The night of May 6, 2015 is one I will never forget. I was home alone, my mom was at a Relief
Society meeting and my dad was in California on business. After I had finished reading my scriptures I
walked out to our family room to watch television. I sat on the couch and noticed that my left
leg felt like it had gone to sleep. I
thought that was weird but figured it would come out of it in a minute or
two. It didn’t. The numbness started to get worse. I tried to walk it out but noticed that it
was getting a little hard to walk. At
this point I had the feeling that something was wrong. I hobbled over to the kitchen and called my
mom. I explained what was happening and
she told me to try and walk it out and that she would be home in twenty minutes. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to “walk” it
out. My leg kept getting more and more
numb by the minute. I managed to get to
my room where I laid on my bed and debated on what I should do. I emailed my dad and told him to call me
ASAP. I figured he would see the email
because he was always looking at his work email. He didn’t call and I started getting more
nervous. I had the feeling that I would
be going to the ER that night. My phone
battery was running low so I moved from my bed as best I could to my floor so I
could plug my phone in to charge. While
I had it charging I called my dad’s cell and it went straight to voice
mail. At this point my leg was completely
numb from my knee down and from my hip to my knee hurt like crazy. Since I was alone in the house I felt like I
could cry and scream out in pain because it hurt so badly. I knew I wanted and needed a priesthood
blessing so I decided to call my brother.
He picked up on the first ring and immediately knew something was wrong
because I was crying. I told him what
was going on and that I wanted a blessing.
He told me he was walking out the door and would be there soon. I figured he and my mom would arrive around
the same time since my brother lives 15 minutes away. After a few minutes I tried to see if I could
move my leg so I could get up and be ready for when my brother came. As I tried to move my leg I discovered that I
couldn’t. So I used my upper body to move
myself into my bathroom where I would have something stable to grab onto to get
into a standing position. It was very
difficult and when I tried to stand it was like I didn’t have a left leg and I
started to collapse. I somehow made it
out of the bathroom and was holding onto the door handle of our linen closet in
the hall when my mom came home. About a
minute later my brother came in and picked me up and took me out to one of our
kitchen chairs. He suggested that I be
taken to the ER. As my mom got things
ready he gave me a blessing. He had to
carry me out to the car because my leg wouldn’t support me. He then followed my mom and I to the ER at
Ogden Regional Hospital where he stayed for two hours while I waited to hear
what was wrong. The doctor who was assigned
to me took my medical history and then did an examination on me. He thought that whatever was going on was
because of my back problems. He went and
called the on-call Neurosurgeon who agreed and said that I should get in to see
a neurosurgeon down at the University of Utah Hospital. I spent two hours in the ER just to hear that. We got home and my mom had to get my crutches
to help me stay balanced and to help me walk since my leg was still numb and
hurting. After we finally got home
(around midnight) my dad called to see what was going on, so I filled him in.
The pain was bad that night but I did manage to get at least
five hours of sleep. The next day I was
still using crutches to get around. We
called down to the University of Utah hospital to see if I could get in to see
a neurosurgeon but since they are a specialist I had to have a referral. It was pretty frustrating. My dad had emailed me different questions and
things to look for in my leg, because there was the possibility I could have a
blood clot. Some of the things he told
me to look for I felt like I had them.
So I went to see a regular doctor who didn’t think I had a clot but
would order an ultrasound to make sure.
The ultrasound couldn’t be set up until the next day.
On Friday, May 8, 2015 I went in for my six month check up
with my Cardiologists. My leg pain
started to get really bad. I somehow
made it through my Echo (ultrasound on my heart) and by the time my
Cardiologists came in to see me I was dying.
They could tell that something was wrong so they questioned me and told
me that an ultrasound had been set up to rule out blood clots and that they
would try and work with neurosurgery at the U.
I went and had the ultrasound which showed no clot and as I was heading
back to Cardiology they called and told me to go to the ER at the U because
that was the only way I could see a neurosurgeon. I called my dad crying to tell him where my
mom and I were headed. He didn’t object
and said that he was headed to the airport and would get in to Utah that
afternoon. My mom and I went to the ER
at the U where I had doctors examine me and then went to consult with
Cardiology about me having an MRI. I
asked for some pain medicine which I was given orally. It didn’t do anything and I was really
hurting. I had gotten up to use the
restroom and the nurses and the doctor over me could see that I was having a
really hard time because of the pain.
The nurse came in to start an IV and give me pain meds that way. She couldn’t get it, neither could the next
person who tried. Finally an EMT came
in with an ultrasound machine and was able to get the IV in. I was given some strong pain meds and they
didn’t do anything but make me loopy. One
of the resident neurosurgeons came in right after I got more medicine and I had
a hard time explaining what was going on because I was loopy. I was told that they were still debating on
whether or not I could have an MRI because of my pacemaker. My dad finally showed up that afternoon and I
was so happy to see him. After another
hour or so I was told that the MRI was out of the picture and I was taken back
to have a CT scan of my lower spine. I
was able to move myself from the bed I was on to the table for the CT scan even
though it was really painful. The scan
only took a couple of minutes and when I tried to move myself back onto the bed
I couldn’t. I was in so much pain that I
just didn’t have the strength to move.
The techs in the room used a slide board to get me back onto the bed and
I was taken back to my room in the ER.
Once I was back in my room I decided I couldn’t hold everything in any
more, and I just started to cry. My parents let me cry and then after a few minutes my dad
helped me calm down. We waited another
hour or two before the resident neurosurgeons came in to tell me that they
couldn’t see anything wrong with my lower spine. It did not show that I was tethered again and
they didn’t know what was wrong. After
being in the ER for approximately seven hours, they gave me some prescriptions
for a nerve medicine and pain medicine and then they discharged me. I wasn’t very happy and was in so much
pain. Transferring from the bed to the
wheelchair hurt so bad that I started crying again.
After getting home from the hospital I asked my dad if he
would give me a blessing. I was in a lot
of pain and just wanted to be able to sleep.
I had taken some Loratab and was getting close to falling asleep when my
dad came in to give me a blessing. The
blessing he gave me was very powerful and I could instantly feel my nerves calm
down and I was able to sleep that night.
I slept most of the day the next day.
When I did get off the couch to go somewhere it would take me a very
long time because I couldn’t get my left leg to move. There were a couple of times where I would
literally have to move it with my hands.
I didn’t understand what was wrong with me.
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