Is there blood in my hair?*

[bending_sickle]

So. The neurologist thing's happened.

The whole adventure was from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and I'm beat. Getting there was surprisingly easy and quick, although we got a bit lost in the hospital - it's a gigantic teaching hospital, and we had to follow coloured lines running down walls and around corners and into elevators, but eventually we made it there half an hour early. I never actually got to see the doctor with whom I had the appointment, but the two doctors who did see me (who were lovely and nice and occasionally conferred in low voices together while I was there and trying to not read concern in their faces) told him what's what.

So what they did was, as marika_kailaya said, watch me walk (normally and on tip-toes), check my reflexes via my wrists and knees, do the "follow the finger" thing, and also check if my back hurt when I bent my neck down.

Then I went to another room where I got three sensors plopped onto my head via goo and got to stare at a red dot in the middle of a moving checkerboard on a screen. I guessed this to be a test for epilepsy and yeah, when I walked out, mom was like, "You know what room you were in? The epileptic study room." So it was the test for photosensitive epilepsy. I have no idea how I did.

Then it was back to the two neurologists and basically they said, yeah, we need to figure out where the wrong is coming from. What they want to do is an MRI, blood work, and cerebrospinal fluid work (which they said wasn't the super-scary test, but the "like when pregnant women get an epidural" one, to which I'm just I have no idea what that is like). So in order to do all those things together and now, instead of in like a month or more, I'm going to stay at the hospital "two or three days". They're supposed to call when they've got an opening - probably next week - and that very day it's "grab your tiny travel bag and head on over".

So that's a thing that's happening.

* Eric Northman, True Blood

Comments

[chaosvizier.livejournal.com]

I still don't see why the epilepsy study room just doesn't have the thirty-second clip of that Pokemon episode that sent half of Japan into seizures when it first aired. Let's face it, that's what I call a successful test.

Three days of being a hospital lab rat is a bit icky, but hey, delicious hospital food! Oh wait, that's a bad thing. Ummm... hot naughty nurses! Oh wait, that's a fake thing. Let's see... adjustable beds! They go up and down and stuff! Oh yeah!

Aaaaaaand yeah. That's all I got. Stay well!

[bending-sickle.livejournal.com]

*cuddles* Hopefully there will be internet, so I'll survive. (So not looking forward to the whole needle in my spin thing though.)

And what Pokemon madness is this?

[chaosvizier.livejournal.com]

So, long ago (1997? Oh sweet baby Jebus I am so old), when Pokemon was first introduced, it was, of course, a very popular Japanese anime series. And there was one particular episode which featured a lot of flashing colored lights in one scene, and by some unfortunate accident that sequence caused HUNDREDS of Japanese children to suffer dizziness, mental disarray, and many other symptoms similar to epileptic seizures. In a few cases, full blown epileptic seizures were triggered, offering a surprising diagnosis of children who previously had not been identified as having epilepsy. Personally, I feel it shouldn't cost too much to license that particular episode from the animators and use it for medical diagnoses.

All the cuddles, especially for the spine needle thing. That's never a good party for the nervous system...

[bending-sickle.livejournal.com]

...that sounds like a nefarious Evil Villain method for crippling an entire country. *jots this down...for a friend*

*gratefully stores cuddles for later use, such as during Ye Great Time of the Needle*

[capn-mactastic.livejournal.com]

*smiggles you mightily*

Obviously I don't know what an epidural is like, but I've heard it's similar to a trigger point injection, in which case it sounds - and looks - way more horrifying than it actually feels.

*more snugs*

I hope they figure out what it is and get it sorted, hon ♥

[bending-sickle.livejournal.com]

*smiggles forever* I'll just close my eyes and hug my knees. That or ask them all the questions about the process like a good little biologist because yay science! 8)

[capn-mactastic.livejournal.com]

*snugs* Distracting yourself with science while in the foetal position sounds like a good plan!

[bending-sickle.livejournal.com]

*is snugged* ♥

[ellethill.livejournal.com]

*hugs you a lot* At least three days in the hospital means all the test will be done with quicker and you'll find out sooner what's going on?

I hope everything goes well and the tests aren't too scary/bad *huggles you some more*

[bending-sickle.livejournal.com]

Yep, yep, that's the idea. Otherwise it could've been a month-long wait if I wanted the tests as an out-patient, and then if they wanted more tests after that it would've been even more time so... Yeah, it's for the best.

*huggles back*