Starlings Murmuration

Last night I slept for 11 hours.

On Thursday, I had washed all my bedding and dried it on the clothesline. I was really looking forward to going to bed on Friday night and smelling the outdoors on my pillowcases and the sheets. Instead, I was awake all night in the Nanaimo Hospital. But last night … oh the joy of getting into a nice clean bed. I was absolutely dead on my feet last night. I fell asleep on the couch around 6:30 as I was watching TV. I tried to stay awake but gave up at 7:30 and I didn’t open my eyes until 6:30 this morning.

I feel much, much better now, after all that sleep. I’ll walk Her Highness, do some shopping, and spend much of the day with Bruno by the fire because it’s a beautiful but cool day. I’ll put all my Summer furniture away today because lots of rain is coming on Monday—in fact one of those atmospheric rivers is on its way. There have been flooding advisories issues by Environment Canada. This weekend, our long and spectacular Summer ends.

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I learned something important from the incident on Thursday night: Total or partial paralysis due to FND complicates at straight-forward health emergency. It was my inability to get up that frightened me and had me push my alarm that night, not the passing out. The passing out was over when I awoke. If I hadn’t been paralyzed, I wouldn’t have pushed the button. I would have gone to bed.

In July of last year, when I had a heart attack, I awoke one morning in the hospital totally paralyzed; it scared the bejesus out of me and my nurse. She pushed the Code Blue button and people came to my aid from all over. Now, after this second incident, I understand this paralysis response. In the future, I’ll understand this. It’s ironic that I have a Zoom meeting on Tuesday morning (at 4 am!) with a bunch of U/K. doctors to talk with them about FND.

One truly amazing thing about the past few days is that I was pretty much fluent throughout the ordeal. I spoke easily, clearly and without any stammering at all to the hospital doctors. 

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I wrote to my clinic colleagues and told them that I am taking the weekend off from clinic work. I want to just chill for a couple of days and not worry about all the things on my plate. I need my Bruno time, and time to spend with my pets. 

First thing this morning, I lit the fire. The cats love the fire and so do I. Sheba hates it; she likes to be cold, so she sleeps on the cool floor by the doors.

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I resisted Facebook ever since it emerged, but I recently joined so that I can access the Gabriola Community pages. I’m such a newbie to it, it took me quite a while to figure out how to post to a site I like this morning. But I am thrilled to have joined a Canadian FND site. I went to it this morning and the first post I read was about a woman who also has paralysis as a symptom. It was so, so wonderful to know that I am not alone. I’ve changed my view of Facebook.