Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Sick Leave

Just wanted to let you guys know that you might not hear from me for a few days.

I haven’t been feeling too hot for the last week, but as usual, I just ignored it and tried to work through it. But the last couple of days have knocked me out. I’m having a lot of pain in my left cheek, so much so that I went to the dentist because I thought maybe it was a tooth problem and he could take care of it. He had good news and bad news for me—the good news was that he couldn’t find anything wrong and I didn’t need a root canal. The bad news was that he couldn’t find anything wrong and I didn’t need a root canal. So, I called the MS clinic and headed in for a check up.

Turns out I’m not crazy and I’m not just tired; I’m having a full-blown relapse of the MS. And it’s bad enough that they’ve ordered an MRI of my brain and neck for as soon as possible. The pain in my cheek is trigeminal neuralgia---a pain that runs down the trigeminal nerve of the cheek. If there aren’t any new/active lesions in the MRI, I’ll get a prescription for an anti-seizure medication to help with the pain. But since I’m noticeably weak on my left side and a little numb on the left side of my head, around my left ear, and neck, they are thinking that I may have some active lesions on the right side of my brain. If that’s the case, then I have to go through a round of steroids—3 days IV, 3 days oral. I’m not sure how the steroids help, but I guess they do. I was hoping not to have to get into steroids for a while, so I’m hoping for a pretty clean MRI.

So, I’m taking a break until we get this under control. It’s a pain (literally!), but it’s still not as bad as it could be. I’m optimistic that we’ll be pleasantly surprised by a relatively clean MRI.

Whew! I’m exhausted now. We’ll talk again soon.

12 comments:

Gracey said...

I'll be praying for a fast recovery! Take care; we'll miss you! Come back as soon as your able!

Anonymous said...

B and I are sending some good and healthy energy to you!! You'll be missed but your health is more important than us. Take care and we hope to see you soon.

Peggy said...

Darling girl, I hope you're back to writing soon. We'll all be here when you're feeling better!

Anonymous said...

I'm so sorry to hear this. I'll be keeping you in my thoughts silently sending you well wishes. Take care of yourself.

Newt said...

We'll always be here for you. Feel better dear friend.
*Hugs*

Anonymous said...

Hope you rebound soon. We'll be thinking about you and keeping you in our prayers.

Tink said...

Oh no! ((HUG)) I hope everything turns out OK. Take as much time as you need.

Kell said...

Thanks everyone. I'm still waiting for my MRI appointment and taking as much ibuprofen as they'll let me!

Lisa said...

Sorry to hear that, Kell. Fingers crossed for a good MRI!

katy said...

hope you feeling better real soon ((((hugs)))) to you x

Anonymous said...

I'm new to your site. I'm real sorry to hear that your MS is acting up! Good luck with MRI; hopefully it will become dorment again real soon with no further damage. You sound like a brave strong girl and God is on yourside. We are all saying prayers for you.

Kell said...

Thanks again you guys. And welcome Patsy. Thanks for commenting.

I got good news that I can finally post!