I'm going to document my last 24 hours so that I can come back and laugh at it someday.
The timing was somewhat of a whirlwind later in the day so I’m not 100% clear on exactly when things happened.
On Friday (May 20th) I ate a light brunch in Las Vegas at approximately 11am and drank at least 4 large glasses of ice-water (actually kind of unusual for me).
It was last day of Vegas after 4 good days at a work conference. There was a pretty packed schedule with the usual amount of wining and dining. After brunch, I stopped into a few niknaks for the family. I checked out of the hotel, taxied to the airport and I arrived a little earlier than 2 hrs before my flight and sat down around 4pm to have something for dinner before I get on my 6:20p flight.
Knowing I had some time on my hands, and was still a workday, I popped open my Mac and was chatting with a coworker when I got I got a stabbing pain in my left arm (felt like someone was poking a finger into my arm. I joked to myself that I’m probably having a heart attack. About 20 seconds later I started to have waves of dizziness and it felt like I was being pushed downwards. I fought the feeling (like you do when you stand up too quickly) and it mostly went away. This was at just after 4:15p (I can tell because I messaged my coworker saying I wasn’t feeling right). I felt very disoriented but the wave of dizziness had gone.
Moments later the "passing out" wave came back, this time much worse. I could feel my head drooping down and it was going dark. I fought it again, mostly regained composure but my my hands were clammy and shaking, I felt flushed in my face and I was very disoriented.
Knowing I had some time on my hands, and was still a workday, I popped open my Mac and was chatting with a coworker when I got I got a stabbing pain in my left arm (felt like someone was poking a finger into my arm. I joked to myself that I’m probably having a heart attack. About 20 seconds later I started to have waves of dizziness and it felt like I was being pushed downwards. I fought the feeling (like you do when you stand up too quickly) and it mostly went away. This was at just after 4:15p (I can tell because I messaged my coworker saying I wasn’t feeling right). I felt very disoriented but the wave of dizziness had gone.
Moments later the "passing out" wave came back, this time much worse. I could feel my head drooping down and it was going dark. I fought it again, mostly regained composure but my my hands were clammy and shaking, I felt flushed in my face and I was very disoriented.
I called the server over and told her I wasn’t feeling well and she offered to get “a medic”. I said that would be good and updated my coworker and let my wife know what was going on (via chat). The manager came back pretty quickly to let me know that “a medic” meant calling 911 and having an ambulance come out. I checked with my wife and we agreed that it was not something to mess around with.
They called 911 and I paid for my dinner (which had been delivered to my table) but I wasn't up for eating it. I was assisted out of the restaurant by the manager who wished me luck. I was then introduced to an official in the Airport Authority who said he would be in contact with my airline, ensure my bags were taken care of in Seattle, informing them that I wouldn’t be on my flight, etc. The ambulance arrived pretty quickly and I was in an ambulance by 4:50p. They did a lot of triage before we left for the hospital. The EMT were really funny. The younger guy tried 3 times to put in an IV. The older guy had him do the 4th under his explicit direction (to go for the vein you feel and not the one you see, how to hold the needle thing correctly etc.) Suffice it to say, he got it and we were sorted (except for quite a large mess of blood on me and my clothes).
They called 911 and I paid for my dinner (which had been delivered to my table) but I wasn't up for eating it. I was assisted out of the restaurant by the manager who wished me luck. I was then introduced to an official in the Airport Authority who said he would be in contact with my airline, ensure my bags were taken care of in Seattle, informing them that I wouldn’t be on my flight, etc. The ambulance arrived pretty quickly and I was in an ambulance by 4:50p. They did a lot of triage before we left for the hospital. The EMT were really funny. The younger guy tried 3 times to put in an IV. The older guy had him do the 4th under his explicit direction (to go for the vein you feel and not the one you see, how to hold the needle thing correctly etc.) Suffice it to say, he got it and we were sorted (except for quite a large mess of blood on me and my clothes).
We arrived at the hospital at 5:45p and I was registered and in a room very quickly, then hooked up to lots of monitors. I was seen by a bunch of people, they took an ekg (using a cool mobile unit), took bloods and I was seen by a Physicians Assistant who told me my heart rate and blood pressure were abnormally high; all done by 6:30p. I waited quietly while my labs were being worked on and at 8:20p the Dr came in to let me know that he would be reviewing the labs, x-ray and ekg and 'we'll be go from there’. At 8:30p I was put on a Saline drip and the nurse indicated that the Dr suspected I was severely dehydrated. At 9:25p the Dr ordered another saline IV for me. (Each were 1000 ml of saline).
The Dr came in at about 9:40p and said that he suspected that my heart rate was because I was severely dehydrated and the blood pressure was probably mostly caused by the trauma/drama of being in the ambulance, hospital etc. Somewhere close to 11pm, I was informed that all labs came back as normal. With the final verdict as probably just severe dehydration. Blood Pressure is high but not enough to treat it at the ER and the DR recommends setting up appt with my family Dr next week. I was cleared to fly but obviously it was too late to fly out on Friday night. All of the final discharge activities took a little bit of time and by the time I was out of the ER, I spent about 45 minutes on the phone with our corporate travel people getting a room for the remainder of the night, having them work with Delta to get my original ticket reworked so that I didn’t have to pay a change fee, etc. I caught a cab to the South Point hotel (where I was technically booked in for Sat/Sun but really early arrival). I was comfirmrd on an 11:20a flight on Saturday.
Update: Hotel was fine, airport was uneventful (this time), and flightand journey towards home was fine (but long) I will be having a very low-key weekend and arranged to take Monday and Tuesday as sick days to recover from the experience as I am still not fully back to normal.
Update 2: Spent Saturday night in the ER close to home after a repeat of the "passing out" wave. Lots of the same tests which all came back as normal. Blood Pressure and Pulse still way too high. Next steps are a follow up with my family Dr and hopefully something to get control of my blood pressure.
Update 2: Spent Saturday night in the ER close to home after a repeat of the "passing out" wave. Lots of the same tests which all came back as normal. Blood Pressure and Pulse still way too high. Next steps are a follow up with my family Dr and hopefully something to get control of my blood pressure.
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