Never a dull moment.

If I ever say my life is dull, please correct me.

Since August 13, I haven't spent more than 4 consecutive nights in any one place--in any one city, for that matter.

Here's a recap of my week in case you haven't heard:

I had a spinal tap on Friday in New Orleans.  It wasn't nearly as painful as I was anticipating--not at first, at least.  Sunday afternoon I began feeling really sick.  I had an extra bad headache that kept getting worse and worse.  I had to leave class to lie down in the hall on Monday.  It finally got so bad that I called a friend and asked her to take me to the Emergency Room.  I explained to the ER doctor how I was feeling and that I thought it was a spinal fluid leak from the spinal tap I'd had.  He said that was likely the issue, and even confirmed the procedure I knew had to be done to correct it.  However, in keeping with the great luck I always have, no one in the area is licensed to do the procedure.  Thankfully, Mom and Dad were able to come pick me up and a doctor who a nurse friend works with was able to squeeze me in Tuesday morning between patients.  They did an epidural blood patch, which was way simpler and less painful than it sounds.  The patch worked (or has so far).  I've never been so thankful for my normal headache.

The spinal tap, as troublesome as it was, may have provided some insight on the source of my headache.  Unfortunately, the key word here is may.  My spinal pressure was on the low end of normal.  My doctor said this may mean I have a spinal leak, which (as I now know so well, thanks to my spinal tap experience) causes headaches.  The test they can do to find a spinal fluid leak is called a cisternogram.  It involves injecting a radioactive isotope into my spine and taking pictures.  Sounds easy, except they also have to put cotton wisp things (called plegets) into each of my sinus cavities--all six--and leave them there for 24 hours and then test them for spinal fluid.  I would have this test done in a heartbeat, but there are lots of ifs.  The test is not always conclusive; it doesn't always show a leak if there is one.  Even if they do find a leak, depending on where it is, it may not be able to be fixed.  Also, my spinal pressure only hints that there may be a leak.  If I were not also unresponsive to medication, the doctor would not have even suggested I have the test done.

I do have another option for treatment that sounds a little less painful.  I can have occipital nerve blocks, which sometimes stop headache pain.  If the injections worked, they would do them again a few weeks later to make sure there was no placebo effect.  If it worked three times, they would implant a nerve stimulator under the skin that would keep the nerve from causing pain.

I'm a little overwhelmed with the decisions I have to make on what to do next and with all that's been happening.  However, I'm also a little overwhelmed with how many people care about me--in the best possible sense.  I told only a handful of people about what was going on Monday, and my parents only told one or two people, but I can't even count the number of people who told us they were praying for us.  People I've never met prayed for me Monday.  I'm so grateful for the loving people my Father has placed in my life.  The prayers of God's people are a beautiful thing.