As soon as we got home from Breckinridge (Dec. 3) I went to get a toy out of the car. (Hyrum was doing the heavy lifting of suitcases). I felt my back go out completely, and immediately sat on the garage floor. I hobbled inside to lay on the sofa. I knew this was going to be a repeat of what happened in 2014, although I hoped it wouldn't be as bad. (It was.) I eventually crawled upstairs to my bed, hoping it would be more comfortable and that resting over night would help ease the insane muscle spasm in my back that left it completely useless.
I hadn't had a real meal since breakfast, so Hyrum pulled through by bringing me peanut butter and jelly and lots of Reeses. Desperate times call for desperate measures. (For the record, eating/swallowing horizontally without the help of gravity is not very comfortable.)
I hoped to feel some improvement within 12 hours, but it only got worse. There wasn't a single position to lay in where I didn't feel sharp pain, not even while sleeping. Hyrum took the kids to work with him in the morning, leaving me alone on the sofa for several hours. I was so bored! I couldn't get up to turn on the TV, I couldn't get food or go to the bathroom. I just looked at the world right around me, all out of my reach. (Thank goodness for cell phones and internet.)
When he eventually came back we all got in the car to go to the emergency room. I really hoped to avoid it, because last time I went it was completely useless, but I really needed pain medication ASAP.
And the whole experience was awful. I was in a wheel chair for several hours before they'd see me. Sitting was SO painful, like my whole spine was collapsing on itself, so I eventually I just laid down on the cold dirty floor because they wouldn't give me anywhere else to go. The next few hours involved a lot of waiting. Doctors/nurses saying they'd "be right back" and then be gone for 40 minutes. They gave me medicine that provided no relief and I eventually told them if there wasn't anything else to be done I wanted to go home where I'd be more comfortable. They said it shouldn't be long, then disappeared for over 30 minutes. I was alone, and didn't even have internet access, so each minute passed so slowly. I essentially watched the second hand of a clock tick around over 7000 times laying on a doctor's table, waiting. I was furious at the whole situation, so I took about 10 minutes to crawl to the door and open it and yell, "I need to see someone, NOW." (That was actually after I knocked on the metal part of the table for 5 minutes, and apparently no one could hear it.)
The nurse came in and said something stupid, like, "Wow, that's great you are feeling well enough to get up." (I wasn't.) I told her I wanted to leave, so she told me the doctor would look at my chart and come in soon. (Not sure what the doctor had been doing for the previous 40 minutes since they told me the same thing.)
Finally after six hours in the hospital I had Hyrum come pick me up, with the kids in tow, past their bed time. He went to the pharmacy to get my muscle relaxer and pain medication. I wondered if the whole experience would be worth it, and fortunately, the medicine helped tremendously and the next morning I felt some improvement.
After getting out of the ER (and having phone service) I called my mom to see what her plans for the week were. There was no way I could get up (let alone take care of kids) and Hyrum had to go back to work. I was thinking through local options and didn't have anything great come to mind. My parents win the Best Parents of the Year award. Within an hour they called back to say my mom would arrive late that night and drive down, ready to help the next morning. !!! Best news ever.
I spent the next few days watching my mom run around the house cleaning and cooking like a mad woman. At first Hyrum was saying, "Tell her not to worry about anything, I'll take care of it." And then when he saw all the clean laundry and home-cooked food he was probably thinking, "Nevermind, this is great!"
And unfortunately, Mila got the same sickness Siena had the week before. She made a big, disgusting mess to be cleaned up. And there were several potty-training accidents to be cleaned up.
I had a follow-up appointment with my doctor on Thursday. I expected the worst, and it ended up being one of the best doctor appointments I've ever had. A training doctor, my actual doctor, and the assigned nurse were all in the room most of the time, and told me I needed to do something in the long-term to fix this problem so I don't have to feel ongoing pain. They told me if I needed refills to just call, don't both to make an appointment (standard practice at the hospital) and happily ordered an MRI and x-rays, plus physical therapy. I got plenty of medication and even had two moles removed on the spot because I asked what the process would be to get them removed. Unfortunately, after walking to the radiology department, the lab for blood work, and the pharmacy to pick up a heavy bag of meds, I could barely walk back to the parking lot for my mom to pick me up. (Using a cane.)
On Friday I had another chiropractor visit and was walking pretty well with a cane. (Wish insurance covered it!) But I still couldn't lift or move well so we decided it would be best if we went to Utah earlier than planned for my mom to take care of us all there. So on Saturday we all got in the car and made the drive. Well, my mom drove and I laid in the back seat. Hyrum bought a one-way ticket for the following week. (It worked out great, because if I'd waited a week to drive to Utah with Hyrum, as originally planned, we would have run into terrible weather in Wyoming.)
The only hiccup was that Tiago finally got the same sickness as everyone else so he was throwing up all night, and we worried about him the whole drive. Luckily nothing happened but he didn't feel well and actually fell asleep for a few hours (messing up our plans to stop at the Rawlins Mcdonalds playplace like we always do.)
I'm so glad I had someone to help take care of things (my kids!!) while I recovered!
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