Scary Stuff

So I had a scare the other night. I'd had this cough for a couple weeks when my neck started to hurt. I decided to go to the instaCare down the street from me. He told me I had a sinus infection (even though my face did not hurt at all) and that I strained my neck coughing. Well it kept hurting as the week went on, and it did not feel like a neck strain. I was having headaches and sharp pain etc. Well on Tuesday night at work I got really light headed and almost fainted. My neck and head were hurting and I just felt like something wasn't right. I called up Joe and my mom and told them I was going to have someone come in and cover my shift because I was going to go to the ER and just make sure everything was ok. Joe sent his parents to come get me so I didn't have to drive myself (my mom also sent my brother to make sure I was ok). When I got to the ER they came and examined me and said that they were thinking it was just what the dr at the instacare said, a strain, but there was a MINOR chance it was something to do with one of the arteries in my neck. In order to check for that they did a CAT scan. When the doc came back in he said that there was some abnormalities with my right artery. They admitted me to the hospital that night (thankfully my sis in law was with me this whole time, she's awesome!) A neurologist came to see me in the morning (I hadn't slept yet) and told me they would do an MRI and some other tests in the morning. Around 8 they came and got me and did an X-Ray of my chest because of my cough and my rib and back hurting. Then they took me into my MRI (which was one of the most unpleasent things I've ever been through) and that lasted over an hour and a half.
After waiting for the results they came in and told me I had a Right Vertebral Arterial Dissection. Which basically means I damaged the outer layers of one of the main arteries in my neck. The good news was that it wasn't fully dissected into the middle so no blood clots were getting out, so I didn't have to have surgery. Instead they are having me take an aspirin everyday to keep my blood thin so I don't have to worry about clots. I go back to a neurologist in a few weeks to check and make sure that everything is healing fine.

I'm happy I only had to stay the one day in the hospital and that I got to come home and be with my kids and hubby. I was really scared I was going to have to have surgery and I wouldn't be able to be with them for a long time. I'm still nervous because I have a higher risk of damaging it more and having a stroke, so I just need to be careful. This of course means when I go to Disneyland next month I wont be able to ride any of my favorite rides, which sucks. It will still be fun, but it will just not be the same without Space Mountain and Indiana Jones :(

Anyway I am still getting neck pain and headaches just like before I went to the hospital, but atleast now I know what is wrong and I know what to look for to know that its getting worse. I'm just taking it easy for the next few days. I only work one day next week and can try and relax and take it easy the rest of the week. Hopefully I'll be back to normal soon.

It's crazy that this all happened from a cough!