It has been a very busy past few weeks and life isn’t looking to slow down anytime soon. I’ve been busy with work, school, and planning a bridal shower and bachelorette party.
Although I’ve had a lot of fun the past few weeks, I also had a streak of bad luck and ended up in the emergency room three times, hospital stay, and doctors office numerous times.
My last post I mentioned that I had attended a cycling class at the YMCA and ended up having an episode with my heart. Well, it ended up being more than just a heart issue that day. Yes, my heart was okay after resting and taking my nitro; however, I ended up with a muscle injury!
A few days after the class, I could hardly move! I was incredibly sore and just thought that I had pushed myself past my limits. Saturday morning came and I was in a lot of pain and had swelling in my leg. I had talked to my parents that morning and they advised me that I should probably go to the ER to get it checked out, to make sure I didn’t have a blood clot. I didn’t even think about the possibility of a blood clot and it scared me enough where I was going to put my stubbornness to rest and get it checked out. After an EKG, blood tests, and an ultra sound on my leg, the results showed that I didn’t have a blood clot (thank the lord) but I had torn my quad muscle. The doctor gave me some pain medication and told me to rest the next few days and I was out the door. The doctor had mentioned that the blood work did show that my muscle enzymes were elevated and this was most likely due to the torn quad muscle.
The next day, (Sunday) my parents came to visit. Since I couldn’t do a whole lot of walking, we decided to stay at my apartment and just hang out. I really enjoyed this! I hadn’t seen my parents in almost 2 months so it was nice to see them.
Early Monday morning, I woke up covered in sweat, pulse racing, chest pains, and I started to vomit. I wasn’t getting any better so I decided to go to the ER. I went to the Indiana Heart hospital (they were the closest hospital) and was rushed into a room right away. They started an IV, took some blood, did and EKG, and an X-ray, all within the first 30 minutes. The results came back that I was not having a heart attack and that my heart looked good, again, I was very much grateful. There was a problem though; my blood work showed my CPK (Creatine phosphokinase) enzyme levels were dangerously high. The doctor said normal levels were around 225 or less and mine were well over 18,000! The first question the doctor asked was if I was on any cholesterol medication, and I was. He ordered me to stop taking it right away. He said that I needed to get the enzymes down ASAP so they wouldn’t cause damage to my kidneys; resulting in another stay in the hospital. For the next 24 hours, I was hooked up to an IV with fluids to flush everything out. I was also on a heart monitor, just as a precaution. I’m getting used to what I’ll continue to go through if I ever ended up in the ER or hospital stay: Heart monitors, EKGS, blood work, and x-rays. I’m pretty sure this is a standard. Blood work was run on Tuesday morning, and it showed the enzymes were coming down and my heart continued to look good, so the doctor released me. The official diagnosis was called, Rhabdomyolysis.
I returned to work on Wednesday evening (4th of July) and was starting to feel miserable again. I had really bad body aches, vomiting, and I started to have some blood in my urine. So I was off to the ER again. I was hooked up to an IV and was flushed with saline again. I had some more blood work done and an ultra sound on my abdomen and pelvis. (The doctor had pushed around on that area and I was in a lot of pain). The doctor thought I had kidney stones; however, the test came back negative for that. I was diagnosed with a UTI and also kidney infection. I was put on an antibiotic, nausea medicine, and was told to have a check-up with my doctor Thursday morning. I did ask what my CPK values were and they were continuing to drop, that was a good sign.
I continued to vomit throughout the night and felt horrible. I called my doctor and went in for an appointment. I usually see Suzy, a nurse practitioner, but she was out of the office, so I was scheduled to see another doctor. He decided to do more blood work and told me to return for another appointment on Friday. The blood tests came back that my CPK values were still dropping, but my kidney levels were still high. He prescribed me more nausea medicine. I hadn’t been able to keep any food/water down since Tuesday, so I was pretty dehydrated and that could cause more problems.
Friday morning came, and I wasn’t any better; I had actually felt worse. I must have looked pretty bad because the nurses all commented on how miserable I looked. (Gee thanks!). Suzy was back so I met with her. She was looking over all of my test results and said she was concerned that my liver enzymes were elevated. She was stunned. My liver and kidney enzymes were elevated, what was going on? She pressed on my liver and it hurt like hell; I immediately started to cry. She then called in another doctor into the room to discuss what to do. They both decided to run more blood work. She put me on more pain medication and another antibiotic. That afternoon the results showed that all my levels were continuing to drop, all a good sign. At this point, since my levels were dropping, Suzy decided to NOT admit me to the hospital and ordered me off work through Sunday and told me to rest. She also said that if anything got worse, to go to the ER immediately.
I slept the rest of Friday and all of Saturday. I was actually able to start to keep food and water down! By Sunday, I was feeling a lot better and was even able to venture down to the mall to get out of the apartment for awhile. I was so thankful that all of the medications were kicking in and I was well on my way to recovery.
Suzy called me on Monday and she was incredibly happy that I was feeling much better. She said that I must have had a virus that was attacking my liver and kidneys.
To sum it all up, that entire week was rough! Not only did I have a reaction to my cholesterol medication, which caused the muscle and chest pains, but I also had a viral infection. It was one thing after another.
Through all of the horror I went through that week, I learned a valuable lesson: Do NOT push myself over the limits. If I hadn’t of been so stubborn in cycling class and wanting to keep up with others, then I wouldn’t of tore my quad muscle; I wouldn’t of had the worry of a blood clot.
I’m happy to report that I have returned to exercising. I have fell in love with water aerobics and Zumba! I will not attempt a cycling class for a very long time. I’ve learned that I need to take my time and everything will fall into place. There shouldn’t be a rush to get back to 100% because I could end up causing more harm than good on trying to achieve that goal so quickly.
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