with peripheral vision and focus when I move my head. I basically have to close my eye, turn my head to the left or right, and then open my eye. Turning my head with the eye open, I have double vision.

Hopefully, things will be close to normal by the end of the week. I'm getting new eyeglasses on Thursday, which I've needed for quite some time.

Thanks to all my friends for their thoughts and prayers and to Pat, my mom, and dad for their help as well. Let's hope this doesn't come back anytime soon.

On a lighter note, Last Friday Mr. Jake was invited by my friends, Lisa and Mandy, to go see Hotel for Dogs with them and Lisa's neice, Haleigh, who Jake just adores. He was very excited, but nervous to be going alone, without Mommie. After some persuasion, he went, and he is still talking about the movie. It's so funny listening to a 5 year old tell you about a movie he's just seen. I'll be anxious to see it for myself.