Salmon and Souvlaki

Thanks for praying, everyone!  The appointment went really well – it only took about 20 minutes.  He listened to my story, did a few basic “is your brain OK” tests – such as making me touch my finger to my nose with my eyes closed, etc.  Then he said that it basically sounds like my initial diagnosis was correct and so nothing to worry about.  However, because I did have a couple atypical symptoms (namely a bit of confusion as I was coming out of the fainting spell and extreme exhaustion afterwards), I have to go back for an EEG on January 3rd.  That should show fairly conclusively if I have any seizure problems.  For my kind of EEG, they hook a bunch of wires to your head and then you have to fall into a deep sleep.  So, you have to be sleep deprived when you go in for the test – meaning my instructions are to sleep from 2:00 am – 5:00 am.  LAME!!  So I’m taking the day off from school because there is no way I’ll be able to get through a day of teaching with only 3 hours of sleep.  So that’s it – I’m really pretty much fine.  It will be interesting to have an EEG though!  Maybe they’ll give me a picture of my brain waves!

I’m going to the neurologist tomorrow to get one final check up for my fainting episode last week.  My doctor wants to rule out seizures although she’s very sure that it’s not.  So, I’m not too worried but your prayers are appreciated.  I’ll let you know tomorrow evening how things go.

This morning, I was towel drying my hair to get some extra water out of it after my shower and managed to move my neck wrong.  It hurt really badly, surprising so.  I continued with my routine, putting gel on my hair, and trying to ignore the fact that my body was reacting to that pain.  After about a minute, it was clear to me that I was on my way to fainting so I laid down on the bathroom floor (noticing that it needed to be cleaned) and must have fainted a little bit.  I woke up enough to sit up and call Nik.  He made it into the bathroom just in time to see me faint again, fall over, hit my head on the scale.  I don’t remember any of this but he says that I immediately started snoring but my eyes were open and I did not respond to his calls.  So he called 911 and they sent paramedics with an ambulance.  They came quickly, helped me into the dining room, checked my vitals (which were fine) and told me that I should probably just go see my doctor.  Needless to say, neither of us went to school and we went to see the doctor around 11:30.  The doctor is fairly sure that I had a vasovagal syncope episode but she referred me to a neurologist for assessment of possible seizures.  Also, she did an EKG and my heart rhythms were fine.  The same thing happened to me in July.  I just read that this kind of thing sometimes first happens to a person when they are a teenager and then can happen in clusters after that.  It happened to me about 4 years ago too – same thing, pain and then fainting.  Very strange.  So I guess I got a free day off from school out of it but I think Nik would have just preferred me to take the day off!  I’m feeling better although still quite weak.  So I think I’m going to sit on the couch, watch Sleepless in Seattle, (which is filmed in Baltimore!) and rest.

Edit to add at 7:24 pm:  Since I wrote this, I have discovered two very tender and sore spots on my head – one on my forehead and one on the back of my head.  So clearly I fainted twice and hit my head twice.  Crazy!  I am definitely feeling better tonight although my legs especially still feel tired.  So I’m going to bed early in the hopes of being ready to teach my kids tomorrow.