Hospital Trip - Part Two - MRI/MRA

Suzie and I sat and visited happily in the ER room. We had planned to get together that week for a breakfast meeting, since we are so busy lately, so it was great to catch up! As they prepared to let me go, the nurse came in and explained my discharge papers to us. I had them in my left hand.

I went to reach for my cell phone on my lap... and realized that my right arm would not move.

At all.

I looked up right as she asked if we had any last questions.

"Is it normal for the shot to make your arm not be able to move?" I asked.

(The benedryl shot had gone in that arm)

She said no, and immediately went to get the Dr.

Within minutes, they had done an assessment and realized not only did my arm not move, but right leg as well. It was like horrible flash backs of the morning of my stroke!

Things started moving fast. I made a trip to the bathroom (my own little test of how bad it really was) and could barely hold it together as my right leg drug behind me, and I could not maneuver my own britches! NOT AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!! I did my best not to burst into tears.

They had to call in the MRI team, as they were not on that night, so we had to wait a little while, but the nurses and doctor kept that time filled. In between their visits, IV's and blood draws... Suzie and I were kind of quiet. There was not much to say. Just fear. And fighting tears. She sent Jes a text for me... but he didn't respond. He was sound asleep... sick as a dog.

At one point the Dr. came in to talk to me... and the paralysis had moved into my face and speech. Suzie looked really scared as my face did not move when I spoke, I could not say "g", "b", "th" and any other sound that moves your tongue forward in your mouth. Words became hard to find and I had to speak slowly to make sure I said what I was trying to say. Suzie quickly told that Dr. that "This is NOT normal!!" *smile* I think he realized that. My smile was crooked. My eye didn't close well. My tongue would not stick out straight. And soon I realized... after asking Suzie for a piece of gum to clear the "dry mouth of fear" out a bit... I could not chew on my right side, and if the gum got pushed over to that side (out of habit when chewing gum) I had to use my finger to move it back... or it would not budge and I got close to chocking.

About 2am I was whisked to the MRI machine.

They strapped me down (since I struggled to hold my dead arm against me with an IV in the other arm) and I was shot down the little tunnel of noise. It was loud, and stuffy, and slightly painful (my IV burned when they shot me with contrast). I had 2 MRI's - one with contrast and one without - and an MRA of my brain and head.

I was in the machine for about 2 hours and 15 minutes.

I dozed a little here and there - (heh heh - I did have benedryl in me after all. But otherwise I tried really hard to think of songs to sing to keep me distracted. I could only come up with the first lines of my favorite hymns... then my brain lost what I was doing. "Come thou fount of every blessing..." was a phrase that kept playing my mind, though I could not find what was the next line after that.
So did "Nearer my God to thee... Nearer to Thee..." but that is all I could conjure up there. I was loosing the pathways to finish a thought processes. It was so frustrating!
I could barely pray... and not enough to even consider it a full prayer.
It was more feelings from my heart... without words.
I just didn't know what to say.