Yesterday was a bit too much of an adventure for me.  I woke up, went to the bathroom, opened the linen closet, bent down to get some tums (my belly hurt), put the bottle back in the cabinet, stood up straight, and I was blind, completely blind, for about 3 or 4 minutes.  I was thirsty after popping the tums in my mouth, so I stumbled into the bathroom door (our bathroom is so tiny that we keep some medicine (like the tums) in the linen closet right outside the bathroom), found my way into the bathroom, and searched for the faucet handles to turn the water on.  I found a glass, our toothbrushes, the wall, the hand towel, but I could not for the life of me find the faucet handles.  So, I gave up, and decided I would just go back to bed because I was SO tired.  (It was shortly before 6:30am, and I wasn’t planning on getting up at this time.)  I walked out of the bathroom and into the hallway with my arms outstretched.  I remember touching a frame with glass in it and realizing that I was walking the wrong way down the hall, so I turned around and made my way the other direction, bumped into the gate that keeps the dogs out of our bedroom (it was open), took one step into our bedroom, and thought, hmmm, maybe I shouldn’t just go back to sleep.  This is really messed up.  I should call my dad.  He’s a doctor.  He’ll tell me what to do.  So, I turned around again and tried to make my way to the living room.  Then things started to brighten up a tad, to a very very dark gray, so I could just barely make out outlines of shapes.  I walked through the living room to the kitchen and walked straight into the gate between the kitchen and living room (dog gate, which was closed).  I opened the gate, took one step into the kitchen, and realized I can’t use the home phone to make a long distance phone call.  I turned around and went back into the living room to the couch.  I sat down and took several deep breaths, trying to relax myself.  I think I had been panicking a bit, maybe holding my breath to some extent.  My vision slowly oh so slowly started to come back some more.  I was able to find my purse and dig though it to find my cell phone, but I couldn’t see the numbers or read what it said on the screen.  I tried to dial my parents from the menu.  I speed dialed 7 (the only number I pressed) instead of 6 (look at a phone — these numbers are VERY FAR APART!  HOW could I get them confused???) and I got “Purlesence” instead of “Mom & Dad.”  The Purlescence voicemail tipped me off and I kind of freaked out a little bit.  By then I looked at my phone and I could vaguely see the outlines of the numbers, so I was able to tell which one was 6 to dial my parents.  I called my dad and while I was talking to him my vision came back all the way.  Since my husband is out of town all week, my dad told me to drive myself to the ER, if I felt I could, and since my vision had come back, and the ER doesn’t involve driving on highways, I thought I could handle it.  So, I did.  I spent 5 hours there.  They did an EKG, a cat scan, and some blood work.  However, the doctor could not tell me why I went blind.  He said that my neck muscles were so tight that my inner ear balance was off and that’s why I was dizzy/disoriented and he said that he thought I was on the verge of passing out for the entire time I was blind but my blood pressure was high enough that I didn’t pass out.  That part doesn’t make sense.  Not for 3-4 minutes.  I was supposed to see my neurologist at 10:15am (to discuss my new migraine meds), but I missed that appointment because I was in the ER, so I left him 2 messages, and hoped that I could see him later in the day, and after my dad called his office, he did manage to squeeze me in, although I did wait around for quite a while to see him, and after he saw me, he said he thought the episode had to do with my migraines, like some people have an aura before they get migraines, or have tunnel vision, although there are two problems with that theory 1) I didn’t have a tunnel, I was completely blind and 2) I didn’t get a migraine afterwards, so he had me go in for a vascular MRI this morning.  All in all, I spent 7 hours between the ER and the doctor’s office yesterday, and I had an appointment at the pain clinic this morning before I went in for my vascular MRI, so I’ve had a bit of a stressful medical overload this week.  They did an IV during the vascular MRI so they could put a contrast in my blood to make my arteries pop out in the image.  That wasn’t so much fun either.  And I really must add that the gown they had me wear this morning was missing one tie and didn’t close in the back, so it really was quite drafty!  Every day is an adventure.  Some days the adventure is more fun than others…  I don’t know when I get the results back from the MRI.  I hope soon.

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