Courtenay Brown

Excitement and high drama.

Yesterday I was feeling kind of not-awesome, but I was at work, and I don’t know, work doesn’t usually make me feel awesome, so I was ready to just chalk it up to “rainy Tuesday in Seattle in November” blues. Except by 4 p.m., all I’d had the appetite for was a grapefruit, a small coffee, and a bar – normally this would not get me past 9 a.m.! Perhaps my feelings of not-awesome were legit.

The evening went by fairly normally – I worked on stuff, Ben worked on stuff, we helped each other with stuff, I made him feel my forehead a billion times, we both decided that the only thing that was feverish was his hand. Then at 8 p.m. I finally found my mercury thermometer and stuck it in my mouth… 102.4 degrees! That is SICK! So I took some Robitussin (more like Rodisgusstin) for my awful cough, and went to bed.

Then my head was killing me. And I was roasting to death, and awake for hours. Then finally it was morning. I found the thermometer again, it said 99.4! I ran downstairs to show Ben that maybe I was better, then came back upstairs and called my mom to share the exciting news about my fever.

She said I should take Advil or Tylenol for my fever, because fever is bad for the brain. Oh. My brain did really hurt. Then I kind of suddenly couldn’t focus on anything. Then I was thinking “huh. Why am I on the bathroom floor with my arm in the trash can. I should go to the bed.” Then I think I got up. Then I screamed for Ben. Then Ben and his dad were standing over me. “What is going on? Where am I?” Halfway in the hall, halfway in the bedroom. Then they said I had blood on my face and asked if I could wiggle my hands and toes. I laid there for a while, it felt good to be still, then I started to cry and be worried. Ben scurried around, got me some electrolyte drink, made some phone calls, and decided he would take me to Harbor View Medical Center. I made him change my pants for me, I love my pink pony pajama pants but the E.R. has enough crazies as it is, I kind of wanted to be respectable. Regular sweatpants, please.

Slowly I sat up, then stood up, then walked down the stairs with Ben as his dad went to pull the car up to the door for us. We got downstairs and my eyes got all wide, “it’s happening again!” and then, like the other times, I found myself sprawled on the ground, disoriented. This time it happened gently thanks to Ben, but still it was no less confusing or scary. So, after that episode, Ben and his dad carried me out to the car, no more walking for me, and I laid the seat all the way back for the drive to the hospital.

We got there and the intake process seemed pretty quick. I passed out yet another time, but that time was in a chair, and it was with the financial lady so maybe fainting was a subconscious escape tactic!

Fun in the E.R.

Then we were there for forever. I got my blood pressure taken (113 over 54?!!?), gave a urine sample, got blood drawn, got an H1N1 test, got an EKG, got chest x-rays, and got 2 I.V. bags. Oh and I have a face mask now. There was a lot of sitting around. Thankfully, Ben brought his laptop and they had free wi-fi. Also I called my mom to make sure she didn’t think I was dead. As it turns out, she thought I had simply hung up on her because I didn’t want any more advice! I was filling her in on everything when suddenly she said “I can’t hear you at ALL! Why don’t you send me an email or a text, I CANNOT hear you!” Ok, I said. “Well, do you have any answers? Do you feel better? Did you faint again?” Whatever I said in reply was garbledygook on the other end, I guess she forgot she couldn’t hear me when she suddenly asked me more questions.

Gradually my blood pressure got up to 125 over 74 so that was exciting. Also exciting were the other characters in my ward. The lady on the other side of my curtain was probably in her 40’s but looked 60, a heroine addict, suffering from a bladder infection, and, it seemed, a prostitute. She complained vociferously. Eventually she had to be restrained. The guy across the hallway just got out of jail three weeks ago. Another guy further down had to have a police escort. Then two EMT students from North Seattle Community College (where I am taking Chemistry!) stopped by my bed to ask me some questions and do some learning. They listened to my lungs, and Ben said something funny so I laughed, which made me cough really badly. “WHOA. At school we listen to each others’ breathing but it’s always pretty normal. That is a real wheeze!” (I told you!) It was cute. I asked them why they weren’t next door checking out my neighbor with the bladder, etc. issues. They had been told to steer well clear of her. They must have heard that about several patients because they came back to see me again less than an hour later.

Masks are the new black

So, the verdict. There really isn’t one yet. The EKG ruled out arrhythmia in my heart, the chest x-rays ruled out pneumonia, and the blood test revealed a high white blood cell count, so I am definitely fighting an infection. The H1N1 test takes 24 hours, so I have to call back tomorrow for the result. Fainting isn’t exactly a symptom of swine flu, but considering that my fever was pretty high throughout the night, I’m pretty sure that I got very dehydrated. The fluid imbalance would have made it hard for blood to get to my brain, which would have caused me to faint. Anyway, we’ll see. The good news is, I feel better already, plus I have a really cool big cut/bruise on my nose that I didn’t even feel when it happened! So hard core. I don’t know what I would have done without Ben. He has been awesome – calm, capable, reassuring, and very caring. It could just be that he’s grateful I waited until after Huatulco before getting all scary and fainting and sick!