Sometimes NO news is BAD news...
I have been highly agitated since yesterday. That's when I got a call from my sister who told me she was home again. If you read my previous post, then you have questions as I did. Perhaps you are thinking:
What made her blood pressure spike?
Why did she lose her speech for close to 5 hours straight?
What does she have to do to make sure she's healthy and safe?
Well, the answer to all of these questions is...THEY DO NOT KNOW!
After about 22-23 hours of a 24 hour urinalysis, where the collected little sis's pee in a little container, some airheaded nurse came in to her room in the early hours of the morning and dumped it all down the toilet not realizing it was being saved for a test.
My sister, who does not shy away from confrontation, then blew a gasket realizing this meant she'd have to sit in that hospital for another 24 hours straight while they collect more of her pee. I don't blame her really. After she chewed up the nurse and spit her out, she made it clear she wanted to go home. The doctors came and talked to her, giving her no diagnosis, and told her she could collect her pee at her own home.
And, even today, the doctors have no answers. All they can tell her is to check her blood pressure four times a day for the next several weeks. They told her she needed to meditate for 10 minutes a day and reduce stress in her life. She needs to exercise more.
They still are waiting on a couple of tests to come back, but expect them to not show anything. So, basically, my 27-year-old sister was told her strange and terrifying stroke-like episode was just because of stress or because she has high blood pressure in her family history.
It is times like this when I get really frustrated with rural medical care. I am not saying that there aren't some great doctors in smaller towns and cities. But, I am saying that they don't see enough patients as compared to a larger city, so their odds of tracking down a mystery illness are not good.
So, what now? My sister just walks around every day wondering if it will ever happen again? She gets to worry that it might happen when she's driving her daughter in the car, or at work, or who knows where else? She has no more answers than 3 days before when she was rushed to the ER. And that really ticks me off!
So, I 'm just wondering...have you ever had a weird medical condition that did not get diagnosed? Did it go away or come back again?
What made her blood pressure spike?
Why did she lose her speech for close to 5 hours straight?
What does she have to do to make sure she's healthy and safe?
Well, the answer to all of these questions is...THEY DO NOT KNOW!
After about 22-23 hours of a 24 hour urinalysis, where the collected little sis's pee in a little container, some airheaded nurse came in to her room in the early hours of the morning and dumped it all down the toilet not realizing it was being saved for a test.
My sister, who does not shy away from confrontation, then blew a gasket realizing this meant she'd have to sit in that hospital for another 24 hours straight while they collect more of her pee. I don't blame her really. After she chewed up the nurse and spit her out, she made it clear she wanted to go home. The doctors came and talked to her, giving her no diagnosis, and told her she could collect her pee at her own home.
And, even today, the doctors have no answers. All they can tell her is to check her blood pressure four times a day for the next several weeks. They told her she needed to meditate for 10 minutes a day and reduce stress in her life. She needs to exercise more.
They still are waiting on a couple of tests to come back, but expect them to not show anything. So, basically, my 27-year-old sister was told her strange and terrifying stroke-like episode was just because of stress or because she has high blood pressure in her family history.
It is times like this when I get really frustrated with rural medical care. I am not saying that there aren't some great doctors in smaller towns and cities. But, I am saying that they don't see enough patients as compared to a larger city, so their odds of tracking down a mystery illness are not good.
So, what now? My sister just walks around every day wondering if it will ever happen again? She gets to worry that it might happen when she's driving her daughter in the car, or at work, or who knows where else? She has no more answers than 3 days before when she was rushed to the ER. And that really ticks me off!
So, I 'm just wondering...have you ever had a weird medical condition that did not get diagnosed? Did it go away or come back again?
posted by Crazy MomCat @ 7:18 PM
13 Comments:
glad your sis is at home, sorry they haven't found out anything. We are going through the same thing with my mom- she has "episodes" where she just goes somewhere else in her head for a minute or 2,-she did it once when driving last August, and wrecked, but not badly, just badly enough to not drive for 6 months- and they gave her meds for mini-seizures, claimed it was depression, said it was not her pacemaker, which oddly enough is made by the same company that is having recalls, etc etc. So she moves into her own house so no one can see if she is having episodes or not, claims she has gone 6 months without one, and is driving again, and is she safe? who knows? should I let her drive with my kids in the car? ummm, no. We are there too, you are not alone...
I am so sorry about your sister - it's terrifying not to know the answers you want.
My dad had two or three seizures about 20 years ago. My mom would find him passed out- NOT BREATHING - and called 911. Twice he was rushed to the hospital and they couldn't find what was wrong. The third time, we knew he would wake up, so we just took him in. He is on anti-seizure medicine, which is working, but we still have never found an answer.
Another one: About a year and a half ago, my face went numb - all of it. I had every test known to man. They checked my brain, my spine, and my heart for everything. Nothing. My face is still slightly numb and I may never know. It is, like your sister, linked to stress. When I am under more stress - the feeling gets much stronger.
Again, I am so sorry.
My husband's philosophy has always been that doctors only come in handy if there's a bone sticking out (or other obvious problems). One time when our son was about 2, he had a bad cold and then all of a sudden couldn't/wouldn't walk. We'd try to stand him up and he'd just collapse. We freaked out and took him in. The doctor looked very grim and ordered lots of tests. They found nothing. He recovered a day later and has never had it happen again. They said maybe the virus was attacking his joints or something like that but no one knew for sure.
Maybe in retrospect she'll find that it was a blessing that this happened...maybe a wake-up call for her to take better care of herself. I hope so. I'm sorry that your family has to go through this.
I have a friend who is a nurse practitioner who has had two episodes of extremely elevated b.p. along with disorientation. The second time it happened, she was walking in her neighborhood and got lost two blocks from home. The episodes happened a couple of years apart and she had an MRI and all sorts of other tests and she and her doctors haven't found anything wrong with her. She thinks it's got to be viral and isn't that worried about it. Very strange, I know, and I don't know if I'd feel the same way if had been me.
Sorry to hear about the problems. I blew up like a blowfish with severe chest pain 4 days after my first daughter was born. They thought it was a pulmonary embolism (nice to hear when you have a four day old daughter you can't see in ICU) and they were wrong. Don't know what happened. And it didn't happen after my second. I am also of the theory doctors have no clue unless it's blantantly obvious. Take Care!
God, I am so sorry your sister is going through this. I can't believe the doctors are unable to figure ANYTHING out. Maybe the blood tests will show something and they will be able to treat her.
From my personal experience, keep going to doctors until you get an answer. Eventually, they will figure it out. Until then, I'll be keeping her in my thoughts.
Honestly speaking, I hate doctors and hospitals. If only it could be possible, I refrain from bringing myself to one and I hope it never ever happens that I have to be brought to a hospital for serious problems.
Yes it is irritating to be in a hospital and being dismissed and left hanging without knowing what your illness is. That is why we go to them to be diagnosed and only to be told they can't find something wrong?
No one's blood pressure is going to shoot up that high without anything wrong. There must be something.
that sounds really scary for her, and for you.
i have had a chronic cough for about 15 months that they are now telling me is caused by reflux but the reflux meds they have been giving me for the last 4 months aren't working. :(
doh... forgot to say Michele sent me.
Thanks for all of your comments! First, it made me realize that freaky medical things like this happen to a lot of people and go undiagnosed a lot too.
I am going to encourage my sister to seek a second opinion if she doesn't find any answers. She is too young to have something like this happen.
Her symptoms sound a lot like Bell's Palsy... although I'm not sure about the spike in blood pressure. Anyway it was your description of a "mini-stroke" that reminded me of Bell's Palsy. My BIL was diagnosed with it about 2 years ago and when they rushed him to the hospital he thought he was having a stroke too. He also was like 29 or 30 at the time.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/bells-palsy/DS00168
I had something like this happen when I was pregnant. I woke up and couldn't speak or type- When I tried, totally different words would come out. It lasted about thirty minutes. I was terrified, but my dad (a doctor) told me this was actually fairly common and usually signified the onset of a migraine. Sure enough, later that day I had a raging headache. So hopefully, your sister's experience was nothing serious.
Not me, but my grandmother recently had a seizure and there's no explanation. My grandparents live in a fairly small town and the doctor seems to be messing with her doses quite a bit without waiting to see how her body reacts. I believe he is a quack, but she loves him and trusts him. Oy. Anyway, months later, no idea what happened.
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