by Tammy | May 1, 2015 | 1 - Early Symptoms
The next morning my foot was still tingly but I could put some weight on my leg. After the kids went to school a friend came to the door and I went downstairs to answer it. As I was telling her what happened I could feel my foot getting a bit heavy and I couldn’t move my toes any more. I had to use my arms to get up the stairs and knew it was getting worse. My husband drove me to the Chiropractor. He had to help me into the office but the Chiropractor worked his magic again and I was able to limp when he was finished. However, he was very concerned and told us to go straight to the hospital to get a second opinion. He stressed that we needed to demand that tests be done because what I was experiencing was not normal.
Not expecting much, my husband took me straight to Royal Columbian Hospital. There was a long wait and we knew it would take hours. We contemplated leaving because my leg seemed fine and I didn’t think they would even get to me since there appeared to be nothing wrong. Despite our skepticism, we stayed.
A few hours later I was unable to move my leg or wiggle my toes. After about 4 hours we saw a hospitalist who did several reflex tests and said this was “both confusing and concerning”. He immediately referred me to a neurologist.
After another 2 hours in Emergency, the neurologist came and did every reflex test he could think of. It was very interesting because my leg did everything it was supposed to on its own but I had no control over it. I couldn’t move my toes, but I could feel them.
The neurologist was concerned about my safety without the use of my leg and asked me to stay in the hospital. We had a big weekend ahead and I just wanted to go home. I promised I would do nothing at home and that my husband would take care of me so he discharged me and put in a request for an MRI. He said to expect a call over the next few days to schedule an appointment so he could rule out anything serious such as Multiple Sclerosis.
I returned home and continued taking Tylenol. We hosted a surprise birthday party on Saturday for my husband’s Aunty and a work BBQ on Sunday so I had lots of distractions.
On Saturday morning around 4am I woke up and was able to move my foot again. It was still tingly but otherwise normal like before. Throughout the day I had mobility but it seemed to get worse as the day went on.
That night I was rubbing my left foot and all of a sudden there was a bit of a crack and then the tingling just stopped. Almost instantly my foot had full motion. It was the craziest thing. I figured I cured myself!
Everything returned back to normal and Sunday was a great day. I also remembered not to eat and drove myself to the lab to get a ton of blood work done on Sunday morning.
by Tammy | Apr 30, 2015 | 1 - Early Symptoms
When I woke up Thursday morning, I still had the pins and needles in my foot. I could put weight on my leg and it felt relatively normal so I continued on with our special day. We did our morning birthday ukloo scavenger hunt before the older kids went to school. My husband worked from home in the morning so I drove myself to the chiropractor and went in with a bit of a limp. The Chiropractor didn’t notice anything unusual but when he finished I was able to walk without a limp. My leg felt totally normal except for the unexplained tingling that still remained.
After lunch I had a small birthday party for my son with 3 of his preschool friends. The rest of the day was normal until I picked Ari up from ball hockey at 4:30pm. When we were walking to the car I could feel my leg getting heavy. I took a break and held myself up against the wall in the Arena. One of the Dads asked if I needed help but I told him I was fine. I took a breath and tried to limp to the car. About half way through the parking lot my two oldest children propped themselves under my arms and let me use them as my support. We got to the car and I called the family doctor. Since it was my left leg I was able to drive so I dropped off the kids at home with my in-laws (who had just arrived in town to celebrate my son’s birthday) and I went to the walk-in clinic.
I parked the car in front of the clinic and went to hop out. My leg was worse than I thought and I dropped like a ton of bricks. Luckily there was a wonderful woman on the phone standing outside the clinic who saw me go down. She helped me up and assisted me into the doctor’s office. After waiting almost 40 minutes, the receptionist helped me into the room to see the doctor.
The doctor checked reflexes, colour, blood flow, and basically everything that my husband did the day before. He said that everything looked normal and he suspected that I had done something to my sciatic nerve. He said that it should return back to normal and if not I should go back in a week. He also prescribed me Cyclobenzaprine and Gabapentin which would help relax my muscles and hopefully help. After he left I called home for someone to come pick me up, then I called my sister, a physician, for a second opinion on the medication. My sister said not to fill the prescription unless I wanted to be “stoned” all weekend. I am very sensitive to medications and don’t normally take anything. She suggested just taking 2 Tylenol.
My husband made me another appointment to see his chiropractor because the doctor’s idea of waiting a week to see if my leg returned to normal just wasn’t going to work for us. I spent the rest of the evening on the couch and that night I was able to limp to bed so we figured the Tylenol helped.
I felt bad for missing my son’s birthday but he was happy to spend time with his grand parents. When I got home, my son opened his gifts and we all enjoyed his birthday cake.
by Tammy | Apr 29, 2015 | 1 - Early Symptoms
My day was like any other day. After all the kids’ friends were gone I started dinner. As I was taking the dishes to the table I had a sharp shooting pain my left hip that went up and down my whole body every time I put weight on my left leg. I didn’t think much of it so I limped around and sat at the table to eat dinner. I didn’t find the need to say anything because I thought maybe I just pinched something in my workout earlier.
After dinner, my husband was feeling tired and sick so he went straight to bed. After all the kids left the table to do their chores I tried to get up. I realized at that point that I could not move my left leg. I couldn’t put weight on it or even wiggle my toes. I used my hands to support myself against the walls, At this point I thought, “hmm, this might be difficult” but still didn’t think much of it. By the time I reached the corner in the hallway I was just too exhausted to go any further so I had to call for my husband to come help me.
My husband was a little annoyed that he couldn’t get rest but when he saw me in the hallway he knew something was wrong. He helped me to the floor and started moving my leg. I could see the panic in his face. At first there was a sharp shooting pain every time he moved my left and right leg. Then it went away and I got a crazy sensation of pins and needles all the way up my left leg. I could feel every pinch and tickle everywhere on my leg. My left leg did not appear to look different. The colour was okay so we knew blood was flowing through it. My husband didn’t know what to do so he booked me an appointment online to see his chiropractor the next morning.
With help. I was able to move to a chair in the living room. My husband elevated my leg and kept moving it. After a few minutes I was able to wiggle my toes and movement slowly came back to my leg and toes. I eventually limped to the couch on my own and relaxed for another half hour before getting up and making a birthday cake for my youngest son’s 5th birthday.
My leg eventually felt totally fine except for pins and needles on the bottom of my left foot which was still present when I went to bed.
