The Hospital Story

I'm back home!

I got home early this afternoon.  My heart rate was still normal and I was feeling pretty good so they let me go home!

Now that I'm home I can write a detailed post as to what happened.

So remember how my adjustment to Savella was rough and so I was just chilling on the couch watching "Star Trek?"  Thurs night, I finished watching "The Trouble with Tribbles" and then the animated "Star Trek" ep "More Tribbles, More Troubles" and about to watch the DS9 ep with tribbles, when I realized that I was getting drenched in sweat.  Then I noticed that my pulse was racing.  I checked a couple times, both about 120 per minute.  After having to Google how to do the math correctly.  So I grabbed my info packet on Savella since I thought that those side effects were the ones that you're supposed to call your doctor about.  Yeah, they were.  I try to make sure I'm familiar enough with potential side effects of all the meds I'm on.  I logged onto Yahoo Messenger and Sara was on, and after bitching about yet another side effect, I asked her if I should call our Ask-A-Nurse line about this or just wait til tmrw.  She made me call.  She has this weird bizarre talent of knowing all.  

So I call, and the nurse didn't have any info on Savella, so she tried to find a rheumatologist on call.  There wouldn't be one for a few hrs.  So then she was trying to find an internal medicine doctor on call.  Yeah, not for a few hours either.  What the hell, no one calls around 9:00 pm?  Which also happens to be when the walk-in clinic closes.  So she told me to have someone bring me to the ER right away.

My brother was out with friends, so I texted him and he came and brought me to the ER.  They hooked me up to a heart monitor and kept checking my blood pressure and yeah, my heart was racing way too fast, now up to about 130.  The doctor started telling me about this Serotonin Syndrome, that the Savella was pretty much posioning me and I was overdosing on serotonin.  He got me a shot of Ativan to try to slow my heart, and it did nothing, so he was debating about admitting me.  Then another doctor came in, and introduced herself as a resident, and that the main doctor told her to come examine me because I was an "interesting case."

Oh good Lord.

The main doctor came back in and said that I was definitely getting admitted.

I was not expecting that, thought they'd just say something like it's only temporary, nothing to worry about. 

Wow did I guess wrong.  And all those jokes about Savella trying to kill me?  Turns out that it was.

My poor tummy!

Pretty much they just had to watch my urine output and give me Ativan to get my heart to calm down.  And give me shots in my tummy to prevent blood clots.  They had really great food there, and besides adjusting to basic cable, it wasn't too bad of a stay.

The highlight?  Hearing how the nurses had to google "serotonin syndrome" before attending me because they'd never seen it before.  Or in some cases, heard of it.

My dad came to visit on Friday, and my parents came up on Sat.  It was nice to see them, and I kinda broke down on them because I just couldn't believe that this was going on.  It just never ends.  I finally was able to process what was going on, instead of just doing the "do what has to be done" and pure survival mode.  I mean, this med really could have killed me.  I'm still trying to process that aspect, there will undoubtably be a post about that which will include MASH quotes. 

Then they wanted to ask the doctor some questions.  My mom was all up on "did this stuff damage my heart" and my dad had the info packet from the Savella packet asking questions.  I told him to put it away five times before he did, lol.

When my parents left, Jeremy came to visit.  He got a pass from the treatment place and his dad brought him for a couple hour visit.  We dined on hospital food and then snuggled.  You know, our "normal" dates over the past month.  It was really nice to see him, and he's doing pretty well.  It was so nice just to hold each other.  I hated to see him go. 

A classmate from high school stopped in for a quick visit late that evening; she's a CNA at the hospital and saw on Facebook that I was there and asked for my room number.  Haven't seen each other in years and it was good to see her.  Life definitely hadn't turned out the way we thought it would when we graduated.

By Sat night I was feeling pretty good.  The heart rate was back down, I showered, and was able to sit up.

The doctor came in this morning and said that I'll have some appts set up in about a week; he wants me to stay off any serotonin meds this week, and then I should talk to my rheumy about Lyrica.  So yeah, this week all I have for fibro is gabapentin & a muscle relaxer, and no anti depressant.  Eek.  But better safe than sorry.

My dad came to take me home, and it was so nice to see Alex again.  Oh she was so talkative!!  She's been all snuggles today, we took a nap on the couch and she got treats and wet nomz. 

I'm still nauseated but it's ok.  Eli was in town with friends today and brought me more 7-Up.  My bros have been pretty awesome.  I'm bruised and marked up from IV's and the tape and heart monitor stickers.  My fibro isn't too happy from the bed and pillow at the hospital, but I don't care. 

I'm back with Alex. 

I'm alive.

From Google Images