Content warning: vomit, hospitals
Where to begin?
I don’t even know.
My head hurts.
On Tuesday, April 20, I woke up with a crick in my neck. It was difficult to turn my head. No biggie, I’ve had one like this before.
On Wednesday, April 21, I went to see a chiropractor. They adjusted my spine and my neck and I was finally able to turn my head again — which definitely made my drive home a bit easier. My neck still hurt, but I didn’t think anything of it because it’s not uncommon to be sore after an adjustment.
By Thursday afternoon, April 22, I had a headache bad enough that I had to leave work early (in a manner of speaking, since I work from home). I turned to my trusted remedy: a cheeseburger and some caffeine. The headache was bad enough that I re-downloaded Doordash and set up a new account in order to access cheeseburgers without having to drive anywhere (I had previously deleted my account to reduce how much I ordered).
I slowly ate one cheeseburger and drank some Dr Pepper. Then I went to sleep.
When I woke up Friday morning (April 23, for those who are keeping score at home), the headache was still there. I ate a second cheeseburger, took some Excedrin, and prepared to get in the shower, ready to tackle a regular workday and then go get my Covid vaccine in the afternoon. But my body had other ideas.
I promptly vomited up the cheeseburger. Then, lying wrapped in a towel on my bathroom floor, I called the Utah vaccine hotline and cancelled my appointment that afternoon. Then I called my mom.
And my mother, on her graduation day, brought me Gatorade and let me come snooze on her bed so I could at least be present for her college graduation. I dozed off and on through the morning, waking once or twice to throw up again. The toilet in the master bedroom at my parents’ is tall, and it’s so much easier to throw up in than the tiny toilet in my apartment, so that was nice.
After the graduation, which was conducted via Zoom, I went down to the basement apartment to take a bath and try to rehydrate. The bath in the basement apartment is a big, old, cast-iron clawfoot thing, perfect for taking a bath when you’re sick. Unfortunately, it didn’t help — I threw up three more times while I was down there. Eventually, I gave up and went home to bed.
I don’t remember much of Saturday the 24th. I traded lying uncomfortably in my bed for lying uncomfortably on my couch, swapping out my rice bag for an ice pack and re-starting Life In Color every time I fell asleep halfway through an episode.
On Sunday afternoon (25), my mom came over armed with two kinds of juice, three kinds of soda, two cans of chicken soup, and a bottle of Pepto Bismol. I’d never tried Pepto before, but it worked and brought me some welcome relief.
My mom, by the way, is a saint. If there’s a heaven, she’s definitely going there. She hung out with me for something like four hours on that Sunday afternoon. While I lay on the couch and then while I took another bath, she scooped the cats’ litterboxes, swept the floor, washed my dishes, and folded my clean laundry.
Monday and Tuesday were more of the same. I worked on eating the chicken soup and continued to snooze on the couch while watching nature documentaries. I wasn’t throwing up anymore, but my head still hurt. Tylenol wasn’t touching it, but I didn’t want to take anything that would irritate my stomach (and you can’t take NSAIDs with Pepto anyway). I cancelled my follow-up chiropractor visit because my neck was still really tender.
Wednesday morning (the 28th, one week after my chiropractic appointment), I got up, got dressed, and sat down to work. I managed about half an hour vertical, then had to lie down again. I joined my team’s weekly meeting via Zoom on my phone, from my bed. Halfway through the meeting, I left my phone on the bed and ran to the bathroom to throw up one final time.
Then I clocked out, called my mom, and asked her to take me to the Urgent Care.
The doctor in the Urgent Care looked in my eyes, took my temperature, and asked about my headache. Then he sent me downstairs to the Emergency Room.
After several hours of waiting, 90 minutes of which were spent trying to place an IV in my (very dehydrated and reluctant) veins, I was able to get a CT scan and, finally, some answers.
Note: If you’ve been skimming to get to the end, this is your sign to start paying attention again (no hard feelings).
I have a vertebral artery dissection, which is a tear in my vertebral artery. This kind of damage happens from some kind of injury — a sports injury, a car accident… or a chiropractic adjustment. It affects bloodflow to my head, which explains the headaches.
Thankfully, mine is minor and will heal with time. It could be at least a month, but the headache and neck pain are supposed to ease over time. I’m already noticing less pain, as long as I stay lying down. Thankfully, I got my work-issue laptop the day after my ER visit and can work on the couch.
I have a couple follow-up visits coming up, and I’m hoping those go well.
I don’t have the spoons right now to write about how I’m feeling about all this (and about living on the couch), but watch this space for an update.
And if you made it this far, thanks for reading!
Amber Sorensen 