Tales from Our Fairytale: My new worst nightmare

If you've been following my journey, you know that I recently had my first PCOS consultation with Dr. Howard. I am already on some medication for endometriosis, and this consultation added 3 new medications to the mix, along with a new diet - the South Beach diet where I would strictly limit the carbs in my diet. I started taking half of a pill of metformin (I had only taken 1 complete pill - 1 on Saturday and one on Monday) at dinner and 2 pills a day of Spironolactone (one at breakfast and one at dinner). Dr. Howard had also encouraged me to start this new part of my treatment with an appetite suppressant each day at lunch time.

For the past two weeks, I had been really struggling with my appetite. I'm honestly not sure how much of it was me feeling in control of what was going on and how much of it was me actually not being hungry, but I was eating even less than normal.

I had worked over the weekend to look into all of the prescriptions and research the South Beach diet (I'd be starting on Phase 1 which was pretty strict), and I felt ready on Monday to give it my best shot - eggs for breakfast, grilled chicken breast for lunch, and (thanks to my no-appetite) peanut butter for dinner. I knew that going forward I'd need to eat more in order to stay healthy, so I was researching recipes and foods that would meet the requirements of South Beach but that I would be able to enjoy as well.

On Monday evening, right before bed, I took all 5 of the pills...I nearly choked on one and gagged on another to the point I thought I was going to throw up. This process was just starting and I was already dreading it! I HATE taking pills. I hate depending on medicine. And I hate that my body starts to develop a dependency on those pills. On Monday night, 4 months seemed like it was going to be a LIFETIME.

Our Nightmare Begins

Tuesday morning, around 1:30 am, I woke up and felt extremely sick to my stomach. I barely made it into the bathroom before I started vomiting. I had never felt so sick or so weak in my life. I would get cold sweats throughout my whole body, to the point that the back of my hair was literally dripping. I also felt like there were thousands of needles trying to poke from the inside out of my arms. The worst part was my heart racing. I kept telling Brad that I thought my heart was going to beat out of my chest.

I finally got settled back down around 3:30 and was able to sleep until about 7:00. The rest of the morning I was in and out of it, feeling extremely weak and praying I wouldn't get sick again. Each time I would get up to go back to the bath room or anywhere else, I felt like I was going to black out.

I was also still trying to stick to my SB diet, so I decided I'd make some sugar free jello to start off with. I fell asleep waiting for it to get ready, and woke back up around 1:00. When I ago up at that time, I was already feeling pretty sick, but made it into the bathroom before dry heaving for what seemed like an eternity. The entire time, I began to have the same cold sweats and needle-sensation I had the night before and the racing heart rate had yet to slow down. I was sitting indian-style in front of our toilet with my arms crossed on the seat and my forehead resting on my arms. I had NO strength to do anything but sit there until another round of dry heaves would start.

Around 1:30, still sitting in the same position and now throwing up what "acid" stuff was in my stomach, Brad began to question if we needed to go somewhere. I really wasn't sure how I was going to make it ANY WHERE, but I knew I wasn't going to get any better at home, so we loaded up and headed to the ER.

Our time in the ER

We live next door (literally) to Baylor Carrollton Hospital. We don't even have to get on a street to get in the parking lot of the ER. We were there in a matter of about 5 minutes. We registered, got my blood pressure and vitals taken, and then sat with the initial contact to let her know what all was going on. I cried as I sat with a barf bag in my hands and no energy left to even dry heave. I began to have more cold sweats and the pain of the "needles" came over me again. I told her a little about my story and that I was beginning to question if it was really worth all this.

She walked us right back to Room 3 where Brad and I would spend the next 10 hours of our day.

The doctor came in to the room and immediately noted that I was severely dehydrated based on my lips alone. She walked through everything that was going on and I told her what I could about all the medicines I was on. She ordered 2L of fluid and multiple tests.

We started with a few blood tests along with a blood pressure/heart rate test where they would measure my BP and HR while I was laying down, then sitting up, then standing up. With each test, my blood pressure would go down further and my heart rate would increase. This can determine how dehydrated a patient is. Apparently, I failed this test miserably.

What seemed like an afternoon trip to the ER for fluids quickly turned into a scary experience with more questions than answers. My doctor began to get the blood work back, some of which looked fine and other pieces that looked off. We knew my blood pressure was extremely low, my heart rate was very rapid, my glucose levels were too low, and we were starting to learn that there were some red flags in other areas as well.

While I was in the restroom (thanks to IV bag 1), Brad overheard my doctor outside our room telling Mattie, my nurse, that "Room 3 is very sick." I think this might have been the first time we really started to worry about what was going on.

Shortly after that, a technician from a different area came in and explained that the doctor had ordered an ABG - arterial blood gas - which is taken from an artery as opposed to the normal veins. This goes through muscle and nerve, and mine is located directly under my vein. I'd have to say this was the WORST part of the whole experience. The initial technician tried twice in my right wrist, followed by a 2nd technician trying twice in my left wrist, and finally my friend David got it in one shot back on my right wrist.

You can see the nice little knot that was
left behind after the ABG was done.

Once my doctor got the results back from the ABG, she knew that something was wrong and went ahead with starting the admitting process. She couldn't tell us much. She didn't know why my levels were so off, but she knew that it was dangerous for my body and that we needed to get it figured out.

She could tell us that at this time the ph balance in my blood was too low. When this is out of balance, it causes the various systems in my body to not work properly. It can also cause kidney and liver damage and introduce issues with the brain. Needless to say, we were scared and wanted to get things taken care of quickly.

I had already been stuck once for the IV and five times for the ABG, and the doctor had ordered more blood work. My IV had stopped working - it wasn't letting anything in or out, and then it started really hurting. So the nurse had to pull my original IV out and started trying to draw blood from other areas. I was so dehydrated that they were having trouble finding a vein, and when they did, nothing would come out.

The first time we put anything on Facebook or told anyone besides our parents what was going on was around 7:50 on Tuesday night. The doctor had informed me that if they weren't able to get any blood out or get a new IV in, they'd have to put the IV in directly to my jugular. Another wave of panic set in and I knew we needed people praying for us.

A phlebotomist came in (after 2 others tried 4 other times) and got the blood drawn. A second technician came in and was able to get the IV in with a smaller needle. I'd been stuck 12 times by 8 different people since coming in to the ER, but they had all the blood they needed and I had an IV back in.

This isn't even HALF of the trash from trying
to get my blood drawn and IV in.

Once we had all the blood work completed that my doctor ordered, we were able to FINALLY head up to my hospital room. We got settled in around 11:30 or 12:00 after what was the LONGEST day of my life and the nurse put my third liter of fluid in. We knew the nurses would be in pretty often to check my vitals - I think the only thing that happened more than "the sticks" was getting my blood pressure taken - so we went right to sleep to try and get as much rest as possible.

Day 2 - Admitted

Day 2 seemed to get started way too earlier with very little sleep the night before. The first nurse came in around 5:00 am to draw some more blood (Lucky number 13 and the 9th person) and she was pretty quickly followed by an assistant that came in to take my blood pressure. I was also taken down to radiology around 9:00 for chest and abdomen X-Rays.

We didn't have much news about what was going on, but we knew we were waiting to see Dr. Kim. He came in around 10:30 and walked through the past few days and talked about all of the medicines I was taking. He gave us a little insight as to what was going on, deciding it was "the perfect storm" inside my body, but told us he wanted us to talk with a Kidney specialist before moving forward.

My parents got in around 11:30 and that helped tremendously. Just talking to them and NOT focusing on all that was going on was a nice break. I definitely underestimated the lack of energy I had when I got so tired from taking a shower. My sweet mom helped me blow dry my hair...this was something she hadn't done in a very long time! :)

My sweet mom blow drying my hair :)

Still waiting for the kidney specialist

We waited most of the day for the kidney specialist, Dr. Perri, but she talked with us for quite a while and worked through what was going on. She confirmed what the 2 other doctors had suspected, stating that my body was in starvation mode when I came in the ER and that something called "Acidosis" was taking place in my body. There was too much acid in my body fluids. From my lessened appetite and eating, to the amount that I vomited, added to the medicines I was taking and the lack of carbs I ate on Monday, my body wasn't able to keep up.

Dr. Perri explained that the fluids should help to get everything regulated again, and she hoped I'd be able to go home the following day! I had my fourth and fifth bag of IV fluids - these contained more "nutrients" than the normal sodium chloride bags.

Day 3 - Going HOME!

Day 3 was pretty much the same. My 5th bag of IV fluids finished up around 3:30 in the morning and they unplugged my from everything (IV and heart monitor), so I was able to sleep the rest of the night more comfortably than the two before.

They came in around 5:00 for another round of blood (stick 15) that barely worked at all. He said he'd turn it in and hope for the best, but about an hour later, another lab technician walked in (stick 16) to try and get some more. Thankfully she was a little more successful! There was another blood pressure test (laying, sitting, standing) and a shot of meds around 9:30, but after that - we were finally just waiting for word from the doctors that we'd be able to go home!

B working from the hospital room.

A second kidney specialist came in around 1:45. He had taken a look at my kidney functions, ph levels, and all of the tests that the nurses had been running. He said my kidney output had gone back up, my levels were evening out, and he felt I was ready to go home! Then we just had to wait on word from Dr. Kim.

My favorite "meal" while I was in the ER
and hospital room.

Our Answers. Our Plan.

Dr. Kim came in a little before 2:30 and spent some more time talking with us about all that had gone on over the past few days and weeks. He gave us his obvious recommendation of stopping the latest medicines I had added and to hold off on the South Beach diet for now. This was something Brad and I had already talked about doing, so we were glad to hear him say the same thing.

He did let us know that this is something that can happen again, so we'll have to watch for the warning signs from now on and I'll have to make sure that I'm getting an appropriate amount of nutrition - even when I don't "feel" like eating.

This definitely puts a pretty big kink in our plans with Dr. Howard, but I am starting to see God tell me not to rush this (repeatedly...in more than one way). So we are going to slow down and focus on the endometriosis first, and then work towards getting the PCOS taken care of.

I'll meet with Dr. Howard this Friday to see what all he has to say about the latest developments in his plan for my health and fertility.