My Week In Pictures May 14-21 2017

   
Hi Friends! I just created this week's The Daily Climb picture album! This is where I post all of the pictures I take throughout the week to give you guys a better look at the day to day life of a POTS patient, chronic illness warrior, and average 21 year old. I hope this gives you guys a better understanding of what I go through on a daily basis <3

The Daily Climb May 14th-21st

I Almost Went Paralyzed Again...

     On Friday my cardiologist officially diagnosed me with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. Because of that he increased my mididrine dose from 5mg daily to 15mg. I'm not a huge fan of this medication to begin with it always makes me nauseous and if I don't eat within ten minutes of taking it I get extremely sick. Yesterday, even though I ate when I took it at lunchtime, I must not have ate enough and ended up getting violently sick. The problem with this is that my potassium will drop incredibly fast when I get sick. Even though I was trying to keep up with me getting sick by taking potassium it wasn't working. I was still starting to feel the effects of low potassium. My team and I decided it was best to go into the ER to be monitored and replenish the potassium safely instead of guessing at home.
     I was triage and taken to a bed right away when they saw how high my heart rate was and that it was also skipping beats. I could barely walk, stand, and breathe on my own by the time I got there. I was incredibly anxious because low potassium paralyzes you, it starves your muscles until they are no longer able to move and then major muscles start shutting down. The last time my potassium was this low I was taken to the ER by ambulance and the paramedics were breathing for me because my body just didn't have the capability anymore. My potassium was indeed extremely low at 2.4. I was starting to have tremors and bouts of not being able to breathe. We started infusing IV potassium as quickly as we could. They gave me a total of 160meq of potassium over a four hour period. Unfortunately, potassium is also hard on my stomach so about two hours into the infusion I ended up getting sick again and we had to redo 80meq of potassium. I was in the ER for a total of 8 hours. The doctors there and I decided that if I responded well to this treatment then there wouldn't be a reason for me to stay overnight because we do know what caused the initial drop. I'm extremely thankful for my team of doctors who I can call whenever I need them as well as amazing ER staff who were quick to react and got me back where I needed to be.
     I'm going to talk to my cardiologist on Monday about looking into other medication options or seeing how I respond to a lower dose. Hopefully, we'll be able to figure everything out soon and I'll be stable enough to go back to Nebraska in a few weeks!

With Love,
Elizabeth <3

The Daily Climb: A picture album update

Hey friends! I've been struggling to write lately, but I have been taking lots of pictures. I have put them together in a viewable album. Hopefully this can give you guys a better look at what day to day life is like. I hope to do more of these in the future because I like doing these way more than vlogging. Let me know what you think! I have lots of doctors' appointments coming up that I'll update you all on soon. I'm sending my love to all of you!
With Love,
Elizabeth <3

The Daily Climb Photo Album

April 2017 Hospital Stay

     Good morning friends! I am officially out of the hospital and trying to fend for myself in the real world without someone checking in on me every hour. It's both exciting and extremely scary. They sent me home on a heart monitor for 30 days. Which actually isn't that bad. I have pictures of my hospital stay! I don't really have much to write today. But I'll keep you posted. For now, please enjoy these pictures of me being awesome and ruling the cardiac floor of the hospital! Also look for a new vlog video on YouTube soon! I will add a link in the video section of the blog as soon as it's posted.

With Love,
Elizabeth Keane <3

It all started with a trip to the ER... I was seen for low potassium. They gave me IV potassium, and oral potassium which then made me extremely nauseous. So until 2am, when they took me up to the cardiac floor, I got sick, watched Netflix, and tried to sleep.

DAY 1: I finally got up to my room around 2am. They gave me another bag of fluids which ran until 9am. I was allowed to move around but it took some effort. I did my hair and make up and then my roommate came and we did laps around the floor. She followed me with a wheelchair just in case. I actually became friends with other patients and patient's family which was really awesome. Everyone was very much encouraging.

Day 2: My roommate came back out to spend the day with me again. This was the first day we saw the nephrologist. It was a hard day as far as anxiety goes. My nurse let me go outside as long as I stayed in a wheelchair and we took a tech with us. My room had a counter with a window and they would catch me sitting on the counter watching the nice weather out the window. I thought about escaping, but I wasn't allowed.

Today was an emotional whip lash. They told me I was going home, then told me I wasn't, then finally they told me I was going home! The night was rough I was short of breath with a high heart rate few times. So I was on oxygen on and off. The nurses saw I was frustrated and snuck me ice cream to cheer me up! The top right was the world's greatest nurse! She was amazing and I can't thank her enough for everything she did!! 

And The Storm Continues

 
      Friends. I've found myself in a health predicament. I'm a little bit "out of commission" right now and I don't have to many solid updates. But here's what I know so far:

-the diagnosis of hyperaldosteronism has been scrapped. They think that I have been missed diagnosed as I only show the low potassium symptom of that diagnoses.
-I am extremely weak and short of breath. I had to sit down on the floor of the bathroom today while I was changing because standing up was just to much for me.
-I also know that I'll be here for at least a few more days as we try to search for answers.

      I'll have a better update as I learn more but for now here are some pictures of my hospital stay thus far. I am beyond blessed to have friends who will stick with me through all of this. I am struggling but there's a light at the end of the tunnel so I will put my trust in the Lord and take each day one step at a time.

With Love,
Elizabeth <3

This Is Real Life

   

     I got off of work at 6 am which means I was home by 6:30 this morning. Wearing my boyfriend's gym shorts and my work polo I stumbled out of my car trying to get the energy to walk up the stairs. Only after being called a hooker did I find that energy, but that's a story for a different day. We had a busy night at work last night and I only managed to find about an hour of sleep in between calls. Which is fine. I love my job, and if I lose a little sleep it's not the end of the world. I had nothing planned for the day today besides doing around the house things so I wasn't worried. 

     I got home to find all the laundry I did yesterday folded on my bed. I struggled to put it away so I could crawl into bed and go back to sleep. I finally did it, turning off the TV and closing my curtains I finally crawled into my happy place. I was able to get about an hour of sleep... and then life decided to throw me a curve ball, because why the hell not?                                                                                                           Sitting in bed my heart rate began to climb way higher than it should. It started climbing slowly. At first it was slightly elevated at 120 resting, no big deal. I took a few deep breaths and figured it would pass. It didn't. A few minutes later,

after doing nothing but laying in bed, it rose to 140, and then a little more to 160. I was getting really short of breath. Just sitting up was more of a struggle than it should have been. That's when I decided to take myself in.                              Upon ER intake my heart was in what they call "SVT" which is a fancy term for an insanely fast heart rate and also rather dangerous if left untreated. My heart rate had climbed to 186 resting, my breathing rate was on the higher end of the normal range and my blood pressure was through the roof. These things aren't normal for a 20 year old. Then again when have I ever been normal?
      I was marked as an urgent intake which means there were 6-7 nurses waiting for me when I was wheeled back. They took an EKG and labs, a chest Xray, and a urine sample all within 5 minutes of me shakily walking through the door. And then they left, and the quiet started in. I came prepared with a blanket from home and my tablet to watch Netflix on and started the waiting game.
     The nurse and doc came in about 30 minutes later to tell me that my potassium was indeed low. 2.7. This isn't the lowest that it's been but because my symptoms were so bad we decided to both IV and oral potassium. This IV potassium is about an hour and a half long process. So I settled in again for some Netflix and maybe get some sleep. But unfortunately that didn't happen.
     I wasn't able to eat anything before going in so my body was being pumped full of potassium on an empty stomach. Which doesn't go well for me usually and today was no different. The cramping and nausea began around 2:45ish and it was like hell on Earth.

     I was determined to power through the nausea. To keep the potassium IV running because I knew ultimately that's what was going to make me feel better, that was what was going to calm my heart, and the tremors, and the headache, and muscle spasms down. So for the next 90 minutes I sat up in the ER bed getting sick. Coughing up everything I had in my stomach, which was very little. It was miserable. If at any point someone says to me that I'm doing this just for attention needs to look me in the eyes at my worst moments and then go for a long hike off of a short bridge. (But I digress) 

     3 pm rolled around and the lab came back in to draw a second round of blood. I was told that if I had come up into the 3's that doc would let me go home. 45 minutes later the results came back. I was free to go! I still had muscle cramps and extreme nausea but it was no longer life threatening. And I can manage non life threatening at home. 

     So here I am laying in bed with all the lights off, with the only noise being the fan by my bed. I'm laying here feeling half dead. I tried eating something on the way home but it all came back up a little bit later. I'm still awfully dizzy and shaky so I look like an old lady carefully walking to the bathroom from my bed. I'm extremely nervous to walk anywhere in my apartment without my phone on the off chance I fall and am unable to get up and need to call someone. I fear that my potassium will drop again even lower than earlier and paralysis will set in. Because that would be rough. I don't know if I can do an overnight hospital stay right now.                                                                                                                         But friends, this is real life. This is what an invisible illness looks like on it's less invisible days. I try to everything I can to manage it and keep it at bay, but there's still rough days like this. There are still going to be days where everything I have just isn't enough. And I have to be okay with that. I have to take it one step at a time, not even one day at a time, just one step. I'm sure I'll be back to my normal self tomorrow but if I'm not I'll adjust. Because that's part of real life. 

With Love, 

Elizabeth