One Week Since "The Sneeze"

Today marks one week since "the sneeze". This past week has been such a long/crazy/painful/emotional week for me.

I was just going about my Saturday one week ago, just had a nice lunch with Wesley at a local cafe, feeling completely healthy and energized and on a mission to complete some much needed errands. I headed to Michaels first and as I was trying to decide what size canvas I wanted to paint I sneezed and immediately after felt excruciating pain all through my ribs and back. I instantly panicked when I realized that the pain wasn't going away and when I tried moving around, I was unable to and the pain worsened. I slowly made it to my car and called Wesley and my parents. They were both worried it could be a broken rib after my sneeze {which I never knew could happen until that very second} and headed to come get me. Of course my anxiety only increased when I thought about the possibility of puncturing a lung if it was a broken rib. And here I was in the Michaels parking lot, sitting alone in my car holding my side in agony and waiting for them to take me to the ER to find out. I couldn't help but to call my friend, who is a clinical nurse specialist and I often feel is my personal nurse, to try and calm my nerves. She did calm me down and tried her best to diagnose me.

After the ER visit, a Dr. D visit, a few "scans" and too many medications, I was finally diagnosed with having two herniated bulging discs in between T8 and T9, and T9 and T10, which affects your abdomen and brings on pain there. {On Saturday, the ER Dr. had diagnosed a rib fracture and muscular strains.}

Besides the pain, the worst part was having to miss work only to sit on the couch by myself all day consumed with thoughts about what I needed to do around the house or the errands I didn't get to run or most importantly, work piling up on my desk.

One thing I did not expect and learned about myself is that having an MRI scan is a complete nightmare for me! I had to be there at 7:45 a.m. on Thursday and I was so appreciative for Wesley taking time from work to take me {and to Dr. D the day before}, but when I got robed up and strapped down by the technician I began to panic all over again as I was pushed inside the tube and felt completely suffocated with the surface sitting at the tip of my nose. I kept thinking of him telling me I couldn't move for 25 minutes and when I asked him if it was OK to take deep breaths his exact words were, "No, not really". It should have been a hint when he asked me if I was claustrophobic, which I most definitely am. {Elevators make me a nervous wreck. I also hate having to close a small bathroom stall door.}

The tech and Wesley were not very sympathetic...the tech said this happens all the time, and if I didn't want to do then that was my call..Wesley's response was that it seems relaxing to him and I needed to get it over with so he could go back to work. While trying to talk myself into it, the pounding noise took over and I couldn't do it. Round 2 was at noon the same day and involved me taking yet another medication for my "MRI anxiety" one hour before the procedure. Thanks to my mom for taking the time away from work to take me for the second time around. I hated that this was so hard for me because I really wanted the results to know what was wrong with me and I'm so glad I finally got through it. Hopefully the steroid will work some magic and I can get back to my normal routine next week!