Wednesday, October 15, 2008

There's a first time for everything!

So, I don't know if any of you heard, but I went to the Emergency Room for the first time this evening! Cool, huh? I mean not cool in the fact that it's the E.R. and scary and might cost a lot in the end, but I'd never done that before!
So here's how it goes:
Sunday I woke up and my mouth was feeling a little numb. I thought that it might have been an allergy or something, but couldn't really figure out what it could have been an allergy to. I didn't worry too much about it and thought it would go away in time.
Monday was the same story, just numb and annoying mouth.
Tuesday late afternoon I started noticing I was having trouble smiling and chewing my cheeks (which is just something I do and was annoyed that I couldn't do it!)
So today it was worse. I've been testing things I do just in general with my face to see what I could and couldn't do. And they were all with the right side. I couldn't smile, flare my right nostril, raise my right eyebrow (which I'm really good at and do) and the last was that i couldn't wink just my right eye or squeeze it shut. As I was walking to my film lab I ran into a friend whom I had seen earlier this week and told about the numb mouth to, and she started getting a little scared and freaked out about the progression my face had made, and was telling me I had to get it checked out like now. I didn't think it was that big of a deal, but Gwendy also was telling me I really should get it checked out. So I called my mother. After describing my symptoms she said I should get to the E.R. right now. Call 911 and go now. I didn't exactly want to call 911 since the hospital was like 2 minutes away from where I was, but I knew Uncle Ed was supposed to be in the same building at that time. I couldn't get a hold of him, so I called Aunt Karen, briefly told her what was going down, and she was on her way. Luckily Kiersty was in the same building too. And that was about when I got scared cause my mom was saying it could be a stroke or something else that i couldn't understand when she told me it.
CHAPTER 2
Aunt Karen came and picked us up from the Snow Building and we proceeded to the E.R. where I told the check-in guy about my symptoms and did all the...hospital stuff. We got checked in and I went back where the nurse (who, btw, wasn't very personable and I wasn't very fond of) did all my vitals and stuff. Then my mom (aunt Karen, but the check in guy told everyone else she was my mom so she could come back) came in and we chatted, then the doctor came in and asked what was up and did a few little tests with my face and determined that it's most likely Bell's Palsy. You can read more about it here cause I don't want to explain it all. So the doc (his name is Hans Red. I didn't know his first name when talking to him or else we would have had more to talk about besides Alaska and Sarah Palin) told me some people get a CT scan, but he recommended just getting some drugs (namely prednisone and acyclovir) to help it go away. He said if it's not better or if it gets worse to go in, but hopefully it'll eventually just go away! Crazy, eh? And that is my saga! If you have any questions, comments or concerns, leave them on my blog or call me! I love phone calls though!

Anna and I were talking on Skype and she took these snapshots. This is what my face looks like when I'm laughing really hard.

And this is laughing even harder.

Here I'm trying to squeeze my right eye shut.
And I'm trying even harder here. It's all quite humorous when you watch it. Anna and I were having a great laugh!

Here's my little arm thingy for going to the E.R. so memorable! ah! Good times!

So there's my excitement for the day. Now I need to go do a butt-load of an assignment for my Fundamentals of Scripture Study class. yes, I've put off homework till the last minute again. Shame on me! mrh!

3 comments:

Cassandra said...

Yikes! As soon as I started reading, I thought those are symptoms of a stroke, go to the E.R.! But then I remembered going through this exact scenario with a co-worker who ended up having Bells Palsy. Hers went away eventually, and other than looking different for a while, all she worried about was one eye got dry because she couldn't blink or something. I'm so glad you Aunt was able to be there and take you in though! I hope you're doing alright...what a bummer.

Anonymous said...

Dude! You rock! I must say I'm quite the photographer. Roy-boy ain't got nothin on me!
So do you have to go to a follow up Dr.?
Well I'm glad that you can laugh about this. I know that we always laugh at all the wrong things, and in all the wrong places! Mwahahabahahaha
Love you, love Anna

SPENCERS said...

We totally diagnosed that. How are you now? please update when there is a change...or actually, even if there isn't a change. xo

Awesome song! This was for this semester's Guitars Unplugged!