What a crazy June and July it has been in the Clark home! I feel like it has been a whirl wind and just non stop these past few weeks. I finally had an evening that I could sit down and write all about my little ER visit that escalated into a lot of doctor appointments and one crazy diagnosis!
Last month I started getting daily headaches. I was very aware that it was happening each day even though the symptoms started out slowly with minor pain. These little headaches started the week before Father's Day and were progressively getting worse each day. I would go to bed with pain in my head and wake up with the same thing. No over the counter meds seemed to work.
On Father's Day we left church early because I just couldn't focus and my head was killing me. I figured I just needed to sleep. It had now been a week of headaches and I knew something just didn't seem right. I came home and slept a couple hours and still woke up with pain in my head and with a new symptom... pressure behind my left eye and temple. I took some ibuprofen because it was the only thing that made the pain tolerable. I tried to go to bed that night with very little success. I felt so bad that on Preston's day, Father's Day, I was just feeling miserable. I kind of butchered the whole Father's Day for him, haha. He of course was very understanding and took the lead playing both roles for several days.
The pain in my head increased so badly that night it woke me up at 2am. I woke up Preston and told him that I had to go to the Emergency Room. My eye had a ton of pressure behind it and my eye started to swell and water. I felt like Will Smith in the movie Hitch, haha. Everything started swelling and getting crazy. Haha. My head was pounding and just wouldn't stop. It was the strongest the headaches had been thus far. I drove to the ER, even though I was not sure it was smart to do in my current state but, I got there safely since it was 2am :) Honestly, I think the Lord just helped me a ton with that one. When I got to the ER they admitted me right away. They hooked me up to an IV and did a ct scan of my head. I was worried I had a blood clot or aneurysm at this point so I was grateful for all that the doctor and nurses were doing.
Luckily the ct scan came back with everything looking normal. They diagnosed me with a tension headache. When they explained what a "tension headache" is I knew in my heart that that wasn't it. It was something else but I didn't think I should argue with the doc. He asked how long my eye had been watering and swelling. I told him that it was new as of just a few hours. They gave me benadryl for the swelling and crying eye and some strong migraine meds for the headache. When they unhooked all the cords they asked if I had felt any better. "Honestly, not really," I told them. I still have a headache but it went from a 10 to a 3 and my eye is still puffy. They told me to get some rest and take a day off. I thought, "Hmmmm. Sure." haha, with three little people and just normal life I am not sure that was possible. They also told me to see my primary care physician for a follow up. I left the hospital a little disappointed but understood that they were doing all they could.
I woke up the next day with a headache and a puffy eye...AWESOME! haha. I called my primary care physician and set up an appointment for that Thursday. The headaches, pressure, swelling and pain continued. I got to my primary doctor and she had me go and do some blood work to see what she could figure out. She then told me she wanted to see me in a week to discuss the results. She asked a lot of questions about my recent trip to the eye doctor which was no more than 3 months before. I took that as a hint when I left her office and called my eye doc to do a follow up appointment just to make sure. I saw him that Saturday. He prescribed me some ointment for my swollen eye and told me to wear glasses for a full day to see if the headaches go away. He thought it best to at least start ruling things out. Sunday night my vision seemed to be a little blurrier. I figured that to be normal since I had half an eye now due to the swelling. Haha.
Monday morning I woke up with double vision...YES, double vision! Ok I thought, this is getting pretty serious and pretty fast. I called my eye doctor right away but he wasn't in the office. Thankfully I go to church with my eye doctor so I called him on his cell :) I may have pushed the boundaries for doctor/patient relationship a bit but I figured it was pretty serious :) I left a message and he called me back within the hour. He asked a couple questions and told me he would get me an appointment with an ophthalmologist that afternoon. He called me back and told me where to go that afternoon and who to see.
Preston came home from work and picked me up since I couldn't drive with the whole double vision thing now. We had my girlfriend, Jess come and sit with our kids while Pres ran me to the doctor. He was unsure as to what it was as well but ordered a MRI for the next doc to see. He wanted me to see a specialist. He told us that my eyes looked fine so it had to be in my brain. He called a neuro ophthalmologist on his cell and told him that he needed to see me right away. He set me up with an appointment for the following afternoon right after my MRI. I was starting to get a little worried now since all of these docs were calling each other on their cell phones and trying to get me in so quickly. I had no clue what to expect or what was going on, I just knew that what was happening felt right. It had now been about two weeks of headaches so I knew something had to be wrong.
I did my MRI the following morning which took a good hour and 20 minutes laying straight, no movement in a really loud huge plastic tube. They ordered with and without contrast so I had to do two MRI's basically. Once that was over we headed home and had our friend Jess come and stay with the kids again while Pres and I drove to our next doctor. When we met with him, he immediately knew what was going on. He diagnosed me with an orbital inflammatory pseudotumor. Yep, I had no clue what that was either. It is really rare as there are less than 200,000 cases a year. It's basically swelling behind the eye that causes the body to think that it is a tumor and your body responds as if it is one. They are nasty little guys. They mimic malignant tumors both clinically and radiologically. They are tricky but I am so grateful my doctor caught it. He prescribed me a medication right away and told me he wanted to see me again in a few days with my MRI that I had gotten that day. He wanted to confirm his diagnosis.
Pres and I grabbed my meds and went home. Within 12 hours of medication my double vision was gone, my headaches subsided and the swelling in my eye decreased drastically. I could not believe how effective the medication was. When we went back to the doc for my follow up, he was even impressed with how rapidly my body responded. He confirmed the diagnosis and we are now on the up and up of getting everything squared away and back to normal. I am now doing blood work and having a few more tests done but feeling great! As long as I take my meds we are in the clear. The doctors have no idea what causes this or why it happens but this specific pseudotumor can come back. The doctor will have to monitor me for at least six months to a year. I have high hopes that all will be well and we will get it completely fixed.
Me and my swollen eye! I was even trying super hard to open it as wide as I could, haha. Don't mind the no make-up...I didn't want to accentuate that beautiful left eye ;)
A few days later Pres and I celebrated that I could see again! We decided to hit up a movie and enjoy having normal vision :)
