Blog #1

So by now you know. At least part of it. You know I am in Las Vegas, but not why. I hope I can give you some answers or some more information if you know what is going on. But I'm a little over reciting all the details so this will be condensed a little.

I'll start at the beginning...

Saturday the 21st of January

6am: My phone was chirping and I picked it up to make it stop. The screen was double and blurry and I thought to myself, "I'm too tired for this." Commence sleeping.

9am: I wake up for real and head to the bathroom. Everything is still a blur. I start to wonder what I had to drink last night. It was only a glass of wine over dinner. Everything is weird and double. I can't focus on anything. There is two of everything and I am so confused. Considering I have been snowed into the house for the last three days, I start to wonder if I have ACTUAL cabin fever...

10am: Even though I can't see anything singly, I'm dying to get out of the house. I tell my Mom she will have to drive because I feel weird and have double vision. I text Chris and he thinks maybe I have an ear infection. But I don't really believe him because I feel fine. My head doesn't hurt, my ears are fine, etc. I'm not prone to migraines but maybe I'm getting a migraine?

230pm: Excedrin Migraine is recalled, who knew? Eye drops didn't help, Tylenol and an energy drink didn't help. I've been texting with Chris all day and told him that I was going to go to Urgent Care if this wasn't better by 3. I know myself and this is uncharacteristic and strange.

3pm: Dr. Haydu (love him) at Urgent Care is concerned. He says I am suffering what is called a Sixth Nerve Palsy. He calls a Neurologist who says I need an MRI and to go to the ER, because this is symptomatic of a much more serious condition. Even though it is a worst case scenario, I'm not taking any chances. We head to the ER.

6pm: I'm admitted to the ER. One of the benefits of having a medical husband is that I know most of the medical professionals in this town. I was fast tracked at Urgent Care and I knew my admitting nurse and ER Tech. I meet the ER Doc, Dr. Ast. He runs the same tests as Dr. Haydu and sends me to MRI.

Let's just talk about MRI's for a second. I told them I was fine with the MRI as I have never had claustrophobia before. But I imagined it being more like a tanning bed and less like being inserted into a tampon! I got half way in and made them pull me out. Umm, Valium please! I'm not going to go into the idiot nurse who came and spilled my blood everywhere. I had to clean myself up with tissues while she held the line with her damn thumb. And my tech, Justin (Chris' former partner) , chided her with the "if you only knew whose wife you were messing with" face. By the way, being asked if you are THE Mrs. McKenna in the ER feels really good.

That MRI was intense. Once I didn't care that I was shoved in a tampon, they started with 30+ minutes of machine gun fire! Ugh. I told the tech that they should use them at Guantanamo Bay, because if I knew any state secrets I would tell them all in order to get out of the machine.

10pm: I've been texting Chris poorly spelled texts all day.  We are just waiting for results and Mom and I are laughing and hoping the MRI shows that I have a chunk of mascara in my eye and man am I an idiot.

But that's not true....

I have MS. Multiple Sclerosis. Yep. Whoa. Good thing I am on valium.

I made Dr. Ast show me the MRI. I don't know how to read these things but dammit I need to see this!
I'm not going to listen to some stranger and accept his life altering news. I want to see it! And I did. They showed me the spots of inflammation in my brain. I thought I could see three. Turns out there are several more. I broke this news to Chris on the phone. He was on a case at a hospital in Las Vegas and luckily his boss was right there when I broke the news. He was sent home and you can imagine that we spent the rest of the night on the phone crying. We agreed that I needed to come Vegas ASAP. So long old life, the new rest of my life begins now.

I want to thank Jessica Martinez for coming to my rescue at the hospital. It was awesome to have a friend there listening to the Dr's orders while my Mom and I cried.  And then to help me home and eat oatmeal and listen to me crack jokes about blinging out my eye patch...my future walker...my inevitable wheel chair....

So there you have it. There was no bar fight. I just started a rumor about myself so I didn't have to talk about what was really going on until I had more answers. But gettting middle of the night texts asking if I really got in a bar fight and lost an eye or if it was true that I was in a treatment program in Nevada was priceless. Really, you guys think I am way cooler than I really am.