Complications - Prayers Needed

Starting last night, I was up with one of the worst migraines & because it is NOT responding to pain medication, that means it may not be a typical migraine, but rather complications from the surgery I had 2 weeks ago.

Because I'm so sick to my stomach from the pain (running to the bathroom a few times overnight) and my prescription anti-nausea/sedative medication is proving useless for this one, there is concern that the shunt is infected.

A shunt malfunction, like the one I had last month, is serious but usually not life-threatening if you catch it early. With a shunt infection, however, by the time you have symptoms, you've got around 24 hours to get into surgery or you could easily go into a coma and then die.

Having a disorder where I get DAILY migraines makes it SO MUCH more difficult to determine what symptom is a result of which cause. If I ran off to the hospital every time I had a symptom, I'd never come home... so it's basically "wait & see." Over time, and with further shunt problems, I'll learn what that particular thing feels like to me. For example, because I had a shunt malfunction (near complete obstruction of the tube in my brain), I know what I PERSONALLY will feel like when that happens, as it's different for every person. I KNOW this isn't a shunt malfunction, but it could be an infection, which is life-threatening, especially as I can't go in for treatment as early as some people can.

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My doctors have given me the strongest pain medication that can legally be prescribed for home-use (there are injections that can be given in the hospital, but only under direct supervision). Just yesterday I picked it up, so I had it last night and it did NOTHING except make me even more sick to my stomach. Even if I were to go in for pain management, they really couldn't give me anything stronger unless I was, medically speaking, dying - and no, just FEELING like I want to die from the pain doesn't count, unfortunately. They could give me the IV injection form of the oral they gave me yesterday, but even that didn't work when I was rushed to the hospital 2 days before my brain surgery. On that day, it took 2 doctors, 3 nurses, and 6 IVs to get the pain to where I could stop crying. Even then, my pain was probably an 8 (out of 10) but was so much improved that I requested to be discharged rather than admitted, as I just wanted to sleep and knew that on the Neurology floor I'd be woken up every single hour, and with migraines & headaches, if you can get enough relief that you can just fall to sleep, you prefer that very much.

I was so sick this morning that I couldn't walk downstairs to see my baby kitty (she's a year old but always my baby!) off to HER surgery - we're having her spayed - and that is sooooo unlike me. Especially because 6 years ago, I was too sick from a course of steroids to see my doggie off (she was 3 years old) to get some treatments and she died that night, I never got to see her or say goodbye. I've insisted for MONTHS that she come home from the animal hospital the same day as there won't be anyone there overnight, and yet today I know I'm far too ill to drive. I can't even walk out of my room right now, and can only type because I have a laptop on my bed and have to sit up because it hurts too bad to lay down & this is distracting me.

Please pray. For pain relief, for my stomach to settle, that nothing is wrong with my shunt. I'm a firm believer in shunts - I've seen how much good it's done me & how it erases a lot of risks and pain even though it does cause risks as well - but now I know why my Neurologist said "I don't like 'em" when we told him my Neurosurgeon wanted me to have a shunt. He did agree that the risks of the shunt were outweighed by the risks of NOT placing a shunt, but even then, he warned me that I should expect problems. He wasn't kidding.