The Other Shoe

As we enjoyed dinner last night celebrating the accomplishments so far and readjusting our focus based on the rebound I have had from recent setbacks, we hoped for a period of calm before the next “set back.”  Little did we know that next set back had already began.

After our appointments we walked back to the Gift of Life House.  Julie was exhausted and laid down for a short nap.  I was exhausted too but far from being able to sleep so I opted to take my laptop and retire to one of the sun porches and write my previous blog post.   I was feeling a touch nauseous so I poured some 7-Up and  enjoyed the warm sun streaming through the windows and the soft recliner.  Before long little had been written and I was asleep.  Julie came looking for me and it was time to go to dinner.  When I woke up I was feeling even more nauseous but attributed it to missing my afternoon snack.  The liver acts as a reservoir for glucose providing short term storage when it is abundant in the blood stream and then releasing as needed to maintain a somewhat consistent level.  Since I don’t do this properly if I don’t have planned snacks between regular meals my glucose drops and I get the nausea and shakiness that comes with low blood sugar.

We went to dinner and had a great time.  Even though I was eating the nausea didn’t seem to be relenting but it was tolerable and we had been looking forward to this dinner for some time so I was not going to mess it up.  We enjoyed our dinner and dessert, paid the bill and I made a quick trip to the restroom.  When I returned Julie pointed out that I had blood dripping from my nose.  Nose bleeds haven’t been uncommon so I returned to the restroom for some paper towel, when I noticed that I had left a trail of blood all over.  Embarrassed I grabbed the towels and we left.  There was a bench out front where we sat down and I was able to tip my head back to try and stop the bleeding.  I began to wonder how long I had been bleeding and if the nausea was actually from the blood draining into my stomach.  As I sat there I began feeling shaky and light headed so I told Julie we had better get back to the Gift of Life House. 

By the time she drove us back I was feeling much more nauseous and shaky, but unwilling to admit it.  At this point I knew something was wrong but I had no idea what and wasn’t sure what to do.  When we got to our room I was having increasing dizziness and my knees gave out and I crumpled to the floor like a rag doll.  I did not loose consciousness I just couldn’t support myself.  As soon as I pulled myself on to the bed I felt the building urge to vomit.  I slid off the bed in an attempt to crawl to the bathroom, Julie immediately met me with a wastebasket so lying on the floor with my head in the waste basket I started dry heaving.  My nose was still bleeding and I was now only semi-coherent.  The rest of the night is a blur, since I was only semi-coherent I am not entirely sure of the next sequence of events.

Julie was obviously concerned and unsure what to do to help.  I think she took my blood pressure to make sure it hadn’t plummeted.  She was talking to me and asking questions and while I understood the words they didn’t make sense.  Julie called the Liver Transplant Unit emergency number to decide what we should do and they wanted to see me at the hospital.  The problem was how to get me off the floor and to the hospital since I couldn’t do it.  Julie went and got two other very large gentlemen who were there as caregivers for their bother who was having a kidney transplant.  They literally each grabbed a shoulder and lifted me into the wheelchair and then helped Julie get me into the truck.  Yet another advantage of staying at the Gift of Life House that you don’t think about until you are in need.  Strangely what I kept thinking about was that Julie was not going to be able to play tonight.  I know I have mentioned before how much I enjoy that and as it turned out so did a number of people staying here as well.  When we arrived that was one of the first things they as asked is if she was going to play.  She as developed a reputation and I am happy that she can use her talent to brighten the days of other with tremendous burdens.

One of the unique things that we hadn’t thought about was that Rochester Memorial Hospital just deals with specially hospitalizations and as such does not have an Emergency Room.  In fact the hospital actually closes at 8pm.  Traditional hospital care is handled by Mayo’s St. Mary’s Hospital a couple more miles up the road.   When we arrived it was dark and locked.  Julie did figure out how to get in and I was able to slide out of the truck into the wheelchair she had collected.  The dizziness was such I couldn’t stand to have my eyes open, I was still dry heaving into a towel and bleeding from my nose into the same towel.  Occasionally I would open one eye for a very brief peek.  Things had taken on a strange surreal feeling.  Every time I opened my eye I was rocketing down this darkened hospital corridor, no signs of life.  It reminded me of the Institute in the movie Coma.

Julie got us on the elevator and I felt it stop, then suddenly the wheelchair pitched forward as I nearly tumbled out, my mind was filled with this vision of being dumped into a gaping elevator shaft and plummeting to the bottom.  I opened my eyes in panic and looked around, there standing next to us was this order oriental gentleman wearing a surgical mask and in hospital attire.  My mind was reeling, I was sure this had to be a dream or hallucination.  We arrived at the Liver Transplant Unit and they didn’t actually have a spare room so they had put me on a different floor.  It was back to racing through the darkened corridors and confronting elevators.  I felt like I needed a barbers basin for my head and singing Man of La Mancha.  When we arrived on the right unit all of the rooms were dark, there was no staff in sight, just one lit room, and the same oriental gentleman leaving as we arrived.  The bed was as if under a spot light, turned down, gown neatly laid out, but where was the staff?  Then in a moment they descended, negotiating me out of the wheelchair and onto the bed.  Undressing me and putting me in a gown.  Lots of questions.  The nurse had a giant syringe and said something about a sample.  Then an IV, blood samples it was all a blur and then they were gone.  The doctor came and explained the immediate treatment plan, again I understood the words but they didn’t make sense.  The nurse return with two old-fashioned IV bottles, glass bottles circa 1950’s not bags, of yellowish liquid and connect the IV after giving me something for the nausea.  Exhausted, I drifted to sleep.

I woke about 2:30am, Julie was sleeping on the sofa, the room was dark, one of the IV bottles was empty and the nausea and dizziness was gone.  At least until I elevated my head.  I was awake the rest of the night.  In the morning they had a battery of tests, x-rays, echocardiogram, ultrasound.  But they found nothing, yet I remained the same.  As long as I lay down I was okay but as soon as I sat up the nausea and dizziness returned.  They finally decided that it could be a pressure equalization issue with my inner ear and gave me some medicine.  That knocked me out but when I woke up an hour later I felt fine.  That seemed to be the key, and in hind sight I had been having trouble with my ears popping for several days after a recent cold.

Julie came back from freshening up and I was egger to go home.  They weren’t as egger to release me.  They did cancel the head CT Scan based on my improvement and to prove I was fine I got out of bed and wandered the corridors with Julie for 30 or 40 minutes. 

They released me about 5pm and so our “set back” came to an end.  While it was one of the most quickly resolved it was by far the most scary, particularly for Julie.  I truly appreciate her level headedness and thoughtful reaction to the situation.  I am so blessed to have her for my wife.