Monday, July 16, 2018

In the ICU again

I intended to keep this up to date a little better but I haven't done a very good job.  I have a good reason to add an update now though.  Friday the 13th proved to be a bad day for me.  I'm not superstitious so I usually don't worry too much about the date except when I was working at the hospital because it always proved to be a busy shift.  Friday evening, we decided to go see Ant-man and Wasp.  It was a pretty good movie although not my favorite Marvel movie.  I was walking just fine for me prior to leaving the house.  On the way there, I went to move my foot of the accelerator to the brake and it wouldn't move.  Thank heaven for hand controls.  I had to use my hand to move my leg off the accelerator before I could break w/ the hand controls.  We got to the theater and I discovered it was both legs that were paralyzed, not just one.  That means this wasn't just one o f my MS flares and I needed to  watch for it to start moving up my body. I told Stan about it in the lobby and said we could go ahead and see the movie since we had already bought the tickets but if I felt the  paralysis spreading, I would let him know and we  would leave.  By the time the movie was done, I was paralyzed up to my bra line.  We sent the boys home in the Civic and we headed to the ER in my van.  Stan gave me a blessing in the van.  That was a 1st.

We got to the ER about 8:20.  I told the nurse what was going on and  what I had been through in April and they got me back in about 5 minutes even though there were several people there before me.  That is what triage is all  about though.  The ER doctor came in pretty fast. He had reviewed my medical records from my previous admission.  By this time, my arms were a little weak.  He  wasn't  messing  around and decided to admit me, but not to ICU.  About an hour later, the attending MD came in and I could barely move my arms.  Still  I was going to the floor though and not  ICU.  I was kind of surprised but figured it was probably because my diaphram wasn't involved last time.  By the time the nurse came in and told me I had a room ready and I was ready for transfer, I could barely move anything and they had decided  I needed to go to  ICU.  It was after MN now and no longer the 13th.  I think I  got to the  ICU around 1:30. Around 2am I  started having trouble swallowing.  I didn't have that problem last time. They got the 1st dose of  IVIG started about 2:30.  About 12 hours later, I started being able to move my fingers just a little bit.

I have had 3 doses now.  I have the movement back to my arms, shoulders and upper torso but they are very weak.  I'm starting to get a little bit of motion to my hips, but I have to assist a lot with my arms and  upper body.  So far I haven't gotten anything back to my legs yet which is disappointing.  I had to stay NPO all day Saturday but Sunday my swallow started getting better so they let me have purred foods and thin liquids.  It's a very limited diet.  It's also high carb and more sugar than  I have had in an entire year.  The worst part is that I can't swallow pills so they have to be crushed up and put in food or given IV.  Some of them are horrible tasting and make me gag.

I just found out they are going to transfer me to a regular room tonight.  Hopefully I will move to rehab tomorrow.

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