1 out of 1000...

came home from work this morning because i was sitting at my desk in tears with my post-spinal tap headache. i tried, i really did. and although i'm not thrilled with my job, anything was preferable to the thought of spending another day lying down in my house. i was okay for the first hour of being awake. and by the time i got to work i had a little headache, but totally tolerable. unfortunately it got worse and worse until i nearly snapped at people on the phone for talking too much and it became painfully obvious that i didn't need to be at the office.

the bad part is that i'm supposed to be in DC tomorrow for a meeting of all the gung-ho princeton review directors in the region. the plan was that karen and anne and i would leave after work in a rental car and would stay overnight in arlington. i've been honestly looking forward to that part--spending some time with those girls outside of the chaos of work. but unless i can lie down for the whole drive and the meeting tomorrow, it's kind of silly for me to go.

i had called dr. pruitt's office first thing in the morning, to let her know i was still having headaches and that my sense of taste is all messed up. i went home at about 11:00, after sitting forever in my boss's office, in a slumped over position, my fingertips pressed against my temples to try to find some relief from this godawful headache. my boss, who is ever in her own world, wanted to show me pictures from the executive director meeting, until i said to her that i was in a lot of pain and needed to get home where i could lie down.

dr. p called at noon, told me to stay horizontal and to call her at 4:00. she said that dr. kremens had told her that my spinal tap had been very easy and sometimes when those things are too easy, i.e., if there isn't really any bleeding, small leaks of cerebrospinal fluid can happen, resulting in low pressure in the head. if the headache was still there at 4:00, she wanted me to have what's called a "blood patch" procedure, where blood is drawn from my arm and then injected into the spinal tap site. the blood clots naturally and forms a glue, clogging up the leak and relieving the headache.

so, 4:00 rolled around and the headache was still there. i called dr. pruitt and she said she was going to order a blood patch for tomorrow. so, i'm not going to DC for any meeting. i called work to talk to my boss, and told her that i'd send an e-mail to the women who had arranged the meeting, cc'ing her and her boss, explaining what was happening, and passing along my apologies. she, on the other hand, felt that that message shouldn't come from me, that it should be from her and be as vague as possible. not the approach i would have taken or that i felt was appropriate, but she's my boss and i'm not exactly up for pissing her off these days.

tomorrow. relief in sight. and i shouldn't take caffeine pills in the evening because they keep me up waaaaaaaayyy too late.

i read on webmd.com that 1 out of 1000 people who have spinal taps need to have a blood patch done to stop up a spinal fluid leak. leave it to me to get something rare. jesus christ.