Thursday, October 18, 2007

It is sometimes hard to see and follow all the items that are correct in your life.

I had suffered a strange pain in my head for the last two weeks. Every morning after waking up I felt the pain in the same exact spot. It was on my left side just slightly above my eye. It never moved and continued to be there every morning. I thought I needed more coffee or maybe I had too much caffeine. It was a pain that was there until work got me started and then as I would relax for lunch, that same strange pain would return. Clearly as a paramedic I knew that this was not right. I had a fear that I had some type of aneurysm. What was I going to do with some stupid pain in my head. I finally decided that I needed to be seen by my doctor and get this craziness fixed. I met a doctor for the first time. We had no previous history or any time shared together. She had lots of questions and we chatted about a lot of things. She was a little concerned that my blood pressure was 148/108. I thought that was way to high also, but just was guessing that I was irritated or concerned about this ridiculous situation. She believed that I had something to check and sent me to get a CAT scan that day. Great I thought a way to see my aneurysm in my brain. But I knew she was the one who had to be involved to return my health to correctness.
I have never had a cat scan and it was a little weird to be laying on a board with a medical device totally close to my face. Whew. Finally finished after 15 minutes of irritation.
I received a call later that afternoon and was told by the doctor that there was something there that needed some more test. Fantastic I thought my brain aneurysm was finally found. What not can I expect. I was told that I needed a MRI to get a little more tests done. I completed the MRI with 30 minutes of being very scarred and irritated as I laid on this board while many sounds and shakes were there to find out info. A little weired to not be able to move any body parts as all this was working very loudly and energetically. Once finished the staff said that they were going to send the info to the doctor, but here were the film pages for me to keep. Looking at them it seemed strange, but I was never a brain expert and thought that this one thing was a little weird, a little circle that was white probably could be something strange.
The doctor called me on Thursday and said that I had something in my brain and she made an appointment to see a neurosurgeon on Monday morning at 8 am. Suddenly I was worried. What is wrong with my brain, what is growing in my brain, what the hell are you talking about! What is this thing?

1 comment:

Colonel said...

Eric and Hallie,

I just want to let you both know that you are always in our thought and our prayers. Eric, although I've never had the pleasure of meeting you, I want to thank you for your service to community and country, and I want to wish you the best of luck as you go through your therapy. Hallie, it has been a pleasure having you as a colleague all these years. Thank you so much for all you do for our students. Please let me know if there's anything I or my unit can do for you. God Bless!

Sincerely,
Paul Bishop
LtCol, USMC (Ret.)
Senior Naval Science Instructor
Chaparral High School