Emergency Room Drama

I had to travel to Denver, Colorado (from Maryland) last week for a work conference. Now, I live below sea level and Denver is a "mile high" so I should have expected some weird effects. But I was there Monday (Memorial Day) through Friday and I felt totally fine.

I got a few minor headaches but I attributed that to being in a hotel conference room all day without windows and sitting for hours on end.

On the last day of the conference, Friday, we had 2 morning sessions which ended at 11:30am local time. I was attending the conference with my boss, Bruce, and a co-worker, Kari. When the last session ended, I stood up from the table, and the entire room started to spin. VERTIGO!

I've had this lovely symptom of Lyme in the past. It usually lasts a few hours, maybe a day at the worst. In the past, when I wake up the next day it's gone. Easy Peasy! I work from home so that makes things a lot easier to deal with.

Not so much when you are leaving a conference, having to get into a car, drive to an airport, stand in line to check-in, stand in line through security, and then sit on a plane for 3 hours to get home.

We had an hour to burn before the first traveler had to be checked into the airport so we decided to grab some lunch on the way to the airport.

We pulled off to a place called "Wahoo's" which serves fish tacos (in Denver? really?). I was not feeling nauseous but was so dizzy/spinny that I just didn't have any interest in eating, nor waiting in line to order. I asked my boss to grab me a water and I went to find some seats.

Sitting in the booth, my vertigo got WAY worse. After a few minutes, the voices of everyone around me became a pounding inaudible sound (whomp! whomp! whomp!). I started to see floaters in my eyesight and my co-workers (sitting directly next to me) appeared to be sitting at the opposite end of the restaurant as if they were at the end of a very long tunnel.

I was sitting at the bench with my feet up, arms wrapped around my legs/knees. I started to feel a tingling sensation in my arms and legs so I went to put my feet down on the floor, only to realize I had zero feeling in my feet. I couldn't feel the floor at all. That's when the panic set in.

My heart started to race, and I started to breathe very rapidly. I was having a panic attack because I was absolutely sure I was having a stroke or a heart attack. Things went downhill from there.

I told my boss to call 9-1-1 which he did. The restaurant Manager came over and spoke to 911 to give them the address and ask my boss to sign a statement (CYA - cover your ass!!!!). The EMTs arrived and my bloodwork was ALL over the map. Low and high levels of everything (potassium, sodium, all the other weird stuff they look for). Long story short, they took me to the nearest Emergency Room.

In the ambulance I got oxygen, an IV bag of fluids, bloodwork, and an EKG. Thankfully the EKG was totally normal (whew!!!!). Too bad I was too incoherent to realize that news.

They gave me a shot of Valium to try and calm my breathing but it took no effect. By the time I got to the hospital, they gave me a much larger dose of Valium and my breathing finally slowed down. The ER Doc explained that the numbness in my extremities was due to the fact that I was breathing so abnormally fast. It actually changes the chemistry in your blood and can cause a laundry list of problems.

I had to tell the ER docs that I am a Lyme patient, and list the drugs I was taking (3 abx's, many supplements, vitamins, etc.). The ER Doc literally said, "Oh, you're from Maryland, right. We don't have Lyme here."

AHHHHHHHHH! I was too out-of-it to debate him on that fact but it really ticked me off (no pun intended). After 6 hours in the ER, I was released. My boss stayed with me and missed his own flight (God bless him). We flew home the next morning but I was still shaky on my feet.

I got home to MD around 4pm, had a quick snack and fell asleep at 5pm on Saturday night. I slept until almost noon on Sunday. When I woke up, the Vertigo was gone and I felt like a million bucks (relatively speaking from the ER visit).

I don't know if this recent ER visit is Lyme-related or maybe a combo effect of Lyme, altitude, lack-of-sleep, bad diet while traveling, etc. But I now know that I need to carry a list of my medication in my wallet in case I end up back in an ER anytime soon.

On the floor of Wahoo's, while we waited for the EMTs to arrive, I was dictating my meds and vitamins and supplements to my co-worker so she could write them down and give them to the EMTs in case I passed out.

This is not a good way to live. And being 1,500 miles from home, with no advocate, things could have gone very bad out there if I had passed out and they didn't know what medications I was currently on.

My Symptoms

First, let me document my most annoying symptoms, the ones I've been visiting doctors for, for years...

1. Anemia - This is a new and short-term issue. I had a bad miscarriage in May 2010 and hemorrhaged badly. I called 911, lost consciousness on the way to the Hospital and almost had to get a transfusion. Thankfully that didn't happen but I was left with a very low Hematocrit and Hemoglobin (I think it was 8 and 25?), which left me in the "severe" Anemia range. I was supposed to go on an Iron Supplement (my OB told me any old OTC would do) and I would be fine. I wanted assurance that the Anemia was under control and she told me to go to "any doctor" and ask for a blood test in a few months. (thanks, doc, for thinking of me). 4 months later I still feel like crap, but only my recent blood work will tell if the Anemia is gone and I can stop taking these horrible Iron Supplements.
2. Sinus Infections (chronic) - I've had sinus infections for years and years, they have become a fact of life. Although now I"m reading they don't have to be. I went to an ENT, I started Allergy Shots, they weren't for me. All the allergy meds they put me on made me feel jittery and insane. I hated them all. I got nosebleeds from some. How is this helping??? My allergy shot regimen was 2x/week and it took me almost 2 hours roundtrip to do the shots. I just couldn't keep it up with the demands of my job, when the allergy center was only open 10-4 and closed for lunch. What????  How is that helping people? My Internist willingly wrote me multiple antibiotic 'scrips month after month without ever suggesting I go see a specialist. I had to ask him if he knew of one. Fat lot of good that did me. The ENT actually asked me if I was a regular Cocaine user. Offended, I told him simply, NO! He then (in so many words) told me he didn't believe me because he'd never seen such horrible nasal and sinus cavities other than regular drug users. I explained to him that not only have I NEVER used Cocaine, I've never even SEEN it in real life. I was so pissed, I walked out of his office and I haven't been back.
3. Insomnia - I've never been a good sleeper. I have both kinds of Insomnia. Trouble falling asleep. Trouble staying asleep. Sometimes I fall asleep at 9pm with a book in my lap, but I'm awake at 2am and never fall back to sleep. Other times, I go to bed at my normal time (11pm) and toss and turn until 2am when I finally get up, go to the sofa or guest room and either read or watch TV for the rest of the night. Sometimes I will sleep for 2 or so hours at the end of the morning but most nights like that, I'm just awake the whole night, never sleeping for one...single...minute.
4. Dandruff - My head has been itching for one solid year. Head & Shoulders, Denorex, other random "scalp itch" solutions found in the pharmacy. A talk with my Dermatologist gave me chemical shampoo (I decided not to join that bandwagon). I still itch. I still hope to find out what the hell is going on with my body. I'll never wear black again at this point, I'm paranoid.
5. Joint Pain - As mentioned before, I have to score my child's banana in the morning because I can't peel it by myself. My finger joints are just that stiff and swollen when I wake up. Reminder...I'm only 37 with no history of early onset arthritis. My parents are in their mid-60s with no arthritis to speak of other than normal aches and pains.
6. Vertigo - Ever feel like the world is spinning and you want to get off? That's what Vertigo feels like. Turn your head one way, and the whole room keeps on moving. Lay down in bed and feel like the bed is floating on an angry sea. Get up from a chair too fast and your upper body keeps on moving in that direction and you either fall over or you bump into a wall. I bump into a lot of walls. My family calls me clumsy but I'm actually a pretty coordinated person. Now I absolutely KNOW this is not just silly clumsiness. Something is wrong inside causing this. I always linked it to the sinus infections (fluid in the ears, etc.) but now I think it's much more and linked to some other health issues.

It doesn't seem like a lot, but if you've lived with these things chronically for many years, you would understand the agony. Any chronic illness, whether it's an incurable disease or a relatively minor inconvenience, any chronic illness will wear on a person's soul. It tears you apart emotionally and physically and eventually causes other issues which just exasperate the problem. I'm hoping to help people find true health by following my own journey. I'm not a medical professional by any means. I'm a 9-5 employee for an IT company. I have just been sickly for many years and I have a cabinet full of prescriptions that I'm ready to burn.

Here's to health and happiness!