The Worst Week Of My Life - Day 3

It's a bit difficult for me to write today. In part it is my own fault. We had a wine bottling party last night. Wine is the essential ingredient in that kind of party. Then I stayed up after everyone left, finishing off the leftovers and, more importantly, settling down after a busy day. The other part is the topic. Writing about that week is hard, emotional.

On Tuesday, November November 20, 2012, I didn't see the sun when I woke up. I was in a hospital bed, deep in the bowels of the ER at Foothills Hospital. I was not able to sit in my chair, enjoying my coffee while watching the birds in my tree. I was given an ER hospital breakfast along with a brown liquid which may or may not have had actual coffee in it. Then it all started.

You need to be wary when Neurologists arrive at your bedside in clusters. I was just laying there, minding my own business, waiting for something to happen when it did. Four Neurologists, including the head of the hospital Neurology unit, showed up beside my bed. The asked me questions, lots of questions, then asked me to take off my pants. I complied.

This was the first time I had been able to show someone fasiculations in my leg. As they doctors were poking and inspecting, they began. I turned to the Head Neurologist and said "What is that? Why are my legs doing that? It seems to happen mostly when I am tired." I still remember the urgency and distress in my voice, but I cannot seem to recall her response. I remember her talking about X-Rays and an MRI. I remember her talking about more blood tests. And then she said "We are going to admit you."

I had not yet seen the sunshine yet the day was getting darker by the minute. I had more visitors. Someone, perhaps Anisa, Dion, or Elizabeth, brought me a Timmies breakfast sandwich and a coffee. I was taken for X-rays, my back I think. I was taken for a full body MRI, and more blood tests. Then, finally, I was taken out of the ER and up to a room in Neurology. Ironically, I could see the roof of my condo building from my hospital room, but it might just as well have been on another planet. I was trapped.

And I still had not heard those three letters which would change my life, permanently. Those letters had not even entered my mind. ALS was present with me. I just didn't know it yet.