![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Sunday night... couldn't sleep. My bad for staying in bed for about 13 hours out of the day. I finally dragged myself upstairs to sleep just as the sun was coming up around 7, and slept on and off until it was time to get up around noon and pack up all the laundry and computer stuff I'd brought with me. Thanks to my sister's help, I managed to get out of the house by 2pm, and grabbed something to eat on the way to the highway... though I never did eat much more than a few bites. Something about food has really not appealed to me all day, and it's unfortunate that my stomach disagrees with this sentiment, making itself understood in painful rumblings.
I managed to get through the entire shift at work.. but at a rather high price. On the way home, I began to feel lightheaded, and noticed that my hands and feet were going numb and tingling. I made it to my apartment just fine, came in and noted that there were many nifty and wonderful people here that I would have enjoyed hanging out with, but I was a bit more concerned by my lack of ability to draw in a full breath of air. Funny how everything else sort of disappears and stops when you can't breathe easily. Called my mom, since she unfortunately has many many years of experience with asthma, to find out if she had ever had anything like that happen to her, and what she recommended that I do. Took the tinctures that she mentioned and gave the hospital a call, to see if they could offer any insight. I should have remembered that they can't give medical advice over the phone, and I called mom back to let her know. She really didn't like that my limbs were all prickly, or that I couldn't find my just-in-case inhaler, and I decided to go to the emergency room.
Now, the hospital isn't that far away from here, and I figured I'd be okay, as long as I kept breathing deeply and evenly, stayed calm and pulled over if I felt really woozy. I was completely unprepared for what actually happened. About halfway to Rt. 9, I felt my hands start to tingle again, and the muscles began to get very rigid, so that I couldn't move them easily. My abdominal muscles seized in the same way, as well as my chest. I was on Rt. 47, essentially the middle of nowhere as far as finding help was concerned, so I pulled over, got out of the car, made myself walk slowly around the outside of the car and breathe slowly and deeply until I could feel my hands again. At this point, I knew I wasn't going to make it on my own, so I decided to stop at the first place it would be safe to ask for help, which happened to be a gas station on Rt. 9.
The attendant was awesome, called an ambulance for me and gave me a bottle of water as I sat on the trunk of my car and tried to keep myself calm and breathing. I had started repeating the Litany Against Fear to myself in my head as most of the muscles in my body twitched, prickled and seized. I'd never felt anything like that before, and it was a little frightening. The ambulance arrived, and they smiled at my overly precise description of what I was feeling and what I had done, and they told me I had been hyperventilating without realising it, and had come relatively close to passing out. It was a good thing I pulled over. Left the car there as they took me to the hospital to get checked out.
I started crying a bit in the ambulance, and I didn't really understand why at the time, all I knew was I felt like an ass for wasting these EMT's time on something so trivial, at the same time being really scared by the way my hands felt, and how weird it felt to talk, since the muscles in my face weren't responding properly. I was also really afraid of how much this trip would cost me after it was all said and done.
In the end, I've got a sinus infection and bronchitis, and I'll be filling my prescription and staying in bed tomorrow instead of pushing myself to be at work, regardless of the fact that I can't afford to lose the hours.... as much as I love the co-op and don't want to make their day harder by bailing out of my shift, I also really like driving home without passing out at the end of the day. My safety wins in this contest. Kiernan wins the "Amazing friend!" award for coming to pick me up from the ER at 1 in the morning and take me back to my car, then following me home to make sure I got there okay. You rock, and I owe you, and J for the inhaler. *hug*
So, there's my day.
I got to ride in an ambulance and they gave me a pretty blue bracelet to wear. It has my name on it and everything.
Now, I turn to my bed and collapse upon it in a heap of sore muscles and annoyance.
Later.
-Me.
I managed to get through the entire shift at work.. but at a rather high price. On the way home, I began to feel lightheaded, and noticed that my hands and feet were going numb and tingling. I made it to my apartment just fine, came in and noted that there were many nifty and wonderful people here that I would have enjoyed hanging out with, but I was a bit more concerned by my lack of ability to draw in a full breath of air. Funny how everything else sort of disappears and stops when you can't breathe easily. Called my mom, since she unfortunately has many many years of experience with asthma, to find out if she had ever had anything like that happen to her, and what she recommended that I do. Took the tinctures that she mentioned and gave the hospital a call, to see if they could offer any insight. I should have remembered that they can't give medical advice over the phone, and I called mom back to let her know. She really didn't like that my limbs were all prickly, or that I couldn't find my just-in-case inhaler, and I decided to go to the emergency room.
Now, the hospital isn't that far away from here, and I figured I'd be okay, as long as I kept breathing deeply and evenly, stayed calm and pulled over if I felt really woozy. I was completely unprepared for what actually happened. About halfway to Rt. 9, I felt my hands start to tingle again, and the muscles began to get very rigid, so that I couldn't move them easily. My abdominal muscles seized in the same way, as well as my chest. I was on Rt. 47, essentially the middle of nowhere as far as finding help was concerned, so I pulled over, got out of the car, made myself walk slowly around the outside of the car and breathe slowly and deeply until I could feel my hands again. At this point, I knew I wasn't going to make it on my own, so I decided to stop at the first place it would be safe to ask for help, which happened to be a gas station on Rt. 9.
The attendant was awesome, called an ambulance for me and gave me a bottle of water as I sat on the trunk of my car and tried to keep myself calm and breathing. I had started repeating the Litany Against Fear to myself in my head as most of the muscles in my body twitched, prickled and seized. I'd never felt anything like that before, and it was a little frightening. The ambulance arrived, and they smiled at my overly precise description of what I was feeling and what I had done, and they told me I had been hyperventilating without realising it, and had come relatively close to passing out. It was a good thing I pulled over. Left the car there as they took me to the hospital to get checked out.
I started crying a bit in the ambulance, and I didn't really understand why at the time, all I knew was I felt like an ass for wasting these EMT's time on something so trivial, at the same time being really scared by the way my hands felt, and how weird it felt to talk, since the muscles in my face weren't responding properly. I was also really afraid of how much this trip would cost me after it was all said and done.
In the end, I've got a sinus infection and bronchitis, and I'll be filling my prescription and staying in bed tomorrow instead of pushing myself to be at work, regardless of the fact that I can't afford to lose the hours.... as much as I love the co-op and don't want to make their day harder by bailing out of my shift, I also really like driving home without passing out at the end of the day. My safety wins in this contest. Kiernan wins the "Amazing friend!" award for coming to pick me up from the ER at 1 in the morning and take me back to my car, then following me home to make sure I got there okay. You rock, and I owe you, and J for the inhaler. *hug*
So, there's my day.
I got to ride in an ambulance and they gave me a pretty blue bracelet to wear. It has my name on it and everything.
Now, I turn to my bed and collapse upon it in a heap of sore muscles and annoyance.
Later.
-Me.
