After spending over 800 days in a
hospital over a 5 year time period I will do anything in my power to avoid
going to the ER or to see a doctor unless I feel that it is absolutely
necessary, otherwise I like to stay away from them. However, this past week I found myself spending way too much
time in an ER room.
One Saturday morning I woke up with a
dull yet painful feeling in my chest when I breathed. Not thinking too much about it I decided to carry on my day
as usual even though I would have loved to crawl back under my nice warm covers
and return to my peaceful slumber.
But, I made plans to head to the public library with my friend, Sable, which
I was really looking forward to exploring some new adventures. Yet as the day progressed, that dull
pain I felt upon each breath increasingly grew. By the time Sable and I decided that we needed to leave the
library before bringing half of its contents home with us that pain was almost
impossible to put out of my head.
After discussing the concern with her and my husband I decided that I
would head to the walk-in clinic that was just across the street from our
apartment. From there the doctor
decided that I should go to the ER since they were not sure what was going on
but my blood pressure was sky high and my pulse was rapid.
After taking a few minutes to talk
them down from calling an ambulance to take me to the ER and instead allow me
to call my husband and have him drive me, I arrived at the ER where they hooked
me up to an EKG and heart monitor and started running tests. One of their main concerns given my
medical history was a Pulmonary Embolism (PE), a blood clot that developed and
traveled to my lungs. In order to
rule that out they drew blood and ran a d-dimer level, which shows clotting
levels and can tell if the blood is clotting appropriately, and sent me for a
CT scan with contrast, which they shot through my IV. Seemed simple enough until the CT contrast blew out my vein
with my IV and a majority of the contrast and saline gathered in a very small
area on my arm and caused a large amount of pain and swelling. Then they had to inject an antidote to
help break down the contrast since it is usually excreted through the kidneys
and the body does not know how to break down the contrast if it is not in the
blood system.
After all of that, the only thing
they could tell me was that I may be at the very beginning of a virus and if
this was the case I just needed to take it easy, rest, and drink plenty of
liquids and to come back if I developed a fever, the pain increased, or I was
feeling short of breath. After 4
hours in the ER I was finally released, not really knowing anything more than
what I did when the day began, but in a bit more pain because of the CT
contrast fiasco. Little did I know
that the fun part had yet commenced.
In addition to having an arm that was
twice it’s normal size due to the IV CT contrast, I also broke out in a full
body rash. It seems that the more
I am exposed to something, such as CT contrast or antibiotics, my body decides
that it no longer wants to be a fan of that particular substance and rejects it
by developing an allergy.
Apparently even my immune system is tired of being sick. Every time I get sick I end up breaking
out in a full body rash because of whatever medication they need to give
me. So far I have developed an
allergy to every antibiotic that I have had to take more than once. What is not to love about that? Each day I felt a little more miserable
until Tuesday night when the pain got so bad that I was unable to breath and my
fever was not lowering after Tylenol.
Another trip to the ER! Their concern was the same as Saturday,
they were worried about blood clots so they wanted to run the same tests but
did not want to do a CT since I had just had a CT recently and reacted badly to
the contrast. Thus, they decided
to draw blood and get an X-Ray to see if there was any indication to send me
for a CT. After receiving the
results form my blood tests they were more inclined to send me to CT because my
clotting levels were elevated, indicating there could be a chance of a PE. However, my blood tests also showed an
increased creatine levels/kidneys functions, which signals impaired kidney
functions and the contrast for the CT could cause further issues in addition to
adding to my allergic reaction from the last time. They decided that it would be better to perform the CT but
would give me steroids and Benadryl to help fend off the reaction to the
contrast. In addition to loading
me full of Benadryl, steroids, and fluids, they had to do something to help
with the unbearable pain that had elevated my blood pressure and pulse once
again, and relieved the pain by giving me an anti-inflammatory pain reliever
called Toradol, which allowed me to finally breathe without wanting to cry. This was a major improvement since
Saturday.
The ending result was that they
believed the membrane around my lungs was infected causing the pain when I
inhaled. This time they sent me
home with a prescription for antibiotics and steroids that I was able to have
filled at a machine in the ER lobby!
How cool is that! My least
favorite things is having to go to a pharmacy while feeling like a bag of crap. This neat machine dispenses the
prescriptions right there in the ER, eliminating the need to wake up the next
day and drive to the pharmacy so I can be on my merry way of feeling like
myself again. Instead I could
start on my path to wellness right then and there
Are these neat machines common? This was my first experience with one
and I must say that I am a HUGE fan!
All of this fun stuff started my path to finding a new doctor in my area. The adventure of establishing a new primary physician and finding a new cardiologist who actually shows that he/she gives a damn about my health has begun.
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