Medical Adventures

 

The medical adventure of Steph Doyle.

The past year I have been feeling like I’m losing my mind.  I can’t find words and feel like I’m getting dumber.  In November I had a bad “flu” or something like it, enough that I missed several days at school and went to Instacare.  I took the Codone cough medicine each night and felt better after a week, except I continued to have a cough for 6 weeks.  At this time I noticed my right ear felt clogged and I started hearing my heartbeat in my ear along with a whooshing sound.

AS someone who doesn’t get headaches, I wasn’t sure if having daily headaches was normal.  They weren’t debilitating so I just dealt with them.  My right face started to hurt and I felt around until I could figure out the cause and found that it was high in my right cheek, possibly a toothache?  I went to my dentist and they did x-rays and found a dark area at the end of an existing root canal.  She gave me an antibiotic for the abscessed tooth and a recommendation for a specialist.  It was Christmas, so I spent the holidays traveling and  didn’t get the specialist for a few weeks.  They sent me to a specialist where I paid $200 for them to do the same x-rays and tell me the same results.  Lame.  I came back a few hours later and had a root canal on top of the previous root canal?

My face felt much better after the swelling went down.  I’ve never had a root canal go so far up my cheek, almost near my eye!  I still was experiencing headaches and the ear heartbeat with whooshing.  I Googled the symptoms and everything I read said to see my doctor immediately.  So I messaged my doctor with my symptoms and she scheduled a carotid artery ultrasound at IMC to see if there was anything to worry about.  She assured me that because of my age and health that I shouldn’t be concerned.

The ultrasound doctor/tech (?) was a med student.  He put the gel on my neck and ran the ultrasound wand up and down my carotid artery and behind my ear.  The sound of the artery blood flow on the monitor was the sound I hear in my ear!  They did both sides and his instructor came in and went over his work to make sure all was well.  It was a quick and painless process and I went to visit mom on my way home.  They are looking to see if my arteries were narrowing, which causes strokes.

The results came back that they were slightly narrowing, but nothing to be concerned about.  But if I’m still struggling, we should meet with an ENT.  So, I have an appointment February 28, 2024.  It seems so far away!!  My headaches are getting stronger and some days I feel like I shouldn’t be driving… but I still do because I have to live life… 

For reference my headache pain scale is probably a 4-5 all day and then there are periods where it is 8-10.  I feel like I have to hold my head together to stop it hurting and sometimes it feels like a vice on my temples squishing it together and then my right eyebrow and eye socket throb and I can’t function for a few minutes.  So, I messaged my doctor that I’d like to meet to talk about my head.

She was out all week so she said to talk to one of the other providers at the West Jordan Clinic.  So I scheduled an appointment with a PA.  He was very attentive and asked a million questions.  No my headache isn’t affected by light or position.  I don’t get nauseated or see blinding lights.  No numbness or tingling.  No normal symptoms, so he ordered an MRI and said to get it done today (Wednesday Feb. 7) but they were full!

I made an appointment for Thursday Feb. 8 at 12:30pm to be able to go on my lunch break.  IMC outsources their MRIs, so I scheduled with Tellica Imaging.  It’s a $550 flat fee and they are fast!  I was in and out in 45 minutes!  I was back at school when my doctor called.  He said that he was concerned with my results and talked to his friend, an ER doctor at IMC and was told that I should come in immediately to the ER at IMC, don’t drive myself, tell them at check-in that it’s urgent and I must be admitted immediately.  Okay that doesn’t sound daunting.  School was over, so I called Sandra and she said she’d take me… I drove home.

Sandra and I went to the ER and I checked in and said that I was told to inform them that I was to be admitted immediately and to say it was urgent.  He asked what clinic sent me and I replied that it was West Jordan.  “Oh yeah, we’ve been waiting for you”.  They took my vitals and put in an IV.  Then we waited for a room to open.  Sandra and I just talked and laughed while waiting.  I wasn’t feeling anxious, but just curious.  Very upbeat.  Of course, Doyles get funnier in stressful situations.  The nurse tech called out my name and we followed her to room 35, with a sliding glass door and a curtain inside, the length of the window/door, to give privacy.

The next tech came in, a young man, and held up a gown to me and said, “Strip down” then just waited.  What?  So I took off my top and he look down and said, “bra and garments too”. Sandra is sitting right next to me looking just as shocked as me. Ha ha ha!  So I did and just handed them to Sandra.  I put on the gown and he said, “now take everything off”.  Usually they hand you the gown and leave the room, but not this guy!  So I climbed into the bed in my gown, sorry for mooning you Sandra!  He hooked me up to a heart monitor, oxygen monitor and an other cord to my side.  He asked if the IV was done here.  Yep. He seemed confused and left.  He popped back in to ask our relationship.  Sandra said that we are friends, then I yelled, "we're lovers" s he left the room. 😂😅🤣

 Sarah, my nurse came in and asked the same million questions about why I was here, “oh yes, I’ve heard about you”.  Then the student doctor came in, Eleanor, a slouched tall Asian girl with a awkward bedside manner…but funny.  She said everyone had heard about me and that they’d be doing another MRI, then asked me about my symptoms and I repeated them all for the 4th time today.

Sandra was good to listen and ask questions, but I also felt like I knew what was going on.  She and I had decided it was a blood clot. Another tech came in and wheeled me to the MRI room, which is FREEZING!  This MRI machine was much tighter than the one earlier.  I layed down and they wedged my head in and then clamped a plastic box over my upper body, with a square opening over my face to breath, then the bed moves into the MRI machine, which is mere inches away from your face!  They had asked me several times if I was claustrophobic before going in and now I see why!  I was okay, but I could see how this would be difficult for people.  I closed my eyes and breathed slowly imaging being asleep on a train (because that’s what it sounded like.  I had tried to imagine a beach, but it was too LOUD and metallic for that image to work).  The first round was 12 minutes, and then a 6 minute one, then one minute.  She wheeled me back to my room where Sandra was texting Jared and my book club friends. 

We waited awhile longer and then another tech came and took me in a wheelchair to get a CT scan – 3D imaging.  They gave me iodine which burns hot through your body and makes you feel like you’re peeing your pants.  Such a weird sensation!  This scan was only 5 minutes.  Sandra and I were both amazed at how fast everything was happening.  People wait for so long for all these things and I was getting test after test and answers so quickly.  The tech had me pee in a cup, just in case they needed it later.  The doctor came in and said she’d heard all about me and that she’s been a doctor for a really long time and what I have is weird.  Never seen it before.

Not exactly sure what order things happened next but…

The student doctor came in and said a lot of medical things and throwing out words like brain surgery and things.  She is not great in her delivery.  I looked at Sandra after she left, “she did say no to brain surgery, right?!”  The doctor came in later and said that it is a blood clot and something else that she’s never seen before but explained that the neuroradiologist on call was reviewing my case and said that he can work with the dural arteriovenous fistula, it’s his specialty.  (of course there were a lot of conversations here about what arteries are and veins and how they work and shouldn’t cross paths etc.).  They cancelled the second MRI since they knew what it was now.  I had been “fasting” in case they did surgery tonight.

The student doctor came in and said she had overheard some of the phone conversation and that I’d be sent home soon.  That I’d meet with the neuroradiologist in a few weeks for some procedure and I might need blood thinners for the clot, but wasn’t sure and then asked if I had any questions.   I asked if I could drive.  She didn’t know.  She said my situation was urgent but not emergent.  She left to talk to the doctor.  Sandra was unimpressed with her lack of concrete knowledge of situations before talking to the patient. Jeani showed up to hang out with us!

The doctor came in and explained that I since I have been living with this situation for months that she feels like I can drive and work.  And that she wouldn’t be sending me home if she felt I was in danger.  She said the neuroradiologist will call me tomorrow and make a plan for getting the Fistual and blood clot taken care of and how amazing everything worked out.  She praised my doctor for being so proactive and sending me to IMC where the on call radiologist was able to read the MRI/CT scans and know what it was.  I fully agreed!  She said that everyone will be following my progress because they are all fascinated by it and thanked me for teaching her new things.

I changed back into my clothes and we left.  We took a photo outside the emergency room, hugged and went home.  My head still hurts.  I can’t wait to get this procedure done to fix all this!  It sounds like they’ll send a camera and other instruments through my femoral artery up to my brain and he’ll fix it that way.  Outpatient procedure.

When I look over this whole experience, it’s truly miraculous.  Every step was orchestrated by Heavenly Father.  Each medical expert was in the right place at the right time.  The issue was miraculously found by the one person who could even identify it.  Every MRI and CT scan opened up for me to get the testing I needed in such a short amount of time in the ER – very very rare.  I felt very peaceful and guided through the whole process and even Sandra being available in the middle of the day and no plans on a Thursday night for either of us.  God is good.

DANCE

As I helped jeani pack up her home, she found an essay of mine from years ago.  I do not recall ever writing the essay, nor did it sound familiar when I read it.  But it is the honest truth and apparently I felt it needed to be said and who better to know it's truth than jeani (thanks for saving it and sharing it with me)!

It has stirred up a lot of emotions, but I would not change the story, the timeline, nor the results, for anything.  

SIDE NOTE:  I have never capitalized or spelled jeani like it is supposed to be spelled (Jeannie), but she has always written out my full name in everything - and she titled this letter to her "Dance" so I have used the same title.   :)

PS.  I did feel like it left me hanging there at the end... if you want to know who won, ask me and I may or may not tell you.

THE ANSWERED PRAYERS CHRONICLES

CANCER

Someone once asked me how I felt about Heavenly Father not taking away my cancer after my diagnosis.  That I didn't show up to my next appointment and the cancer had miraculously disappeared, like in other people's stories.

That thought had never occurred to me.

I prayed to be healed and My dad blessed me that I'd have a full recovery.  I've been healed and I've had a full recovery.  I prayed to get through the treatments and that the treatments would work.  They worked.

I prayed with a grateful heart that it was me and not someone else.

I never prayed to have my cancer taken away, but here I am 13 years later and it has been taken away.  So I guess I feel grateful that I learned empathy for those who are sick, for patience in rebuilding the muscle tone killed by chemo and patience in losing the weight gained from the chemo, gratitude for the change in my diet to eating healthy, for the miracles of modern medicine, and for the millions of answered prayers in between.

I put my life in God's hands and I am stronger for it.

THE ANSWERED PRAYERS CHRONICLES

ANESTHETIC = 1, STEPH = 0

There was this one time, I had cancer.  I even wrote a book about it.  So I'm pretty much famous and I thought I'd share one of many prayer stories from that time...

LUMPECTOMY (noun, lump-eck-ta-mee) 1. The surgical removal of a breast cyst or tumor.  Origin:  1970-75 lump + ectomy

So I had one of those.

I awoke groggy (as most patients do).  My eyelids were heavy, my limbs seemed immovable, and my head weighed more than a bowling ball (the heavy ones professional bowlers use, not the fluorescent balls children use...and I use).  I blinked my lids open and found a cute beanie baby and balloon sitting with me and my mom sitting just across the room.  I think I smiled at her in my sleepy head, not on my actual face.  I worked my way to sitting, letting my head hang on my neck for a minute or two.

Somehow I had a bag of my clothes in my arms and I proceeded to put them on (a shirt that zipped up the front, genius, shorts and my Adidas tennies). No sooner had I emptied the bag of its contents then I filled it back up...with my insides.  Apparently the anesthetic did not agree with me...and it continued to disagree with me all the way home.  There is a point of dilusion, when it doesn't seem real even though it feels VERY real.  My eyes were crying tears even though I wasn't actually crying, just convulsing a little...or a lot.  I did learn a useful tip:  ziplock bags are the greatest tool for vomit control.

I lay in the guest room of my parent's home, too exhausted and delirious to do anything...even pray (which is saying something).  My dad, a sympathetic crier, sat by my side and took my hand and asked, "would you like a blessing?"  I probably responded, but that evening blurred a bit from the hospital on, so I'm not totally sure.  What I do remember is Clark Wallace and my dad laying their hands on my head and pronouncing a blessing of health and peace and then me, calmly falling asleep.

Anesthetic = 0, Power of God = infinity

THE ANSWERED PRAYERS CHRONICLES

THE FLAT TIRE IN A DRESS

I work on the stereotypical "west side".  We've got everything, gang shootings, drive-bys, drugs, teenage moms, grandmas with 2 teeth raising babies... and all of them younger than me.  And I love it!

Back when I first started teaching, I was heading home down the street that divides West Valley and Magna, 7200 South.  It was a beautiful drive on a beautiful sunny day in girly dress (probably for parent teacher conferences or some nonsense like that).  I was passing the two vinyl fenced in neighborhoods that lined the right and the chain link fenced homes that lined my left.  One random home, surrounded by a small dense forest, divided the two vinyl lined neighborhoods on my right and stretched back for who-knows-how-far.  The home seemed out of place mixed in with the new developments.

As I passed that home/area my back right tire hit something unusual that banged around the casing of my tire.  The air proceeded to leak over the next block, causing a flat tire.  Pulled over on the side of the road, I sat down to think.  As a young woman medallion holder, I know how to change a tire but in my nice clothes, I hoped it wouldn't be necessary.  Cell phones were fairly new and I didn't know who to call anyway, I mean I'm in Magna it's not like people are really near enough to help.   I bowed my head, right there sitting on the curb, and prayed for help.  

I raised my head, looked around, waited a minute and a truck pulled up behind my Subaru.  Talk about efficient prayer answering!  The kind gentlemen said I looked like I needed assistance.  I indeed needed assistance and I thanked him for coming.  He shared with me that he was headed a different direction on another road when he felt prompted to come my way and he was glad that he had followed that prompting.

He had my new tire on in no time and was on his way.  In my prayer of thanks to my Heavenly Father, I also prayed in gratitude for the faithful man who heard and followed the Spirit to help a stranger in need.  Even in these little instances, God makes us His priority.

SIDE NOTE:  The leak was caused by a bullet hole.  The ricochet I had heard in the wheel well was the bullet.  I called to let the police know and they were very cavalier about it, "was anyone injured?"  "No, just my tire."  "Oh, okay sorry about your tire."  "I just thought someone should know that a bullet was fired in a neighborhood, that is why I called."  "Well, no one was injured so...ummm...thanks for your call."  "Uh, you're welcome."   

steph

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THE BYU VS. ...NOWHERE

My senior year at Jordan High School began.  My schedule consisted of AP Calculus, not my best subject but it looks great on a college application, CP English, Advanced Art, Cheerleading, Dance Company, accounting, and whatever else was required at the time.  The buzz of applying to college and ACT scores dominated conversations.  Who got a 35 and who retook it until she got a perfect 36 just to beat her nemesis... and me with my adequate 26.

The time came and we all sent in our applications, letters of recommendations, ecclesiastical endorsements, essays, and hours of service plus extracurricular activities that dominated our time. Tina, Jeani and I planned to be roommates and sent that information in as well.  I was going to the BYU, as Doyles do, and never thought another thing about it.

One day a thick envelop arrived from the BYU, excitedly I ripped it open to find out that I had been accepted into HOUSING and would indeed be roommates with Tina and Jeani.  Nothing from the BYU admittance office though.  As others received acceptance letters from Harvard, Utah State, Notre Dame, even the very same BYU, I still waited...not in a worried way waited, just in my normal "it'll work out" waited.

Weeks passed.  Nothing.

Finally a letter came.  LATER.  WAY LATER.  "You have been placed on a waiting list for BYU".  Hmm.  Not what I expected.  So I had housing but not schooling.  At this point all application deadlines, for other schools, had passed.  For the first time it crossed my mind that I might not actually get into the BYU.  Even as I write this, I feel that thick heaviness in my chest - what if?!  It was truly inconceivable.  It sounds silly, but I was going to BYU and never believed that not going was even a possibility.  I made jokes with everyone, "BYU just wants me to live there, I'm that great" and we laughed.

I knelt down and prayed to my Heavenly Father when the doubts started creeping in.  I tried to be open to the Spirit and listen to His plan for me...praying it was to go to BYU, but also trying not to be bossy with my prayers.  I prayed for months.  Yes, months.  I didn't find out until MAY!  My acceptance letter finally came!!!  It said something like "if you start in June (summer term) you may come to our great BYU and continue as a regular student through the fall!"  Oh I couldn't contain my JOY!!  What a relief, who cares that I had to start a week after graduation, I got IN!!!

This was no small answer.  It was a miracle.  I believe in miracles.

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PARIS

I was called to serve in the Paris, France mission.  A dream come true...in my dreams.  The reality of it was terrifying.  As an introvert with food issues the mission field paralyzed me.  The MTC was a party (as much as studying the Gospel and French can be a party), but arriving in Paris made it real.

I don't completely understand my kinship to Paris, but I truly felt like I belonged there from the moment I stepped off the plane.  The missionaries took us out to preach and street contact right after we arrived at the mission home.  I asked the first person if they could tell me about "this hat" instead of castle (chapeau instead of chateau).  That is when I knew I couldn't do this.

Missionary work was not for me.  Talking to strangers? What was I thinking?!  Speaking another language?!  UGH!  Then I realized I was trapped in France. Forever.  I think it was my first panic attack.  My heart felt hot and expanded and pounded in my chest.  The world seemed blurry.  Voices swirled in my mind.  It was the worst!  "I can't do this...I can't do this..."  I've never thought that in my life!!   I prayed in my swollen heart, "how can I do this?!"

Peace.  One day at a time.  Focus on today.  Calm.

"I can do this". Heavenly Father spoke peace into my heart, encouraged me to see my mission as independent days and not by the mission as a whole.  What a blessing.  I had to focus on the seven day planner and not think too far past that.  This same answer came to me several times throughout my 18 months and kept my feet on the ground.