I spent Friday afternoon in the Evergreen Medical Center emergency room in Kirkland. Everything is fine. I’d been having random headaches and ‘visual disturbances’ since Thursday morning. When it happened again on Friday afternoon while I was trying to look at some code, it seemed time to get it looked-at. So I left work early and drove to Kirkland. Julie left work as well and met me there. The ER folks were pretty sure that I was experiencing an ocular migraine, but just to be sure, especially given my history of some pretty gnarly headaches, they kept me for most of the afternoon and evening, took pictures of my brain, etc. All of the studies were negative (which is, in medical parlance, ‘a good thing’), so I was allowed to leave with a diagnosis of ocular migraine and a disc containing grainy cross-sections of my head. Apparently these migraines can come on suddenly and aren’t necessarily anything to worry about. Since Friday afternoon my vision has been quite clear, which is a relief.
It was the first time where I’ve been to an emergency room for myself and it was full of interesting experiences. Triage was very quick and efficient, probably aided by the fact that the ER was empty when I arrived. By the time I saw a doctor, I had already given my story to a host of techs and nurses. Although I’d had blood drawn in the past, I practically passed-out (or actually passed-out, maybe; I’m not the best judge) when I was IV’d. Apparently this isn’t all that uncommon but it certainly wasn’t my finest hour. I also learned that an MRI isn’t the most pleasant place to stick your head for twenty minutes. It felt like being loaded into a torpedo tube during a vigorous submarine battle. Eventually I started hearing the rhythmic thuds and whirs as beats and the time went quicker.
Despite learning that I have the constitution of a wilting southern belle and spending several hours considering the implications of serious problems with my brain, it was a very positive experience.
Erik's Thread of the Web 