And...back in the hospital

Seems that I am a medical mystery again.

So far they don't think this is related to the Carotid Dissection or any of the procedures I had done in Phoenix.

Yesterday morning around 4am I woke up feeling generally crappy.  Kind of like the overall "blah" you feel when you have the flu.  From 4-8am I tossed and turned and never got very good sleep.  I still didn't have much of an appetite (I had not been terribly hungry the night before, but had eaten a little).  I tried eating some cereal but my mouth was really dry and I felt too crappy to eat.  At about 9:30 my hands and feet started feeling tingly with some loss of sensation.  That was very worrisome so Mary got me in the car and we headed off to the ER.

All the way there my thoughts were, of course, on a dislodged clot or some kind of problem with the sealant they put in my femoral artery for the angiogram.  This freaked me out and added some hyperventilation to the tingling which just exacerbated it.  By the time we got to the ER my legs were numb, my arms were numb and I had lost all use of my hands.  They were all cramped up.  I was also feeling numbness creeping up my abdomen and around the sides of my head.

The ER nurse asked me questions about my recent medical history which severed that purpose and also got my breathing regular.  Once in the ER bed the feeling to limbs had returned and my tingling had reduced.  I felt, cold, shaky, very weak and still very crappy.

Several vials of blood were taken and the early results showed I had very low phosphate levels which would have caused the tingling and flu-like crappy feeling.

They started a electrolyte IV and I had an phosphate pill.  I also got a little food in, but I was still without much appetite.

Several hours in the ER and I was moved to a regular hospital bed for more tests and monitoring.  By evening my levels had returned to normal but no other test results or examination of meds and history were explaining why my levels dropped.  A kidney doctor (Nephrologist) was scheduled to come see me as well.

I slept well through the night only waking up during the four times when (1) midnight when they came in to check my heart monitor which required ripping a contact pad off and replacing it; (2) routine vitals check; (3) blood draw at 4am and; (4) another heart monitor pad removal and replacement.

I continued to snooze till breakfast at 8:30am and was glad that some of my appetite had returned.

My father showed up to hang out with me at about 9:15am.

The Nephrologist showed up around 10 and ran through a plethora of questions.  Still no idea why my levels might have dropped.  The kidney blood tests and thyroid blood tests all checked out.  She is going to look over some more tests and see if she can draw any other conclusions.

I am now off the IV drip so they can see how my electrolyte levels persist on regular diet and evacuation.

After meds, shower, food and rest I am feeling more like my (post dissection) self.

So much fun!

----

Month of May:

30+ blood draws
25 days of headaches
12 days in Phoenix, AZ
10+ doctors on varying parts of my case(s)
9 medications
8 Hampton Inn Belgium Waffles :)
7 self-administered shots
6 nights in the hospital
5 IVs
4 United Airlines flights
3 different hospitals
3 CT scans
2 different states
1 MRI/MRA
1 carotid dissection
1 unexplained electrolyte plummet