The whirlwind that has been our lives for the past several days

Hey everyone -
We want to thank each one of you for your thoughts and prayers. We know you are all concerned about mom and want to know the details of what is going on. Since there are so many people to call we decided a blog might help to keep people up-to-date with what is going on. We'll try to update it whenever we get more news. Like dad said the other day, we have amazing family and friends and he doesn't know what we'd do without ya'll. Thanks again for everything!
Please keep mom in your thoughts and prayers!
Jessica

Information about where she is:
Kathy Young
UVA Health System
Room 6139B
434-982-1100
Information for sending mail or an e-card

The past several days....

1.24.09 (Mom's 48th Birthday, which in it own way was good because Karla, Jason, Matt, and I were all in town for her birthday)
She had a seizure around 5 that afternoon (She had been fine all day-she had worked out that morning, done some book work, played board games with us (Karla would not let her work all day on her birthday), and started fixing dinner).
The ambulance took her to Stonewall Jackson Hospital, where they did an EKG and a CT scan. The EKG was clear, but the CT had blurry areas that they wanted to check out more. Because SJH didn't have the needed equipment we were sent to Roanoke Memorial Hospital.

1.25.09
After waiting in the Roanoke ER for a while, around 1 or 2 in the morning she was taken for a MRI. Around 4 or 5 the ER doctor came to tell us the news. He said it could be Multiple Sclerosis (MS) but he didn't think it was that and that it was cancer. Understandable we were all upset and in tears trying to comprehend everything. Mom was moved to the Neuro ICU. Within an hour of calling people the waiting room was starting to fill with family and friends. Mom and dad spoke with the neurosurgeon around 10, which was actually comforting because he couldn't believe what the other doctor had told us because this was his area and he couldn't say whether it was MS, cancer, or something else. Aunt Amy had spent the morning researching everything she could and found what we were expecting--that we really need to go to a hospital with more neuro experience. For this reason, we chose to have mom transfered to the University of Virginia Medical Center. She arrived in Charlottesville around 5 that night. Again she was put in the ICU and didn't really find out any new information that night.

1.26.09
Monday morning she was moved from ICU to a regular room in Neuro. This was nice for all of us because the number of visitors weren't restricted. Once in the regular room she was taken off of all the monitoring and IV and was able to move around. She was able to shower, which without a doubt made her feel better after laying in bed for two days - you know mom she doesn't stay still for long so two days in bed without excerising was driving her crazy. When I got to the hospital that day she definitely looked better than she did the day before. That afternoon she went in for a more extensive MRI. We were told that with the MRI they should be able to tell what the lesion or mass was and that they should have results the next day.

1.27.09
Tuesday morning she was definitely nervous waiting on the results, which we all were). On top of the nerves they took blood that morning before she had eaten anything. Empty stomach and trouble with giving blood resulted in her being a little nauseous. Apparently the doctors were still split on whether it was a tumor or MS, so we didn't recieve any results on Tuesday. She was visited by a team of Neurologists who asked her questions again, did reflex tests (she said she'd be bruised from all the hitting ;)), and did neuro tests.

1.28.09
Yesterday morning they came in and did a spinal tap (should tell them if it is MS). I wasn't there because I have managed to get sick (went to the doctor and it is a virus), but dad and Karla said she was in quite a bit of pain but that she was a trooper. They said the full results for the spinal tap could take up to 4 or 5 days.

1.29.09
Still just waiting for results. They don't think she'll get any back today.