36th Birthday (1 of 6)

I woke up with my muscles in my body so intensely stiff and seizing, that I actually couldn't do anything about it. And, so I just tried to go back to sleep. In hindsight, not the best course of action, but I thought my stimulator got turned up high on accident.

Luckily, not too much later, my 4 year old walks in to get some snuggle time. I ask her to bring me the remote and I shut the whole thing off. Ahhhhhh. Relax. Ok. Deep breathe. That was weird, though. It was on the right setting. Back to sleep. Clearly, my birthday priorities involved sleeping in late.

Shortly after turning off my stimulator, I thought I would feel totally better, but I didn't. Of course, I thought I just needed more sleep. But I had a headache. One that I couldn't sleep with, but I still felt weird. I asked my daughter to bring me the thermometer. 102.3 This was especially concerning because I take an anti-inflammatory medicine twice a day, so it should be lowering my fever.

I woke up my husband and told him I was sick. I called all my doctors, texted the Nevro rep, and got a call back from the GNP at my pain management doctor's right away that told me to go to the ER asap.

Ok, not the start to my birthday that I had hoped, but threw on a sweatshirt and leggings and left. I didn't even wake up the sleeping kids, figuring I'd get some meds and be home for birthday lunch.

With coronavirus in full swing, I had to be screened for it... all clear... signed in at the front desk, but by the time they called me back, I couldn't walk on my own. They wheeled me back into my iwn room because I had a possible infection. They started running every test and got me some morphine for the increasing pain in my head. After a short while, I needed the lights off, too. I got an MRI and chest xray. It's all a blur, but I was still playing games on my phone and texting my husband. I didn't want him to tell anyone I was here until we knew what was going on. I didn't want people to worry. But I was there longer and longer and longer. And, the longer I stayed, the worse I felt, even with antiobiotics and morphine.

Then they tell me that they arranged transportation to UCLA for me and I would be going there for the rest of my treatment to an infection. Well, gotta fill everyone in now. I was having a hard time even looking at the phone at this point. Any light sent me into a blinding headache. After some time waiting for the ambulance, I realize I hadn't eaten all day. They nurse brought me a meal.

As I sat there looking at my birthday dinner, I was sad that I couldn't be with my family. It wasn't safe for anyone to visit me because of COVID-19 and we didn't know much about my infection. I was grateful that I would get to be near Dr. Prager again, since he knows all about my CRPS and would be able to help me.

Finally, I took my ride to UCLA. From there, it was a lot of pain, yelling, meds, and sleep. It was a cycle of that. Snf athey told me, after midnight, no more food or water because I might need to take out the stimulator. Worst birthday news.