Head wound coming!

...so off I went to stay with my sister in Dripping Springs, just to stay with someone should there be any issues.  I did not expect there to be any, I had chemo before and worked basically through the whole process.  No big deal.  I perhaps should have respected the seriousness of my situation and what my body has gone through and what they have done to me recently.  I went to work on Tuesday and worked all day.  I felt OK, but I did begin to deteriorate as the day wore on and by the time I got to my sisters house after work I did not feel good.  Flu-like symptoms is the best way I can describe it.  Full body aches, light headed, my bones did hurt by this point and just a general malaise about my being that made me not feel quite right.  I did manage to eat dinner with them, albeit cast out like a leper sitting alone at the bar counter top (JUST KIDDING NEEN!).  After dinner I set up my pillows in a spot on their couch and prepared to settle in for the evening.  I wanted only to sleep.  Sleep deeply and uninterrupted for the entire night so that I would wake up feeling fresh and rejuvenated and ready to face the new day at hand.  That is not what happened at all.  I slept intermittently until about 12:30 am, at which point I decided to get up and head off to the bathroom and then take another pain pill before settling back in to the couch for the rest of the night.  I got through half of that scenario with no problem until I found myself with a pain pill in my hand standing in the kitchen extremely disoriented and trying to figure out where a light switch was.  I remember opening the refrigerator to get some light to try to point me in the direction of a switch and then suddenly I was on the floor and there was no light anywhere around me.  I believe that to be fall #1 in the series to come.  I contemplated just staying there, but figured it would be better to somehow get back to the couch and it is extremely uncomfortable for me to lay flat with the pain I currently have and as a result of the two previous surgeries.  I think I was in the area in their house around the pantry and I don't remember exactly how I got up, but I did manage to get to my feet.  I worked my way over to their sink where I found my water cup and was going to attempt to fill it when fall #2 occurred and I grazed the front of my head on the counter top as I headed down to the floor this time.  I really had to work to get up at this point and I pulled myself up using the sink and tried to steady myself.  I realized that there was no possible way I was going to get myself anything to drink, and I still had the pain pill clutched in my hand so I simply threw it in my mouth and tried to swallow it.  By this point, I believe my sister had heard a number of crashes and was on the scene to investigate.  I don't remember the next series of events explicitly but this is what I am told happened next.  When she came out and saw me I was headed from their kitchen back into the living room and the couch where I was sleeping.  I walked straight into a wall and then fell directly backwards and the back of my head met their beautiful stained concrete floors.  It is at this point that my memories kick back up.  I can remember laying there and her being right next to me and a bit concerned that I had just fallen.  It was a loud enough impact and commotion that my two nieces woke up and came out to see what was going on.  Now the whole family was in on it!  We got me back up and on the couch, settled in amongst my pillows again and all I wanted was to go to sleep, but damn! did my head hurt.  Also there was a little bit of blood involved.  Luckily, the Vannoy household is no stranger to head wounds and they got me cleaned up (mostly) and a good sized bandage to cover the cut on my head.  

Winner: Concrete floor

It was at this point that I thought it might have been a little ambitious of me to try and work as much as possible in the two weeks between chemo round one and surgery number three.  I also convinced my sister that I was fine and that I didn't need to go to the hospital, a decision that I stand by even today.  I did eventually go to the hospital and even was admitted and stayed over night for observation, but at that moment I only thought about the extreme mess it would have caused and I knew I would rather go back and see my doctors first regardless.  So with another pain pill in me, a bandage on my head and a pillow to soak up the blood I attempted to once again drift off into peaceful slumber.  I do love my dear sister who spent the rest of the night waking me up every so often to check and make sure I was ok.  I know that she struggled mightily with the decision and wanted nothing more than to take me to the hospital immediately, but I very much thank her for respecting my wishes at the time.  I didn't sleep well at all the rest of the night, but I very greatly appreciate everything she did for me.  I feel very sorry that I brought my chemo-cancer circus into her house and interrupted their normal routine and that my nieces had to witness the chaos that this disease rains down upon those it chooses to afflict.  That is not something that I wanted for them to have to witness or think about or deal with at all.

All stapled up!

So now we had a new plan.  Kristina was going to drive me home and I was going to see the doctor.  She ended up driving me to La Grange and Jessica picked me up from there and off to the doctor we went.  We saw my medical oncologist, Dr. Jasani, who sent me over to Methodist West Emergency to get an MRI of my brain to rule out any neurological causes for my fall.  We arrived at about 2:30 PM at the ER.  I think I was admitted and in a hospital room at 11:30 PM.  They really rush through head injuries at the ER.  And apparently you have to tell EVERYBODY you come in contact with the events that led you to being at the ER down to the most insignificant detail.  I think I had to tell my entire medical history to no less than 30 people in that time period.  I also think that I have never been more tired in my entire life as I was that whole day.  I don't know why the guy who was emptying the sharps container in the room I was sitting in needed to know that I fell, had cancer, had two neck dissections and a partial glossectomy, received chemo the previous Friday, had radiation last year with concurrent chemo, have a recurrence of squamous cell carcinoma, have no other major medical issues, etc, but he asked and I told him.  I had quite a few tests conducted on me while at the hospital.  In the ER there was a CT of my head, followed by an MRI of my head.  The MRI machine is NOISY!  I had not had the pleasure of a head MRI up until that point.  It was also very confining, so those with claustrophobia issues, I would not recommend getting one of those.  Once I was admitted, the doctor decided he needed to do a neck CT and an ultrasound of the neck to check for arterial blood flow and/or obstructions.  A summary of the finding from all these tests: there is something growing uncontrollably in my neck and I have no tumor/swelling/bleeding/hemorrhaging in my brain.  Check!  I guess it felt somewhat reassuring to know that there was nothing in my brain that caused this recent episode but it is also a slap in the face that nothing else is wrong with me sans this extremely aggressive cancer that I can't seem to rid myself of.  It is a hard feeling to explain to people so I will just leave it at that.  This seems like a good place to break for now, there is more to follow but I feel I need to take a break.