So how does one discover that they have a spinal cord tumor? In many cases people with spinal cord tumors can go undiagnosed for years. They can also be misdiagnosed with other conditions which are caused by minor symptoms from the tumor. When someone finally discovers that they have a spinal cord tumor it is usually because their symptoms have become pretty sever - pins and needles in their extremities, numbness in hands and feet, lose of balance, inability to walk, and a hard time breathing -just to name a few.
However, that isn't the case for me. Mine was discovered by my youngest child Desmond (1.5 yrs old at the time), who I now like to call my earth Angel.
Side note: Soon after I had my daughter Michaela ( just over 6 months after she was born) I became pregnant with Desmond; because there is only a 5% chance of becoming pregnant before your menstrual cycle returns after having a newborn ( sorry tmi, I know, but it makes for a good story), and the fact that I was breastfeeding my daughter around the clock ( which can also cause your menstrual cycle to stop), I knew that this baby growing inside me was a true miracle and was definitely meant to be here. And now we know why - to save my life. I guess in a way I can say I gave birth to my guardian angel.
Let me take you back to mid Nov. of 2013; It was a week day and I had just gotten my older boys off to school, I was most likely still in my pajamas and had just finished making myself a cup of coffee. (Side note: that morning I couldn't find my hair elastic which usually sits on my bedside table waiting for me to put my hair up.) So with my thick mane of hair that sits just below my shoulders I plopped onto the couch where my 1.5 year old son and almost 3 yr old daughter were cuddling watching TVO kids. Of course as soon as I sit down both my littles decide to use my lap as a trampoline, I put my precious coffee out of harms way in hopes that I can drink it sometime in the near future before it gets too cold. I go back to being a human trampoline, my daughter is soon distracted by the theme song of her favorite show "Paw Patrol" and assumes her position on the couch. Mr. Monkey on the other hand is climbing behind me on the couch being quite the little daredevil, he unexpectedly loses his balance and falls onto the couch, as he was falling he grabs hold of my hair to try to catch himself and to brace his fall, which in turn jolts my neck to the side causing a HUGE shock up my spine and into my head. A sensation of warmth and pins and needles rush to my face, I see stars floating before my eyes, I feel as though I am about to vomit. And the pain in my neck - oh the pain in my neck - it was excruciating, almost like a burning sensation! I have a pretty high tolerance for pain and this pain was right up there with natural childbirth, in fact, the yelling, moaning and crying I was doing could have easily been mistaken for someone pushing out an infant. The thought of calling 911 quickly crossed my mind, thinking that if I passed out at least an ambulance would be on its way and my kids would be safe. My little ones were so concerned and wanted to make sure I was okay, they were hugging and kissing me, trying to console me through my extreme discomfort. My natural fight or flight instinct kicked in and I could no longer stand still, all of a sudden I just started pacing around the house not knowing what to do next, clutching my neck the entire time. I ran to the toilet and threw-up, my head throbbing at this point. I grabbed my phone and went to lie down on the couch, forcing myself to calm down. I took some deep breaths and slowly the pain was starting to subside. I rested for about 5 minutes and the pain was disappearing even more, leaving me with just a stiff neck, tingling in my right arm and a weird sensation on a patch of my scalp - like someone was plucking out individual hairs on my head. I called my oldest sister and told her what had happened. I said I was going to call my husband because I thought I should probably go to the hospital to get checked out. I called my hubby and told him that I needed him to come home to take me to the ER. In about 45 mins my husband was home. What happened in the time that it took him to get home is all a blur to me, all I remember is being able to change out of my pj's, I think I even managed to get the kids dressed, got a diaper bag packed as well, and somewhere in there I must have called my mom to let her know what happened and that we were dropping off the little ones at her house.
Once at the hospital I had to explain my story to a few nurses and then finally to the doctor in triage. You have to admit it does sounds kind of ridiculous when a mother comes into the ER complaining of neck pain because her toddler pulled her hair. Normally you would think that an ER doctor may just give you some T3's, tell you to ice your neck and send you on your way - which is kind of what I was expecting. So I had to make sure that the Dr. knew exactly how severe my pain was and that on a scale from 1-10, 10 being the most painful that my discomfort was indeed a pretty strong 8-9, and initially started off as a 10. This doctor was amazing and was genuinely concerned for me. He ordered me a CT scan, started an IV line pumping me with fluids and a pain med (which didn't really help that much). The CT scan came back clear. He wrote me out a prescription for T3's and referred me to a neurologist who would preform an EMG test on me.
A week later when I went to see the neurologist, any major pain that I had from the initial injury was pretty much gone. An EMG test was done to see if I had any herniated discs and/or pinched nerves. For those of you who don't know what an EMG is, it is where they stick tiny little needles into your skin and send little shock waves to your nerves - think Dr. Ho. My EMG test was normal, but I still felt like something just wasn't right. For about 7 years I have been suffering from back pain and pain in my left shoulder blade and just recently some of the pain started radiating through my left arm. I asked the Dr. to check out my arm, and she did a manual test where she pressed on a nerve in my elbow and gently rubbed the tip of my pinky finger - my finger felt very tingly and a bit numb. She diagnosed me with a minor pinched nerve in my elbow - but we would later discover that the numbness was not due to a pinch nerve, or maybe it was, but a pinched nerve is now the least of my concerns. After reading over my case the head Neurologist decided that he wanted to send me for some MRI's just to be safe because he didn't like that I had tingling sensations in my face upon the initial injury. He reassured me that it was for a safety precaution and because I am a young mother he just wanted to rule anything else out, his exact words were, " I am sure everything will come back clear, and you will be perfectly fine". My MRI was booked for February 2014. So for the next three months I went on living my life as I normally did, with any pain from the incident completely gone.
Fast Forward to Feb. 18 2014 the day of my MRI. I get placed into this giant tube that is extremely loud, I was little nervous but the whole MRI experience wasn't all that bad. I will definitely need to do a blog dedicated to nothing but MRI's.
Two days later I get the call, a call that no one ever deserves to get, and I hope that none of you will ever get this call in the future, but unfortunately I don't think that will be the case. At least one of you will get a similar call to the one that I got at some point in your lifetime. So if and when you do get this call, think of me, hopefully I can bring you some comfort. "We need you to come in as soon as possible to discuss your MRI results" was what the Dr. said to me. That. Was. It. That is all he was allowed to say over the phone. As I clicked 'End' on my phone tears streamed down my face, about a dozen worst case scenarios played in my head, my life was flashing before my eyes, I asked myself "am I going to die?". I called my husband at work sobbing and trying my hardest to repeat to him what the doctor had just told me. My husband and I agreed to meet at my parents house and would go together with my mom to the hospital. I called my oldest sister, who is someone I look up to and admire dearly - whenever my siblings and I have problems she is usually the first person we call. She calmed me down a bit and gave me some 'good' scenarios that may be the reason why the Dr. called me in. I also called my youngest sister who is a nurse, she also reassured me that everything was going to be OK and that there was probably nothing too serious to worry about ( even though I didn't believe her, it helped to hear those words). She came over and watched the kids.
As I was driving to the hospital I could feel myself shaking, repeating in my head that when you get a call from the doctor to come in right away, you know something is wrong, something is really, really wrong.
My husband was already at my parents house when I got there, we grabbed my mom and headed over to the hospital. We waited for what felt like forever, but I think it was only about 10 minutes before I was called in. The doctors did another EMG test on me, I'm not sure why exactly, but I didn't ask - they know what they're doing. My husband and I were brought into an office ( my mom was waiting out in the waiting room) where we were asked to wait, we were told that the Neurologist would be with us soon to discuss the MRI results. I was feeling very nervous at this point but extremely grateful that my husband was able to get off of work to come and be with me, and that I had my mom just waiting outside for me.
The Dr. - a very nice looking Italian man, very well groomed with some very expensive clothing on came into the office, he was the doctor who ordered the MRI. He made some quick small talk, asked me how I was doing and if I had any more pain, I told him that all the pain from the injury with my son was gone. He began his speech with reassurance that my son did not cause any damage to my neck, " if anything the accident was a blessing in disguise" is what he said. "We found something on your MRI scan". A "mass" was discovered inside my spinal cord, though I think he probably knew what it was, he said he wasn't exactly sure and that he could not take on my case. He set up an appointment for me to go see a neurosurgeon the very next day. If I was to get the appointment through the health care system I would have had to wait about 7 months to be seen. But because I had a kind and compassionate Doctor looking out for me, he called in a favour and was able to get me seen the very next day. Everything that happened when my son pulled my hair made a little bit more sense, whatever this "mass' was in my spinal cord must have had a bad reaction to the neck jolt, compressing my nerves, causing all of the pain symptoms.
Leaving the hospital that day I wasn't too sure what to make of the news of this "mass" in my spinal cord. A "mass" could be anything! On top of that we are dealing with the spinal cord which is pretty serious in itself. Though I didn't really fell like I knew what was going on, I was happy to know that I wasn't going to die and like 'they' say -"it could always be worse".
I would find out the very next day that the "mass" was indeed a Tumor.
-Eileen
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