What Terror Feels Like by Lacy Chambers

It is bizzare to wake up one day and have yourself slowly deteriorate throughout the day until half your body goes numb and you have no strengeth. On August 29th, 2016 I woke expecting it to be like any other day. I started not feeling very well shortly after I got up. My skin hurt and I just felt off. As the day progressed I got worse, I didn't eat lunch because I didn't feel up to eating. I laid around all day thinking I was getting sick. My arms felt weak and it was hard to get my arms and hands to do anything. Shortly before my kids got home from school I got up to take my dog out to the bathroom. When I tried to walk my right leg buckled and collapsed under me with every step. I started passing out and had to lean on the railing until I totally regained consuousness. Then when I tried to put my dogs leash on I couldn't stop myself after bending over and my head went straight to the ground, I had a hard time righting myself again. When I went outside to walk my dog I couldn't walk straight, I was going all over the place and my right leg still wasn't working well. I was so scared, what was happening to me? I came back inside and laid down without getting up until my husband came home and finished making dinner because I couldn't. He came to help me to the table since I knew I couldn't walk well. My walking was worse than before. Neither of my legs seemed to do what I wanted them to. Once I got to the table and sat down I face-planted on the table because I couldn't hold myself up. Trying to eat dinner brought me to tears. My arms weren't working well and I couldn't reach for my class, my husband had to put it right by my face with a straw. I couldn't cut my own food so my husband had to do that too. Trying to get the food into my mouth was a joke, we had french toast and I had syrup dripping down my chin because I couldn't get it into my mouth easily. I ate dinner that night devastated with syrup and tears running down my face. I was losing control of my body and had no idea what was going on. It is such a surreal feeling. After dinner I was helped back to the couch to lay down. An hour after dinner I put my hand on my leg and realized it was numb. Within another hour my whole left side was numb. Then you get really scared, am I having a stroke? Will I ever feel back to the way I was again? Can they fix this? I went to the hospital and they started running tests right away. Why can't I walk? Why am I numb? Why do I feel so weak? An MRI showed nothing, no stroke that they could see. Blood work was fine. So I was transferred hospitals and admitted. I was there for a "rule out stroke" on the cardiology floor. Throughout the next 3 days I would endure so much testing, a spinal tap, blood work for everything they could think of. Everything came back normal. No answers. Still numb, still can't walk on my own. Sent home with so many questions.