February 6, 2008

The headache is still here with a vengence. Just when I think it might be better, I move in a particular way and I'm proved wrong. When I get to the hospital, I'm back on my back and my only consult is the occupational therapist. When Dr. Appel comes he tells me that although he is giving me a diagnosis today of Bulbar ALS, he is very encouraged about me. He said that since my symptoms are mild at this time either I have a slowly progressing form, or that I will plateau somewhere in the next year or so, and then we will have to re-evaluate the diagnosis. He gives me a prescription for Ritulek and a vitamin regimen. He said that he believes the most difficult thing that I will have to deal with in the next year will be the attitude of other people towards me when they find out I have ALS. He actually advises telling as few people as necessary. Then he asks me if I want a blood patch for my leaking spinal fluid that will hopefully take care of my headache, and I tell him yes, especially since my nurse said that some people have the headache for weeks. I am taken over to radiology in the main building of the hospital. The 30 minutes in the waiting room in a wheelchair is almost as much as I can stand. But just when I get to feeling like I will vomit at any second, a nurse comes and takes me to a pre-op holding room. As soon as I can lay down, it goes from a 9 to a 4. The nurse gets me undressed and starts an IV. She asks me how many time they stuck me on Monday and I said four. She said, 'No wonder you're hurting!' I am soon wheeled down one of the Radiology proceedure rooms, thankfully on a gurney. I get on the table on my stomach and they give me a shot of Lidocaine and then shoot dye in my back. When they find the leaks they take blood from my IV in my arm and inject it into my back. When they are finished, I am wheeled to the pre-op room and the nurse brings me a chicken salad sandwich and turns on the TV. It is 2:00 P.M. Law & Order is on TNT. After my hour is up, I am allowed to leave, even to ride home, but I need to lay as flat as I can tonight. When I am walking and sitting, my head still throbs, but it is just a remnant of the what I felt in the radiology waiting room. We drive away from the hospital and get into traffic getting out of Houston. We get to Madisonville, between Houston and Dallas and stop for the night.