September 12, 2009
The day starts early as I’m up before everyone trying to get
things packed up and ready to go for Grace. Grace wakes up, I get her some breakfast, and we’re off to
Mars for Fifty6 training. I’m
already 10 minutes late, and I get the distinct feeling the others there are a
little perturbed. I get this
feeling that I’m a little too self-absorbed about my circumstances or
something.
I’m flying around setting stuff up, and thankfully Grace is
playing with Ralphie, allowing me some time to think about what I’m actually
supposed to be doing there.
I was totally out of it for training, thinking about this
CAT scan at noon and wondering what the results were going to be. We leave
early (and I found out I’m missing Thai for lunch L) and get home to grab Julia
and head off to the hospital.
We get there, and of course, the place is dead. It was an urgent care facility, which
doesn’t find itself busy on Saturday.
There was also no access to food, which really sucked because I hadn’t
eaten a blessed thing at all, just a big cup of bad coffee. Julia had a granola bar in her purse,
and I gave Grace a fruit snack that was there as well.
The nurses came out and told me we couldn’t go back with
Julia, which worried all of us. They said it would take 10 minutes, which I
thought originally would take an hour, so I was encouraged it would be done
quickly.
It wasn’t.
It took over an hour.
Of course, no one had come out so I was beginning to worry more. I called Adam (my bro-in-law) to tell
him that I would probably miss the only dart tournament we had a chance of
playing together in. I told him
I’d let him know how it worked out.
I also forgot to tell Asher about the CAT scan, and the fact
that I took Grace instead of her picking her up at the church. I didn’t know what else to say than
sorry.
The docs finally come out at 1ish (over an hour later) and
say, “We need to speak with you a moment.” “That’s reassuring,” I thought to myself.
Julia is sitting in a wheelchair, looking like she went through
some traumatic experience, to which the nurses told me she had tremors and
recommended she go to urgent care for the extreme nausea she was feeling at the
moment.
Thankfully, the urgent care rooms were right down the
hallway. I immediately starting
thinking about how hungry Grace would be.
So I scrounged up some change and got her a Milky Way candy bar (which
was the only options they really had in the vending machine).
Julia looks worse than when we entered into the
facility. I call Adam and tell him
there’s a 95% chance I won’t make it to the 3:15 tournament we’re supposed to
shoot together in, and inform him that I might not even be there at all. I had no idea how long we were going to
be in urgent care.
The doc comes in, asks if she wants anti-nausea medication
(I said yes immediately), and asks if we want blood work done to see if there’s
anything else (to which I said yes immediately).
In the meantime, I called my brother-in-law to let him know
I wouldn’t be shooting with him this afternoon, and most likely tonight. I was
also extremely hungry and tired, which I’m sure didn’t make me very patient
with Grace, who I was trying to keep from going to crazy with all of the
instruments in the room. She was
wonderful the whole time.
The doc came pack to give us the diagnosis: nothing on the
CAT scan, nothing in the blood work, so they concluded…tension headache.
I’m not a doctor, but that sounded like a cop-out. In fact, I was extremely upset. I was glad it wasn’t anything more
serious, but I felt like they knew nothing and tried to dismiss it as something
else. Granted, Julia is tense, but
it has never caused this degree of pain.
We got a prescription for anti-nausea medication and recommendation to
go to a massage therapist. That was
the best advice I heard the whole day.
We got some food on the way home, ate, and I cleaned up the
house a little while Julia rested.
Asher got back, and I decided I could make it for one tournament with
Adam. I ended up shooting my best
game of darts ever, considering I was a little more relaxed that it wasn’t a
tumor, and came back home around 10ish.
I tried to watch the rest of the Ohio State game, but fell
asleep. I woke up in the final
minute to watch them choke. I went
to bed soon after.
Worst part of the day:
Losing confidence in traditional medicine.
Best part of the day:
Knowing it wasn’t a tumor.
End of day [005].
re: losing confidence in traditional medicine, a guy i graduated with (who does work for nooma) recently found out he has cancer and 7 years to live and he's deciding not to take traditional medicine's advice and he's going the alternative route. he's got an inspiring story if you guys want to check it out:
http://jumpdavidjump.typepad.com
Posted by: victor | September 15, 2009 at 10:21 AM