Doctor, no Urgent Care, no Hospital... wait... what...

 

5:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. on Tuesday July 27, 2022, was an insane chain of events.  I don’t even know how to describe it. 

 

I was fine on Friday night, Saturday, and I want to say most of the day on Sunday.  I think might have had a little bit of a headache on Sunday but if I did it was mild.  I feel like I slept pretty good over the weekend.  Did light workouts with Clayton, nothing to crazy.  When I got up Monday even, I felt fine.  However, I got tired about a half hour after waking up.  Then my head where I hit it on the ground started to give me some trouble.  It was just achy, didn’t really hurt, it almost felt heavy.  I noticed as I was on Zoom calls trouble keeping my eyes on the screen.  However, the headaches were mild, so I just figured I slept on my neck wrong, or my neck was still sore from the fall of the bike and that was hurting my head. 

 

Monday turns to Tuesday; I get over seven hours of sleep.  I keep having mild little headaches.  I explained in my blog like many tension headaches. However, my BP seemed to be ok.  So, I was writing off to a sore neck from my fall, not big deal. 

 

Clayton comes over and we go out for our walk.  I tell him I am having these mild tension-like headaches and he said it reminded him of his experience with his concussions.  Well, that did make me feel too good.  That last thing I wanted was a concussion. However, as we walked, we talked about things.  He told me that I didn’t seem as crisp as I normally am.  He said also since I had fallen off the bike, I had been much nicer.  LOL.  That wasn’t exactly how he put it, but normally I am very sharp with my wit and take shots at people anytime they open the door for a shot to be taken.  It is my sense of humor.  However, he said I had been more friendly and not really acting like my normal self. Again, not good.  I mean honestly, I am always trying to be a better person, but I like my sense of humor and I am not giving that up.  So, maybe something was wrong.  Clayton and I agreed to take it easy just in case I had hurt myself.  I also agreed to email my doctor when I got home and that is exactly what I did.

 

Soon as I came in from hanging out with Clayton in the back yard, the bike shop called.  My bike was ready.  I was so happy.  However, after talking to Clayton and agreeing to take things easy right now until I heard back from my doctor, I knew I had to go pick up and not ride it home but bring it home in the car. 

 

Clayton left and I went back to work.  The day was going on ling fine, I would say it was status quo.  I did my meetings.  I reviewed stuff, etc.… etc... My head would go in and out of aching and I really didn’t think to much about it.  I was on my last call of the day at 4:30 and was getting ready to run out of the house and pick up my bike and oh man I couldn’t wait to go do that.  I was so excited to get my baby back.  Then I got a notice from Stanford.  It was from my doctor’s office telling me to get into either a doctor or urgent care ASAP because my head needed to be looked at.  I was like, ok, that is fine, I can do that.  I will just grab my bike then head over to the Stanford urgent care two blocks away.  They will have a quick look at me, tell me everything is fine you and I will go get the Kona. 

 

WRONG, WRONG, WRONG… WRONG, WRONG, WRONG…  WRONG, WRONG, WRONG…

 

The urgent care people are super nice at Stanford.  It isn’t my first rodeo of going there.  I was there in December when I got the earbud Christmas tree looking thing from my water ipod stuck in my ear.  So, I was like this will be super casual no big deal.  It started that way.  The nurse that came and got me was super nice.  She took down my story.  All was good. 

 

Even the 2^nd nurse who came in was pretty nice too.  She took my vitals.  Talked to me.  I told her I was shocked my BP was up.  140 over 79 or was it 89, I don’t recall.  I just know it was high for me.  I told her that and she was like I am not surprised you are dealing with an injury, it is just fine.  So, I was like cool.  She stepped out of the room and talked to the doctor, who will forever be known in my mind as the mean bitch with the pixie cut. 

 

This Doctor storms into the room.  “Why didn’t you got to eh emergency room or urgent care right after you feel?”  I started to answer and say because I thought Iw as ok.  She didn’t give me a chance.  “Why didn’t you?”  I said something really quiet like I didn’t know to, but I don’t think I got it out when she jumped in again saying “You are Xarelto! RIGHT!!” 

 

LIGHT BULB goes off in my head.  Oh my god, I am on a blood thinner aren’t I.  Xarelto is for my AFIB.  I take it every night.  I make sure I take it every night; it is the only heart medication I still take. I know I have to take it because it keeps me safe from stroking out.  I am sitting here thinking through all this when she again “You know you are at high risk of brain bleeds! It could all go down hill fast for you if you don’t get checked out right away.  It’s been over 48 hours so you are probably ok, but you are going straight to the hospital to get an CAT-scan” Then just as fast as she came in, she was gone.  I looked at the nurse who first took me in and was really nice and said, “I didn’t know.”  I sort of wanted to cry.  However, that was a lie part of me did know that if you are blood thinners you are at high risk of bleeding in head, because Dr. Dan had told my Mom and me a story about his friend who was on a blood thinner following and getting a brain bleed.  I should have known.  The nurse being sweet as ever just told me “Well if it happens again, you know what to do.”  She was so super nice.  I mean truly an awesome person.

 

So, I was off to Pleasanton and to Valley Care Hospital for my first ever CAT-scan. I do what I always do in these times, I called my Mom and talked to her as I drove the hospital.  I told her about the nice nurse and the mean pixie cut doctor.  Which in all honesty she was being stern, not mean to me and teaching me something that I really should have already known and something I won’t soon forget.  I got to the hospital and went in and found the radiation department. 

 

They told me it was going to be 40 minutes or so.  I looked at my watch it was almost 7. I was like great I will be here all night.  What really freaked me out was the women basically described to me the MRA tube not the CAT-scan when I was checking in, so I thought I was going fully into a tube, and I was sitting there crapping my pants because I do get claustrophobic, but I was manning up and going to do it no matter what.   At this point I got to find out if I have a brain bleed or not, you got to do what ya got to do right?

 

Sitting there for 10 minutes the tech came and got me.  Man getting you Cat scanned is easy and it was really quick.  I was in and out in like 10 minutes.  I didn’t have to take my cloths off or my watch off, nothing.  They even let me keep my chain on, although they made me make sure it was too close to my head.  The dudes in there were super nice.  They told me to go home and when I got the results to call the urgent care right away and keep calling till I got them on the phone. 

 

Around 8 p.m. as I sat down with my dinner Stanford pinged me with a test result.  I read it start to finish, I thought I understood it but wanted to be sure.  Soon as I put my phone down to find the number to call urgent care, I got a call from urgent care. 

 

My head was ok.  No brain bleeds.  Nothing else abnormal as far as the cat-scan could tell.  Really there isn’t a lot normal with my brain so cat-scan technology can only do so much I guess = - ) They do think I concussed myself, even if just mildly.  They think the headaches are from post-concussion syndrome.  I will have to be careful and monitor myself and make sure I don’t push too hard until I am ready to do so.    

 

So, like I said 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. was a whirlwind of stress, getting talked to harshly, getting a CAT-scan and finding out everything was ok.  A pretty FUBAR night, if there ever was one.  I relaxed with the girls until about 9:30 and then I went to bed.

 

On my way to bed, I did stop and admire the updated bike.  I really liked that new cassette on the back of it.  Looking at that nice shiny new toy.  I really can’t wait to go out and get back on the bike.  If my head feels up to it, I am going to go out for a nice flat ride on Friday before, going out with David on Saturday.

 

I slept well last night, but still really tired.  I want to close my eyes and nap right now.  I must fight through though.  Too late to nap and there is still work to be done, however, I have been going hard since 6:30 this a.m. I am just super glad I got lucky this time with this fall and nothing more serious came out of it.