Friday, March 14, 2008

A Weekend for Recuperation



It will be two days of rest and recuperation for my wife. She has been having horrible headaches for the past several (I mean several) weeks. We thought it was probably a chronic sinus infection since the entire world seems to be suffering from such malady lately.

She went to the family doctor and had a CT scan of her sinuses and was referred to an Ear, Nose, Throat specialist. Turns out her sinuses are fine. However...in addition to the CT scan the family doctor also had some blood work done. Come to find out her sedimentation rate was a bit out of whack. The doctor said it was possible that she was suffering from a rare disorder called Temporal Arteritis. The ears, nose and throat guy told my wife that it was nothing to mess with. Left untreated in can cause blindness or can even be fatal. Dr. Isaacson highly recommended that she have a temporal artery biopsy the next day. So she called me at work and gave me the news. The unexpected news.

We spent yesterday morning in the outpatient surgery department. The surgery took about 45 minutes and I took her home a couple hours later. I stayed with her and did what I could to make her feel better. She has a 2-1/2 inch long incision just inside her hairline next to her ear. And suffice it to say, it hurts. Every time she opens her mouth. It hurts. The pain medicine helps, but it will be a few days before she's back to normal.

So...this will be a quiet weekend. And frankly, I'm perfectly fine with that.

ADDED: We're supposed to get the lab results no later than next Tuesday. If she has this Temporal Arteritis thing, then she'll probably have to take a steroid like Prednisone. We'll see how things go.



5 comments:

Jason said...

Oh, that's so awful. Best wishes for a speedy recovery and good news from the doctor.

Anonymous said...

Oh, how horrible! Wish her well-even though I'm a complete stranger. Glad she had it checked out though.

Mike said...

Thanks guys. We should hear back from the Dr. by Tuesday. Will keep you posted.

Lisa McDonald said...

Mike ~

I am not exactly sure how I stumbled upon your blog but have been a big fan since. Take care of your wife, hope she feels better real soon.

Lisa

Harbor Hon said...

Just coming back from a few days off. Please convey our best wishes and love and prayers to your wife that everything will be just fine. xxoo