Ten Years Ago Part 2

Read part 1 of Ten Years Ago

The next day I drove again for an hour to my mother’s house. She worked in hospitals for 30 odd years, and I knew I wasn’t going to fool her with my staggering gait and my flailing arms. Instead I chose to tell her straight out that the day after our girls night I would be presenting at the doctor, and that is what I did.

I felt like a fraud sitting in the doctor’s waiting room. Sure it was harder to walk than it was the day before, and somewhere along the way I had caught my wrist on something sharp and there was a bit of a gash that I couldn’t feel and didn’t notice at the time. Nothing hurt, I didn’t feel “sick” and I was pretty sure if I concentrated hard enough I could walk a little bit better than if I didn’t.

The doctor rang the closest neurologist and insisted I get in to see her NOW. So I drove round the corner to her rooms and she saw me during her lunch break. There was some co-ordination tests, some walking in straight line tests, and lots of hitting with a reflex hammer. Her next words stunned me.

“I want you to go to the emergency room. Don’t go home to get pajamas or toiletries. I will tell them you are coming and they will admit you straight away”

That sounded serious and when I told my then boyfriend who was waiting outside he went the colour of dirty milk. Still wanting to feel in control I drove myself and the boyfriend to the hospital and checked in at the emergency room. The ushered me into a curtained off bed and the waiting started for a bed in the hospital proper. I still felt like I shouldn’t be there, that I wasn’t really sick, just a bit wobbly. I didn’t feel scared, just interested where it would all end up. I was still heavily in denial.

A nurse eventually popped her head in and told e to strip down to nothing but underwear and put on a gown. She also told me to remove any jewelry.

“Any jewelry?” I asked

“Yes, anything metal. You are going to have an MRI and it is a giant magnet, you need to remove anything metal.”

My boyfriend and I looked at each other and started giggling like schoolgirls.

“Do you have needle nosed pliers?” I asked the nurse ” I have a piercing that I will need to take out”

She sighed in an exasperated way and went off looking for the medical equivalent of pliers.

To be continued….

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