Worried



My dearest friend, Jewel, the friend I've known the longest, the friend who knows me best inside and out, is going in for an MRI today.  She has suffered from migraines for as long as I've known her and she stubbornly doesn't allow them to slow her down much.  Yesterday she was at work and she passed out and hit the floor, she "coded" for 32 seconds.  Her co-workers did CPR and brought her around and drove her to the Emergency Room at the St. Cloud Hospital.

Long ago she had a skull fracture, I can't remember how it happened, if I had to guess I would say it was from fighting with one of her brothers, but I could be wrong.  Regardless, it has left her with bone spurs on the inside of her skull and they are apparently poking her in the brain.  That's the most likely cause of the migraines.  One of them is located near the base of the skull where all the nerve endings travel through.  They need to do an MRI to see if that is indeed the case, or if it is potentially something worse like a brain tumor.

She refused to be admitted to the hospital (I mentioned she was stubborn, right?) and spent her day gathering wood for the winter.  She worked slowly, admittedly, but still worked.  Then she made sure all her life insurance papers were up to date (they weren't, they hadn't been changed since before her daughter turned 18).  The doctors at the hospital prescribed a drug with the possible side effect of heart attack(!) and something to help her sleep.

Today she goes in for the MRI to see what's up.  After that they can discuss treatment options, but from what she told me they aren't that wonderful.  The drug option is something that would dissolve the bone spurs, but for a woman approaching 50 the idea of taking something that reduces bone mass isn't so wonderful (I told her I'd rather see her on crutches than in a coffin).  The more drastic option is to drill into her head to release the pressure.  The problem there is that she won't do that (I told her I'd put her head under a fucking drill-press and do it myself if it meant keeping her alive).

Jewel has DNR printed on her drivers license, that means Do Not Resuscitate.  If she is in a coma or if she's experiencing some sort of cardiac arrest she is supposed to be left alone.  Left to die.  That means no drilling.

I'm not a praying man.  I generally expect the worst, but hope for the best.  I hope she's okay.  I hope this is magagable.  I hope she doesn't die!  I love her dearly and this whole situation scares the hell out of me.




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Comments

Jen said…
Lots of proverbial hugs sent your way, Muggsy...

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