Scary Weekend

Scott had a cold last week and went to the dr. on Wednesday. They prescribed him some medication. He took it Wednesday night and Thursday morning. He called me late Thursday morning and said he was light headed all day and thought maybe it was the medication. I called the dr. and got him something different. He came home early that night and went straight to bed. He got up around 7:00 and felt much better. He went to play poker and came home about 11:00 with a terrible headache. He didn't sleep much that night because every time he moved his head hurt. I made him a dr. appointment as soon as I could on Friday morning. At 9:45 we went to see Dr. Matt. He checked him over and then sent us over to the hospital for a CAT scan. Scott was in excruciating pain. He said he's never hurt that bad before.



At the hospital they started an IV and gave him some Morphine. This took the edge off for a few minutes. The CAT scan ruled out any tumors or anything serious. They also did a sinus scan to see if it was his sinus passages. Then they did a spinal tap. The spinal fluid had to be sent to Hutch so we didn't know those results right away. When Dr. Matt did the spinal tap he was able to check the pressure on Scott's brain. It was 550! It is usually in the 100 range! This is when he informed me that they were going to take him by ambulance to Wichita because they were concerned about bleeding on the brain. My heart stopped and I wasn't sure what to do. I called my mom crying and ask her to go with me to Wichita. My sisters had a track meet and softball game that day and it was my partents' anniversary. I felt terrible about asking but I didn't know who else to call and I didn't want to wait for Scott's mom to get there 4 hours later. I called Scott's mom and brother and they were on their way.



We got to Wesley Medical Center and he was in Surgical ICU. The first time I walked back there and passed all the other rooms with people hooked up to lots of machines and many of them not moving I got tears in my eyes. Then when I got to Scott's room and he was hooked up to machines and oxygyn with a mask on I couldn't hold them back. The nurse came in and told us the dr. would be here in about 5-10 minutes. He asked us lots of questions that's when he told us that they thought it was viral meningitis. They were still doing some tests to make sure and an infectious disease dr. would be in to see Scott also. We had to wear masks when we went in to see him because they didn't know if it was contagious or not. The infectious disease dr. came in on Saturday. I was sitting there with a mask on watching the NFL draft with Scott when he came in and said "You can take the mask off. He's not contagious". Thank God! I was worried about Scott but I was also worried about the girls. How would I know if they had it? Now, hopefully, I didn't have to worry about it. He checked Scott over and asked him some questions and said that there weren't any antibiotics for it. They could just give him pain medicine to control the pain.

Around 8:00 pm Scott was able to move out of ICU and into a regular room. We had gone to get something to eat because you can't be in the rooms during shift change from 7-8. When we were headed back Scott texted me and said what room he was in but that the visiting hours were over at 8:30. Since it was past 8:30 Dustin and I were only able to take some clothes and snacks up to Scott but couldn't stay. The next morning, Sunday, Scott called me and said they were going to let him go home by noon if he felt like it. If he stayed, all they would do is give him pain meds and he might as well take them at home and be more comfortable.

Cheyenne was already at home with my parents so Scott's grandparents offered to take us home. We got home around 3:00. Scott just relaxed the rest of the day. He was still pretty weak. He stayed home from work until Wednesday. After working all day Wednesday, he was exhausted but feels much better than he did over the weekend.

My cousin had viral meningitis a couple years ago and still doesn't have his full strength sometimes. I'm trying to make sure Scott takes care of himself to recover fully from this. He's pretty stubborn though. This was the scariest and worse thing I have ever been through and hope I never have to go through it again. The worst part was just not knowing for a day or so. Once we finally knew what it was it was a lot less stressful it seemed like Scott started feeling better.

Thank you to all of you who kept us in your prayers. God got us through it.