Nearly two weeks ago I had a very scary experience. The day was Wednesday, April 18th, 2007.

4:45pm

I got home from work and changed my clothes. Did a couple of things around the house and changed into some comfortable clothes.

5:15pm

Figured I would shoot some pool before working out. I couldn’t hit anything straight and realized my vision was a little bit blurry and it was hard to focus on the balls.

5:40pm

Whipped up a quick peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a glass of milk. Sat down to watch an episode of 24.

6:10pm

I had started to get a headache and it was getting hard to concentrate on the show.

6:20pm

Show ended and I made my way to bed, attempting to take a nap and get rid of the headache.

8:30pm

Puked my head was hurting so much.

9:30pm

Casey got home from work and I called him into my room to get me a cold wash cloth for my head. Explained I wasn’t feeling good and then I said this series of things…

Can you turn the heat up?

It’s on 38 right now, but you can turn it up to 300.

…Pause…

Wait, that didn’t make sense, turn it down to 18.

9:45pm

Casey’s girlfriend Maggie comes over. He tells her I have a really bad headache and don’t make any sense. He comes back to check on me and ask if I want him to take me to the hospital. I try to ask him to go pickup a thermometer to check my temperature, but I can only form the word “thunder”.

10:00pm

Tom comes home from work and picks up a thermometer on the way. My temp is 96.6, 2 degrees lower than normal body temperature. Tom decides we’re heading to the emergency room and they get me going. My head is pounding and it hurts to move. I can’t talk and am moving very slow. The look on everyone’s faces was one I’ve never seen before. They were worried.

10:15pm

We get to the emergency room and the check-in lady starts asking me questions. With my head pounding it’s very hard to concentrate on what people are saying. When I’m asked a question I know what I want to say, but I can’t think of the words, so I sit there thinking. Finally after not being able to come up with the words, I forget what I was asked and say, “What?” I couldn’t spell my name, come up with my birthday, or anything. Tom and Casey had to answer all of the questions for me. Tom said my skin color was unlike anything he’s ever seen. The lady at check-in determines I need a room NOW.

10:30pm

I have no problem signing my name for them to start treatment. They take blood and start an IV. I piss in a cup. The Doctor asks me what drugs I took or how much I had to drink. They think I’m drunk or overdosed on something. I get a cat scan. They take a strep throat test. I curl into a ball while sitting, to get a lumbar puncture (spinal tap), which I think was some type of test for spinal meningitis and hurt like a bitch! Tom calls my parents and they start the over 2 hour drive from Rogers City to Saginaw. None of the tests find anything wrong, my blood pressure and pulse are fine. I’m still having a really hard time forming sentences and my head is still pounding, especially when I move at all.

12:30am

The nurse finally gives me some Tylenol and lets me have some water after only allowing ice chips. Mom and Dad had called my brother Isaac and he shows up at the hospital. I’m starting to be able to talk a little bit.

1:30am

I’m discharged, but I didn’t want to leave because my head hurts whenever I move too much. Mom and Dad are just getting to town and get to my house shortly after we do. We all talk at home and I’m still having a little trouble saying what I want to. It’s as if parts of my brain don’t want to function.

2:00am

I go to sleep on the couch because I don’t want to deal with the head pain of walking up stairs. I set the heat to 68. I have on shorts, t-shirt, socks, sweats, sweatshirt, and a big comforter. Throughout the night I finally start to warm up and tear off layers, then finally turn the heat down. My headache goes away.

8:30am

I wake up and make myself breakfast sausage patties with waffles while everyone else is still in bed. I’m starving! My temperature is still at 96.6 degrees, but at least I don’t feel like I’m freezing anymore. I was still a little slow in the head for most of the day Thursday, but was feeling much better.

3:30pm

I nap for nearly 2 hours on the couch.

Friday

I see my family Doctor and he thinks I had a really bad migraine headache. He refers me to a neurologist who I see on May 7th. I’m feeling 100% even though my temperature is only back to 97.4 degrees.

It was definitely a scary and weird experience. I was laughing at myself at times because I was getting so mad I couldn’t say the words I wanted to. I knew I didn’t make sense. I couldn’t come up with any numbers either. The Doctor and nurses kept asking me a time table of events and the only time I could say was 12:30. I knew the time of day in my head but couldn’t come up with the numbers to go with the time. I knew what was going on the entire time, but I just couldn’t concentrate on anything. I’m interested to see what the neurologist says about the whole thing because I sure don’t want this to happen again.