Recent Events...

We wanted to share with you the events that have transpired this past week with Beth.

On Friday morning, Beth woke up rather anxious. She had tightness in her chest, slight tremors, and very nauseous and so we went to the emergency room. They did an EKG to check the condition of her heart and it was clean. We talked to the doctors about her anxiety and her troubles with acid reflux. They took an Xray of her chest and that gave sign of an inflammed chest (whatever that means). The basic diagnosis was severe acid reflux and anxiety. They prescribed an anti-inflammatory drug for the tightness in the chest and gave her a prescription for Protonix.

Beth was feeling better off an on for the rest of the day. She got to relax and rest for the remaining of the day. On Saturday, Beth felt better in the morning. As the afternoon approached, Beth began to again have similar symptoms as before. She proceeded to take one of the meds to treat the tightness. A short while later, she noticed tightening within the right side of her neck, which turned into a "deadness" feeling in her jaw, followed by short pains in her shoulder. This was followed shortly thereafter with numbness down her right arm. It was at this point we decided to go back to the ER.

We got to the ER. They looked at the chart from the day before and began to do prick tests on her to see if there was anything stroke related. Beth at one point had to go to the bathroom and discovered that the numbness went down her right leg as well. They could not diagnose anything conclusive at this point without doing an MRI, and so they proposed two options. #1 - Stay the night in the hospital in order to get the MRI on Sunday. #2 - Get a CT scan, be discharged, and then return later in the week for the MRI. We decided to stay the night and get the MRI on Sunday.

The course of the evening into the next day was very rough with the symptoms. Beth deeply struggled with being nauseous and continuation of the numbness. She was unable to eat hardly anything, even Jello. We discovered that noodles and toast were the two things that she could keep down.

Around 2:00pm on Sunday they came to take her for the MRI. We had visitors in to keep us company which was very helpful by this point to pass the time. They gave Beth adavan (relaxer) to take away any nervousness. They took her down to the scan room and began to prepare her for it. The technician placed foam ear plugs in her ears and then placed a black cloth over her face and then proceeded to put a mask over it to make sure she doesn't move her head. Beth, being very claustrophobic realized she couldn't do the scan. I was called in to the situation and they informed us that they could do the scan under general anesthesia. So, under Beth's direction we went for that option.

At this point, we were maintaining the pain and doing nothing to solve the issues at hand, especially the stomach reflux feelings. After some strong advocacy, we were able to see a doctor and begin to discuss these symptoms which Beth was having. The doctor after hearing Beth and the symptoms indicated that it may be gall bladder related. So, they decided to perform an ultrasound on the gall bladder in the morning and then do the MRI the next day depending its results.

Monday (4/30) came and by the time I got there in the morning, Beth was being prepped to go for the ultrasound. She came back and it showed nothing. We were most disappointed because we believed that this was the answer. They informed us that she would have the MRI at 12:30 and they were soon up to take her to see the anestesiologist. We were firm with him about Beth's reactions to the medications given to her while being under. He listened to our concerns and in Beth's words "was as sweet as could be." They performed the MRI and she came through it with flying colors. There were no reactions to the anestesia, even vomiting. It was remarkable. The Lord answered many peoples prayers. Shortly after being released from the recovery room, the doctor came to see us and informed that the scan was clear and that she desired to speak with us about options.

In considering the next steps, the doctor proceeded to bring the issue back to the common denominator, anxiety. She said very often anxiety can create those symptoms of numbness and such if under lots of stress, which Beth takes on a lot. She prescribed prozac to help with this in order to bring the seratonin levels back to normal. She as well gave us a prescription of nexium to aid with the acid reflux. We left feeling very confident in the diagnosis and were looking forward to the mending process.

We both took Tuesday (5/1) off and rested throughout the day. Several times we wrestled through some boughs of anxiety, but overall it was a very successful day. Then we got to Wednesday....