Sooner Than Expected

Well, I haven't had the best week. My last post was about my Baclofen pump. I talked about how Baclofen flows into my spinal cord via a catheter and helps control my spasms. Sunday morning at about 1:30 AM I woke up spasming. From then on, I was in full-blown spasms nonstop. I knew something wasn't right because I'm not used to spasming that much. I decided to go to the emergency room at Methodist Hospital. They didn't know what was wrong; they thought it may have been some sort of infection where my body was reacting with spasms. I was admitted within an hour.

It took 24 hours to finally figure out that I was in Baclofen withdrawal. They took an x-ray of me and found out that the catheter to the pump was kinked and that no Baclofen was getting into my spinal cord. The only way to fix it was surgery. They decided to also switch my pump out so that I wouldn't have to have another surgery in December. I spent 48 hours in Baclofen withdrawal before my surgery with nonstop, intense, muscle damaging spasms. I have bruises on my knees and feet from my legs hitting the bed rails and more bruises on my arms from blood draws and IVs. On Monday they tried to keep me as comfortable as possible and the spasms down by loading me up with Valium and Ativan. What a loopy mess I was.

After the surgery on Tuesday, I had to lay flat on my back for 24 hours. The doctor told me that the catheter had actually broken in half. How that happened no one knows. It was a good thing I got there when I did. I was able to go home yesterday after recovering from surgery and getting up to the right dose of Baclofen. My surgery definitely came sooner than anyone or even I had expected. I missed three classes of lecture, including a test. My teacher told me that I could make up the test next week which I am relieved for. However, I am glad to have it done with, even though it had to happen this way.

Jenni