The Fire During My Hospital Stay

     Oh fifth floor adult inpatient unit, how I wish I wasn't so familiar with your halls. I was recently released from a five day hospital vacation. I wish I could say that it yielded more answers to what feels like my never ending health problems, but alas, it did not. I don't want to say it was a complete waste of five days and a ton of hospital bills, but right now that's what it feels like. I didn't have my computer with me to update my blog while I was there, but I did have my phone! So here's a recap of me week!

     Intake was about a three hour process. I was supposed to be a scheduled admission but something on the hospital's end got messed up and there wasn't a bed already ready for me. Which was frustrating and I should have just ran for the hills then. Thankfully, I wore my comfiest clothes and had my phone charger handy so sitting in the waiting room wasn't a huge deal, I was just hungry.
      While I was sitting in the waiting area starving myself to death my body had a different idea. I had an allergic reaction. I noticed my chest was super itchy and that I was starting to get nauseous. I followed my protocol; take 50mg of oral benadryl and wait. After about ten minutes of trying not to itch my chest my throat began feeling tight. I took a puff of my albuterol inhaler to see if maybe that would help. No relief. It started to get way worse. The impending doom feeling was setting in which is my sure sign it's time to get help. I staggered up to the front counter clutching my chest. The lady could probably hear my breathing from across the room. I stabbed myself with an epi pen and we quickly got me a wheelchair over to the ER. I was then admitted as an ER patient and six hours from the time I originally showed up that morning I was taken to my room. It was a frustrating start to the next four days.

     Day two was supposed to be my big testing day and then go home on day three. Turns out that wasn't the case. Since being admitted I hadn't been able to go a full 12 hours without a near anaphylaxis episode. And without knowing what was triggering them my doctor wasn't comfortable sending me home. The silver lining of having so many reactions in a controlled environment is that we were able to constantly monitor me throughout the whole thing. The doctor said I have what he would call "atypical anaphylactic reactions". Which means that instead of my blood pressure dropping like a normal anaphylactic reaction mine actually sky rockets. 10 minutes before a reaction my blood pressure would be around 115/70s. During a reaction my blood pressure would shoot up to almost 180/90s. This would happen consistently almost every single time. After doing some research my doctor was able to link this to mast cell activation. He said a lot of patient's with the same thing as me have the same time up blood pressure jumps during a reaction. He said this is probably why it gets mistaken for a panic attack so often. It's highly highly unusual that the blood pressure would go up instead of down. So at least we're slowly learning new things about my condition. Baby steps right?
     Day four was the most difficult day emotionally. I was just done with being in the hospital. They wouldn't let me off of the inpatient floor (for good reason) so I felt like I was trapped. The floor went in a circle and if you walked that circle 9 times it made a mile... I walked four miles that day... I watched several episodes of HGTV and The Food Network shows only because that's all that was on. I was starting to get a meek outlook on being there. Up to this point I was fine with being an inpatient. I knew that by being there I was safe, getting the care that I needed, and we were learning more about how my messed up body works. But day three my brain was just done. My nurse was a little on the crabby side and wasn't much for small talk and conversation, the medication they had started me on was starting to make me feel weak and lethargic and I was starting to get sick of hospital food. It was just all around a bad day mentally. On top of all of that my IV decided to start leaking a strange color fluid so we had to start a new one in my hand. Which is my least favorite place to start an IV. I hate it, and it took 45 minutes and a pediatric nurse to find a vein that was usable enough. The only real excitement I had that day was this fire alarm/ drill. It ended up being a false alarm but we were actually told to be prepared to evacuate the floor. Because a real fire had been reported on our floor in the East tower. The fire department showed up (none of them were cute dangit) and we were given the all clear and I was able to resume my laps around the hallway.

     I was finally released around noon on day five! No really big new news to report, but at least I had a little more information. At least I had been validated by a doctor that this wasn't anxiety or all in my head. As sucky as it was I would do it again to learn more about how to better take care of myself, and how to better treat my reactions. Hopefully, I'm able to stay out of the hospital for a while though. This is me in my car with my IV site bandaged up which means I got the okay to go home! Friends, whatever your sucky situation is this week, hit it head on. I believe in you! 

With Love, 

Elizabeth <3