Hello Out There!

Sorry I haven't been around. Lots has happened in the past few days! Bridgette had a wonderful sleepover birthday party - oh, it was so fun! She has the nicest group of friends. The whole evening was full of comments like "Josh has great hair, but he's a jerk!" and "Ooo - that boy _________ is so cute!" It was just a great reminder of what fun that age was. And - the best part? Her friends love to chat with me, and asked if they could call me "Mom," (of course) and told me a ton of information about their teenie bopper life. It reminded me of the way my friends were with my mom. That is the hugest compliment to me. I always wanted to be the kind of mom my mom was.
Now, on to another issue!!! I think I am feeling my age. Ugh. I mean, besides the fact that I cannot make myself look young, no matter what kind of concoction of make-up I put on my face, or how hard I squint or how far I back away when I look in the mirror. Ugh! I mean, I am facing some icky (and, I'll say it - scary) health things.
I don't know what this is. It could be nothing. It could be something. I guess we find out later. Friday, the soles of my feet started tingling. Just a little. I blamed it on these socks Mike put in my sock drawer - you know, the white cotton kind with grey bottoms? He said they were too small, so he gave them to me. They were practically brand new, so I thought I'd wear them. I thought THEY were making the soles of my feet tingle. I asked him if that's why he gave them to me. He looked at me like I was nuts. Aaron has some socks like that, so I asked Aaron if his white and grey socks ever made the soles of his feet tingle. He laughed at me. Silly mom, always making us laugh at the stupid things she asks. Glad I could entertain everyone.
Along came Saturday, and the tingling went away on the left foot, but crept from the sole of the right foot to the whole right foot. Weird.
By Sunday, when I got ready for church, I couldn't feel my right pinky toe or the one next to it. I decided that on Monday I'd call the nurse and ask about it. It was probably the shoes I was wearing (although I wore about three different pairs of shoes). Later that day, both my hands started tingling, which reminded me of a side effect I had when I started taking my migraine medicine two years ago. I reasoned that all of this was a side effect of my medicine that all of a sudden started up again. (I now realize this doesn't make sense - but at the time, it made perfect sense - honest!) The hand tingling went away in a few hours, but my toes remained numb.
Monday morning, I woke up and got ready to go to Shelly's - we had been planning to make some cards for soldiers and some for a homeless shelter for a service project with our kids. I would call the doctor afterwards. The numbness had crept up my leg. When I took a shower, I shaved my right armpit, but couldn't feel my left. When I soaped up, I realized I couldn't feel most of the right side of my body. That creeped me out. I promised myself I would definitely call the doctor after our service project. Oh - and after I drove Aaron and his buddy to Game Stop to trade in some video games...because that's what Aaron's doing to buy Bridge her birthday present. I promised Aaron I would. So, Bridge and I went to Shelly's to do the service project and I came home and made a doctor's appointment. When I was driving Aaron and his buddy to Game Stop, I called Mike to let him know I didn't know what I was going to do about dinner because I was going to the doctor's. (He was like "What? You can't feel your right side? Why are you driving?" But, really, I could make my body do what I wanted it to do...It just felt asleep...it wasn't unsafe...just annoying.)
So, anyhow - come to find out, they don't know what's wrong. (If I only had a nickel for every time a doctor's come up with that for me or my chidren's diagnosis or said, "We've never seen this before.") I couldn't see my regular doctor, which is a bummer - she understands my whole history. But, I did get a decent doctor, at least. I asked this doctor if I could have a pinched nerve - she said not one that would cover this much of my body - I'd have to have many pinched nerves all over my body. She suspected a stroke, at first, but with a stroke, I wouldn't be able to feel one side of my body, and the opposite side of my face...I can't feel the one side of my body and the same side of my face. I don't have any of the symptoms of MS except the numbness. They're squeezing me in an already booked day of imaging (so, the techs are really happy to see me - I've gotten a call already once this morning to reschedule) to get an MRI of my head and neck this morning. I am a mystery. A real stumper. She also said some people get weird symptoms for what seems like no reason, and they go away.
This just seems too weird.
So, I'm asking you guys to say a prayer for me, k? This is kinda freaky. Thanks.