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Horrible Weekend and a Cautionary Note or Two


woodland_miniatures

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I spent this weekend in Yakima Memorial Hospital's ICU with a life-threatening allergic reaction to a medication I've been taking for years. This is a cautionary tale, from someone who considers herself fairly well-versed in things medical (learned through hard experience while caring for my mother during her years-long dying, and through my own recent pretty bad medical problems), and I NEVER saw any of this coming.

What happened: Thursday morning I woke up with extreme burning and pain in my esophagus, and had trouble swallowing, felt like I needed to burp but couldn't; a few hours later the burning moved into my stomach - excruciating! - and antacids didn't help a bit. Early afternoon the diarrhea started, then the vomiting. I spent the next two days blowing at both ends about every 15 - 30 minutes, nonstop - it was truly hideous, but you know, I thought "awww, flu, it'll pass sooner or later and I'll be fine." What I didn't realize was that I was severely dehydrated and my kidneys had shut down after about 24 hours of this, and that I should have been in a hospital at that point. NOTE: there is a truly godawful strain of stomach flu out there and if you or a loved one have been losing what seems like gallons of fluids from either end pretty much non-stop for even "merely" 24 hours (believe me, it seems like an eternity in H*LL when it's going on!), you NEED TO GET MEDICAL HELP. Chances are you are by this time badly dehydrated, your stomach will continue to refill itself with stomach acid every time you empty it and this cycle can get locked in; in my case by the time I had a friend call 911 on Saturday morning my veins had collapsed (almost impossible for the medics to get a line into me to get some fluids in) and my kidneys had shut down - didn't pee for three days. It's isn't all that far from this to folks setting up your wake for you. GET HELP before it gets to this stage, folks.

Now, the allergic reaction to the medication I'd been taking for years, and what did finally get me to call 911: Friday night my tongue hurt like the dickens and I was having trouble swallowing. Well, there'd been an awful lot of really nasty stuff pass that way, sooo.....I didn't do anything about it. Saturday morning (need I say I hadn't been getting any sleep during this nightmare), my tongue and throat started to swell and got to grotesque proportions really quickly. Tongue so big I couldn't close my mouth or talk - got myself out in my building's hall and thank God found a neighbor right there and had her call 911. Folks, this swelling is called "angio edema" and often occurs in the face, throat or tongue, and it can shut down your airways very quickly. Mercifully, the medics got there and were pumping me full of epinephrine and whatnot within minutes, but had a tracheotomy tray out just in case. Me, I'm still not believing any of this is happening....

Anyway, the bottom line is that the tongue/throat swelling was caused by an allergic reaction to a drug I've been on for years, and was probably brought on by the violence of the flu and its consequences. FYI, the drug is a common blood pressure med called "lisinopril", I was on a low dose of it for at least the last five years, but even so while an allergic reaction like this is definitely uncommon, it is NOT rare by any means. So now I obviously will NOT ever be taking that drug or any other ACE inhibitor, which is the type of drug lisinopril is. After having had this reaction, any drug of that type would most likely have my friends preparing my memorial. So now I also need to get a medic alert bracelet, and have already let my pharmacist know, so that even if some ignorant doctor does prescribe something for me that's in that family of drugs, my pharmacist can be watching my back. Thank God for the wonderful pharmacists in this world!

Anyway, the hospital discharged me yesterday afternoon and I rode home from Yakima with a wonderful old guy driving a cab, who asked me when I got in at the hospital, "So, what the heck happened to you, dear?" My response, "Well, I was just proving one more time that I'm a tough old girl to kill." Made a new friend with that dear old boy, who is one of those unsung heroes seeing his wife of 46 years through a long, horrid dying with little or no help or support. His name's Jerry, lives in Yakima, WA and any prayers sent his way would surely be a comfort.

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Ohmygoodness! How terrible!! Sure glad you were able to get medical help in time! And thanks for the warning for us all - both hubby and I had experiences that, looking back, we should have gone to the hospital....after this story, I think I will be a little more 'quick on the trigger' next time!

Prayers to you and your new friend!

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It's amazing that how we want to not believe anything serious could be happening to us. I know when I had my first vicious headache, which is a classic sign of stroke, I ignored it for 3 days till it went away (how lucky can you get?). Then it came back and instead of calling an ambulance, I drove myself to the hospital (then couldn't find the nearest one and went another 15 minutes and 7 miles more to go to one I knew the location of). My walking in by myself, completely calm when I should have been raising hell, resulted in not being taken seriously and put in the waiting room for two hours. Only when a spinal tap was performed was the situation revealed to be serious and I was immediately sent over to a hospital in Seattle.

I also take lisinopril and I've asked my doctor to go back to metropolol. Unfortunately, with my high BP, I need to stay on the lisinopril. I had no idea this sort of thing could happen. Mary, thank you so much for posting and I will definitely remember this.

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Mary, sending loving prayers for you and Jerry. What an experience! Thank you for sharing it in such a clear manner. Nobody likes to think he or she is vulnerable to illness. Denial is not just a river in Egypt. Thanks for the reminder that we need to take care of ourselves.

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When people come in to the pharmacy with what looks like an allergic reaction to something, they always say 'but I've never had a reaction to that before' and I always say you can become allergic to something at any point, doesn't have to be the first time you're exposed to it. Doesn't mean the reaction is definitely due to that, but could be!

So glad you got to hospital in the end in time Mary!

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Oh, dear, my BP stayed up after the pacer went in and after two years on metaprolol they added lisinopril to keep it down. I shall have a chat with my MD next physical (nor wait that long if I notice any symptoms). Thank you, dear heart! And Jerry is most definitely in my prayers.

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Glad you got help in time, Mary! I have read about too many tragedies in organ and tissue donor records where the person may have survived, had they gotten help sooner.

Also glad I don't take Lisinopril any longer. Never liked the stuff anyway.

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Thanks for sharing your experience with us, Mary. Your reaction to what was happening to you was typical, and any one of us could also downplay those symptoms. So it was nice of you to think of us after having such a horrible experience. It is also nice to ask for prayers for Jerry. He has mine, and so do you.

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I thank you all so very much for listening and taking heed of the possibilities, which sure blindsided me. Someone else here today said we're all family, and it really feels that way to me.

What the experience did in a practical way for me was that I spent today yelling for help from any agency/organization that had helped me before during my recent health problems, and which I'd let slide away out of stubbornness and more stupidity that I'm comfortable admitting (but, hey, you don't get healthy if you keep on rowing down that Denial River - and I am blessed in that I CAN get healthy, when so many never will be again). Pride and stubbornness...well, I let all that go today. So I am being interviewed for in-home help from DSHS on Wednesday (this means help with my household chores, cooking, daily living needs, shopping etc.), I did what was needed to reactivate our local home health and hospice folks so that I can have visiting nurses (and the medical supplies that they will furnish instead of my having to be out of pocket $50 - $150 or more each month with no hope of claiming any of that as medical expenses), and a bath aide to help me stay clean.

Little Mary cried "UNCLE!" loud and clear today - and I am SO relieved that I did. These people all remember me from helping me before over most of the last two years, and they listened, let me know I was worth helping - all I had to do was ask and then LET them help me. Oh, yeah, I am so ready to let them help me now - so maybe needed to be this deeply frightened in order to shake me back into the real world. This horrid experience may just turn out to be one of the best things that ever happened to me, who knows?

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Wow! What an experience! So glad you got help and have recovered. I'm one of those who ignore symptoms because I'm sure they will go away - but there are times we should get help. Keep well - and keep mini-ing :)

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So very glad to know you are doing better after this scary experience,Mary! It's good of you to share this reminder that we can become allergic to any medicine at any time. Your advice to be proactive in our health care is so valuable,too! I was an idiot who waited 6 months to see anyone about the lump in my breast,and then only after a loving cousin took the initiative-unknown to me at the time-to make a phone call and find out what a low income person with no medical insurance could do to get help. That's how I found out about the government program that helps low income women like me to have mammograms and such,through the Health Department. Up until then I thought they mainly dealt with communicable disease outbreaks and immunizing babies and children and supplying birth control! lol I am on Medicaid now,through this particular program,because there is no longer any reason a low income woman should have to die of breast or cervical cancer just because she doesn't have insurance. (Sorry for the sidebar,but I am still so grateful to be able to share that!) I'm so glad you will have someone to come to your home to help you with your care! Sending prayers up for you and your new pal,Jerry,also!

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FYI, everybody, the program Kat describes is a Federal program. As a PHN I worked mostly in School Health, but for several years during the summer I got to work in the clinics and remember several of our customers getting referred to oncologists.

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Kat, it was a great sidebar - people do need to realize that there IS help out there for folks with no insurance and very little money. Contact your local state Dept. of Social and Health Services - and yes, there is a phenomenal amount of paperwork and irritation, etc., but the vast majority of folks who work in such depts. are genuinely caring and really WANT to help people.

Well, spent another few horrid days in the hospital last week - they kicked me loose Friday, thank goodness. The tummy etc. troubles were not the flu at all, but a bacterial infection of the small intestine that usually shows up after you've wiped out your friendly bacteria with antibiotics - so it's a little weird since the last time I had antibiotics was last May. Oh, well, never could do anything by the book, lol, and so I'm home again, on oral antibiotics for the next several weeks (and yes, I'm eating yogurt daily - that does help keep your normal bacteria going, and besides it tastes good!). See my doctor later today for a follow-up, and am SO glad to be able to eat again and not have it leaving me from all orifices at light speed.....Man, there just isn't anyone on this planet I hate badly enough to wish that particular horror show off on!

As for the help I started yelling for, I've actually got some of it, much to my astonishment. Got my food stamps back (tiny amount, but the fact that I'm back in the system lets me use some other services that I definitely wanted - transportation and such), and the visiting nurse will be around tomorrow to start up with me again - that can really help because s/he will be keeping on eye on this horrid unhealing foot wound I've had for what seems like forever and with the proper doctor's orders, can bring me dressing supplies and such instead of me having to buy them myself (and believe me, that little expense adds up each month), and a social worker will be coming out next week to see what else might make a difference to my life. I got denied the in-home caregiver, but that happened before this last hospitalization and I do have some hope that I'm now officially helpless enough to qualify - I really am terribly weak and much restricted in how I can move.

For the folks that don't know, I've been dealing with these awful monster wounds on the bottoms of my feet, where I have no feeling (for reasons no one really understands) and have had life-threatening infections over and over and over during the last three and half years; one of the feet has been healed for well over a year, but the other one.....Thank heavens, a doctor did get me a power wheelchair more than two years ago and this has been a Godsend - it means I can get around town and my apartment and my building, and not be totally housebound. Man, the day I got that, oh, it was like being a free woman again! But, still, I am living in a wheelchair and would give anything to get all this settled and WALK again. I did have an orthopedic surgeon that I've known before come to me in the hospital and say, "Now, Mary, just how attached are you to that foot?" The thought of losing it isn't a new idea - hey, at one point a couple of years ago there was talk of taking BOTH my feet! So his question wasn't a shock, but still....I am ready to consider, though, anything that might give me some sort of resolution to this - waiting for the next inevitable life-threatening infection is no fun, believe me - so the dreaded "A-word" is now officially on the table. Oh, my, who knew a simple dry skin crack on the bottom of my foot over three and a half years ago could ever lead to anything like this? All for the want of a good moisturizer....

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I'm having the local VNA services right now and it is wonderful. The nurse and physical therapist come right to my house and they supply all those expensive dressings. They also report to the MD'S so things haved moved seemingly well for me. I have only good things to say about them.

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  • 1 month later...

(((((Hugs to you!)))))

Too much absence plus too much to read and this was overlooked. I hope you are on the mend in some respects.How are you doing?
I have started dealing with cracked heels myself (diabetes). I have a regimen of foot soaks, a daily date with the pumice stone, and thick lotion mixed with Vaseline. So far so good.

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So, Mary, I'm hoping for the best for what was planned for you. Hope you can check in with us soon and update us on your progress.

I get terribly deep cracks/fissures in my feet and my fingers. I haven't found any prescription, over the counter or homemade remedy that truly fixes any of it. Some help a bit but the cold weather just takes the issue and runs with it. My fingers are bleeding and sore all winter as are my feet.

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