I'm Back!

I am back after my first overnight stay in a hospital in 28 years. I had a small brain hemorrhage last week, but all seems well.

I went to bed last Wednesday night with the worst headache I have ever had. It started as pressure at the top of both of my jaws and it felt like my head was going to explode. I tried to sleep it off, but after 3 hours of trying to deal with it, Tracy sensed something was wrong and called my Doctor. The Doctor strongly suggested that we go to the ER, and I reluctantly let Tracy drive me there. The look on the face of the female EMT at the hospital echoed my own feelings; What kind of (insert appropriate effeminate word here) shows up at the ER with a headache?

The ER physician, armed with my family history of brain aneurysm (my paternal grandmother died from this in 1986), went about a standard series of tests to see if that might be the cause. Here was the plan: run a CT scan to look for something odd, and if nothing explanatory could be found, tap the spinal fluid to look for blood where it shouldn't be. The CT scan was negative and they prepped for a spinal tap. Spinal taps, familiar to mothers around the globe, involves the insertion of a big needle into your spinal cord to remove samples of spinal fluid. The rationale was that there was small chance that a negative CT scan would still mask the presence of any blood leakage, but a spinal tap would be the definitive answer. As you may have guessed by now, the spinal tap showed a "gross amount of blood", and Prince William Hospital informed me that they had done all they could for me, and that I would be transported by helicopter to Fairfax Hospital.

It is safe to state that the concerns expressed internally by me and observed in the EMT staff about visiting the ER for a headache disappeared and a sense of urgency emerged. I was airlifted from Prince William and took a relatively short (10 min) ride to the bigger medical facility in Fairfax County. Tracy made the same journey by car in 65 minutes.

When I got to Fairfax, they did another CT scan, essentially ignoring any and all tests administered by Prince William. This scan was again negative, so they injected my blood stream with dye, did another scan, and found what they were looking for, a small amount of blood where it shouldn't be. This scan did have some encouraging results. There was not an aneurysm, but a burst venus structure in a blood vein. This was good news on a number of counts; First, blood vessels are returning blood to the heart and are a low pressure system, rather than arteries which actively pump blood throughout the body and are high pressure systems. This meant limited bleeding. Second, these types of leaks typically seal themselves after a short time, thereby limiting the damage to the brain. Bottom line is that if the leak had occurred in my arterial system, you wouldn't be reading this. Third, this type of leakage would simply be absorbed into the body.

I was more than a little surprised at the number of people who visited me in the ER on Thursday morning. I can only guess that everybody was convinced that I was going to die and they wanted one last look at me. In fact, when Richard asked for me at the information desk, he was asked "Did you know him?" I can't and won't try to explain that response. Here is who I remember being there:

Tracy, Alyce, Dad, Ricky, Francine, Frank, Jimmy, Darrell, Ron, Amanda, Jennifer, Richard, and Marge.

The ER staff was probably wondering just who the hell was in bed #4. I had never been injected with Morphine before, but it did the trick. To all accounts, I was alternating between lucidity and unconsciousness, with little to no overlap. I woke up at 1PM to an empty room and I was admitted to the hospital in the Neuroscience ward. Everyone fund out where I was when I called Tracy. Francine was in the hospital when I was moved, but I thought everyone had left so there was a little confusion about where I was.

I was introduced to a new aspect of computer networking while I was there. I was admitted by a neurosurgeon after he reviewed my CT scans. I found out later that he reviewed the scans via a computer screen in the OR while he was performing surgery. Pretty cool use of the technology. He came up later that day to say that he wanted to keep me for observation overnight, do another CT scan and evaluate my condition before I was released.

I had the last CT scan at 2:30AM the next morning. Based on our conversation the previous night he told me that he would be by in the morning to look over the scans. He also told me what had happened, and that there was very little chance that it would happen again. He also reiterated that fact that I did not have an aneurysm. I took this as good news.

As it turned out, I was not released from the hospital until 5:30PM on Friday. My day was spent waiting around the room becoming acquainted with the antics of my roommate. He was a 20yr old male, whose wild moped ride ultimately had him carom off a parked truck and crack his helmetless skull on the road. The highlight of the day was the following exchange I overhead during his interview with a speech therapist:

Q: "Who is the President of the United States?"
A: (After a 5 second delay) "Bush"

Q: "Who was the first President?"
A: "Lincoln"

Q: "What are the two major political parties in the country?"
A: "I don't know"

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Q: "How are Airplanes, Cars, and Bicycles alike?"
A: "They all have wheels."

This last case has proven somewhat controversial when retold, but the correct answer is 'They are all forms of transportation.' Several people are of the opinion that none of his answers would have changed had the test been administered a week earlier. I found the entire interview entertaining. Less entertaining was listening to he and his mother argue the entire day.

I call Tracy and she picked me up about an hour later, whereon we proceeded to sit on I66 for 2 hours trying to get home. A little 'Welcome Back' from the local traffic patterns.

I am trying to take it easy, and the only real complication is that my back is killing me from the spinal tap. The aftereffects have proven to be far more painful than the procedure itself.

That's the story, but rest assured that I am fine, or at least I feel fine. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who came to visit me while I was in ER. It's nice to have that many friends.