Covid came in and really did a number in our house. It took Derek months to feel better. He was just worn down and struggling to feel well again. Vomiting and no energy was his daily ritual. On May 3rd he finally felt well enough to return to school, although he didn't make it the entire day. It was touch and go for the next few weeks. Occasionally he would make it an entire day, most of the time I had to pick him up after the first class, and some days he still did not feel well enough to leave the house. We were just hoping he could be well enough to take his finals. He made it to his finals and miraculously he did decent on his finals. He ended up with C's in English, Chemistry, Weight Training, and US History. He got a B on his health final but the teacher said he failed the course so he had to retake it. I found out later I could have fought this since he had health issues. He will need to retake Algebra II. I'm ok with that, I want him to have a good foundation in math.
His final report card said he missed 69 days of school out of 180, about 40 of those absences happened in the last quarter. Considering almost 12 weeks of the school year was online and he did school from home during "virtual learning" it would have been worse. There were several days during virtual learning he would not have been able to make it to school.
Since Derek hadn't left the house in months, his hair got long and shaggy. I snapped this picture the first day he returned to school. He still didn't feel great and it was a few more weeks before he actually got a hair cut. He looked amazing once he got his hair cut.
Then there was Trey...
On April 25th Trey started to have a headache. The headache was so bad all he only wanted to lay down. So that is what he did for the next 3 MONTHS. I took him to multiple Doctors, his pediatrician, then a pediatric neurologist. The medications they were prescribing for "persistent migraines" were not helping at all. Trey continued to lay down, missing school, end-of-year projects, end of year parties. It really was a terrible way to finish elementary school. This was a never ending constant Migraine, Trey only felt relief by laying down.
By early June I started taking both Derek and Trey to a Naturopath Doctor. Nothing else was working I figured it couldn't hurt. I explained to Derek and Trey what a naturopath was and they said "it sounds like Voodoo" We started calling him Dr. Voodoo instead of his real name Van Driel.
On top of the headache issues, Trey started to have digestive issues. Nothing was going well for him. I took him to the ER one Friday afternoon on May 28th. He had been on the migraine medication for about 3 weeks and there was no progress, his neurologist just kept telling him to keep taking the meds. His stomach was upset and Trey was just miserable. The ER gave him a shot for the migraine, and some Miralax to drink. Trey was very constipated (about 3 weeks worth). No wonder he didn't feel good.
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| Trey in the ER feeling miserable |
After a few days, the "drains" got unclogged and the digestive system started working again. The headaches persisted. From the first doctor visit, I suspected Trey's headaches were linked to COVID. The doctors didn't seem to care. I started learning about other kids who started to have migraines after COVID. It was due to high pressure from spinal fluid. The next step the neurologist wanted an MRI. I asked them if we could skip this step and go straight to the spinal tap. They said "NO". I asked them if we could at least schedule the spinal tap at the same time as the MRI. I highly suspected the MRI wasn't going to show anything and they are so slow getting anything scheduled. The MRI took one week just to schedule it then we would have to wait for the actual appointment and the results after a few days. Then start over again trying to schedule the spinal tap. They again said "NO". On June 11th Curtis took Trey in for the MRI while I was up at Girl's Camp.
Lanae Jones, Taryn Johnson (TJ) and Marilyn Johnson (MJ) at Girls Camp 2021 up at Camp Raymond near Flagstaff, AZ
The MRI came back normal, which is good, there is no tumor but we still don't have answers for the migraines. Starting all over again trying to schedule a Spinal Tap through the neurologist's office. In the meantime, we amped up the visits to Dr. Voodoo. Trey did start to see some improvement in his headaches from Dr. Voodoo's treatments but he still didn't feel good. We were really trying to avoid the spinal tap. Trey was terrified to have the spinal tap and go under anesthesia.
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| Trey getting Micro Current Treatment from "Dr. VooDoo" |
After a few treatments with Dr. Voodoo, Derek finally started to feel "good" again as well.
We were out of options, on June 25th Trey went in for the spinal tap. Because of his age, they put him under anesthesia. Trey was a nervous wreck and did not want to do this. It kind of reminded me of how Curtis feels when he has to go under anesthesia. I actually enjoy it, for me going under anesthesia is the best nap. It doesn't help that at the hospital that is no urgency to run anything on time. We were told his procedure was scheduled for 9:30 a.m. They told us to arrive at 8:00 so we did. After a lot of hours waiting around and making Trey more anxious and scared they finally took him back around noon. It's not like this kid hasn't been in pain for the last two months. UGHH!
The anesthesiologist was fantastic. She talked to Trey about what was going to happen and she even let him choose if he wanted the gas mask or an IV. He chose the mask, then she even let me back in the procedure room until Trey was asleep just to calm his nerves.
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| Trey in the procedure room about to get the "gas" it was interesting to watch him go under. It only took about 3 minutes for him to get into a deep sleep. They kicked me out at that point and gave him an IV to get him even deeper. The anesthesiologist gave me a play-by-play of what his body was doing. Did I mention that she was fantastic? |
The entire procedure took about an hour. When they brought me back to the recovery room Trey was all smiles and relieved that it was over. He realized it was not nearly as bad as he anticipated. The spinal tap showed he had excessive CSF (Cerebral Spinal Fluid) causing pressure on his brain and giving him a never-ending Migraine. This is usually brought on by an illness.
This Mom was right I figured it was excess spinal pressure brought on by COVID. After a few days on a new medication, his headache was much improved. Trey still has a slight headache but at least he can get out of bed and live his life.
