We had a scary day yesterday.

Around 3:00am I was awakened from a call from Donna's workplace. They were worried something serious was wrong, and needed me to come get her. Upon arriving I find Donna sitting up front waiting for me. Her left arm was numb and she couldn't move it very well, and the left side of her mouth had dropped down making her speech slurred. I immediately drove her to the emergency room. Needless to say we were all thinking the very scary same thought, Donna has had a stroke.

We spent the early hours of the morning in the emergency room while they checked her out. It seemed forever for the CT scan results to come it, but the results were no signs of stroke. Donna did not have a stroke. Thank God. Even with this bit of good news, we still didn't know what's wrong.

At this point I want to add the doctors and staff at the emergency room were very nice, polite, helpful, and answered every question we were asking. So many times you hear stories about emergency room visits where the staff are stiff, the doctors act like they are better than you, and you're treated rather rudely. And yes even we've had an experience like this from a doctor some time back at another emergency room visit. At no time during our emergency room visit yesterday were we treated in a bad or uncourteous way.

Around 5:00am we were allowed to go home with orders to rest, and to get hold of our family doctor for a follow up visit. Donna had regained some mobility in her arm and her speech was better. So we went home to get some sleep. An hour and a half later I had to get up and go to work.

I had to give a PVBX class yesterday morning. Clients were flying in from all over, so I had to show up. The good thing about working where I do, I'm only a few minutes from the house. I let everyone know up front that my wife wasn't feeling well, and I might be called to take her to the doctor. I thank everyone for their understanding and well wishes the gave Donna.

Donna's mother drove in that morning to help out, so Donna wasn't alone for very long. I checked in on Donna at lunch. She was sitting in the living room watching TV, doing well, but still had very little mobility in her arm.

Now here's an odd coincidence to happen. Her new insurance just started a few days ago, but she had yet to receive her policy numbers. One of the biggest concerns she was having, adding to her anxiety of the day, was she wouldn't be covered for the hospital visit. Her new health insurance cards arrived in the mail that morning.

That concern lifted from her we still had a problem. We couldn't get into to our family doctor. She was gone until Monday. Donna was forwarded to a relief doctor. That doctors office did get her records from that morning's hospital visit, and said if she worsened to go back to the emergency room, they were "too busy" to see her. Well that's what I got out of the conversation I had with Donna that afternoon.

Not long after I got home after work I took Donna back to the emergency room. She hadn't improved at all. As Donna's own anxieties grew, her symptoms just kept getting worse. There were times she couldn't move her hand at all. She was describing some feelings and pains in her arm I actually recognized. I had an accident years ago where I injured my neck and had the exact same pains in my left arm as she was describing.

We arrived at the emergency room around 6:00 PM. We were greeted by the same staff we had left that very morning, we just happened to arrive when their shift started. Another CT scan, this time they looked at her neck. This time we had to wait even longer for the CT results, hours. During this time the first doctor we saw was called away and our case was taken over by another.

The CT results came in, still no signs of a stroke, and no neck damage. Another relief to find out what it isn't.

After some more poking around and listening to some of our observations, our new conclusion: we are dealings with two different things. Donna has injured her shoulder and elbow of her left arm causing tendonitis. Judging from Donna's reaction when the doctor poked at her shoulder and elbow, I'm inclined to agree with this assessment. I'm also thinking this is it because when I could get Donna to stop fidgeting around her arm improved (a little), and when ever she would move her arm around allot her symptoms got worse.

As for her mouth the doctor thought she might be suffering from a minor case of Bell's palsy. Not really sure how both of these happened at the same time. Donna and I talked about it, and we're thinking the stress of loosing control of her arm might have triggered it. The effect is only in one corner of her mouth. The rest of her face is fine. She's describing the feeling like when you leave the dentist after some dental work. Its enough though that it is effecting her speech.

The doctor gave her a shot of pain killer and muscle relaxant, and gave her a prescription to something. (Don't remember what it was right now, I'll update when I do)

So around 10:00pm were got to come home again with orders to rest her arm, to see the doctor on Monday, and if something happens come back to the emergency room.

This brought us home after a long scary day. We are all relieved it wasn't a stroke, and we are hopefully she'll get well soon with out lasting effect.

We'll know more later. I'll be sure to keep everyone updated. (I may edit this post if I have any corrections to make)

If you would like to send your well wishes to Donna please @poisonddt at Twitter, or post a comment here.