My trip to the ER
I swear that I've been to the ER about 3 times in the past year and a half, and maybe ONCE in my whole life before that.
Last week I woke up around 2 AM and had a spasm in my left trapezius muscle. It was painful all the way to the front of my chest. I REALLY wanted a muscle relaxer, but was too lazy to get out of bed to take one. I was awake until about 4 AM and then made it back to sleep (just in time to get up at 6 for work!).
At work, I had just finished my morning coffee, when I was still having pain and decided to take that muscle relaxer after all. I put it to my lips, and swallowed it with some water. IMMEDIATELY my whole body was on fire. I was so hot, and my skin was tingling. Even my scalp and the tips of my fingers were tingling. AGH!!! This thing was IN me, and there was no way to get it out. What was happening?
My first thought was to run to the ladies room and start taking clothes off (to combat the burning up sensation) then I realized that I should NOT leave the people to go be alone somewhere.
I ran to my friend Ray's cube. About a million miles and hour I said, "I just took a muscle relaxer and now I'm all hot and tingling and I don't know what to do but I'm scared I'm having an allergic reaction and can you take me to the hospital?" Ray was staring at me with the widest eyes ever. And then someone on his phone said something. "Are you on a conference call?" I asked. He nodded his head, I said "FUCK!" and I wheeled around and ran out of his cube to find my next friend.
Two friends later I found someone who was able to take me immediately to the ER. After getting dropped off at the ER the intake nurse took my vitals. I had a fever, my heart rate was 120, I had hives on my arms, and my blood pressure was elevated. The good news is I could TOTALLY still breathe!
I was at the ER (with electrodes all over my chest) for two hours, and other than the monitoring, I just took a Benedryl to combat the allergic reaction.
Apparently we aren't allergic to something until we are. I am NEVER allowed to take those muscle relaxers again!
Can you imagine if I had taken it at 2 AM when I was home alone though?
posted by Phaedra @ 6:42 PM
3 Comments:
Oh my! Glad you came out ok!
Let this be a lesson we should all have Benadryl on hand at home and work (and insurance for ER visits).
:)
lil t
My experience was soooooo much less scary. I had eggs on toast and took Excedrin to kill off a headache, and on my way to work (like 10 minutes later) my stomach started to hurt really bad and my hands and feet started itching like CRAZY. The hand and foot itching had happened before, and I knew ice would help it go away. I felt all weird at work and my lips started to burn, and at one point when I went into the bathroom I saw that my chin was all red.
After about 2 hours it slowly went away. I was contemplating calling my husband or asking a coworker to take me to the dr., and if I had the smallest inkling that I was having trouble breathing, I would have. I was thinking that I was so glad I hadn't taken Excedrin the night before because at least I was at work where people would help me if I keeled over.
I still don't know what it was. I was scared to take Excedrin for the longest time, but I depend on it! I took it again (around people) and I was fine. Maybe the bread had a small amount of mold that I didn't notice?
I'm glad you're ok. Stay away from the muscle relaxers. It is so weird that we can develop allergies as adults.
I wonder how Ray explained THAT to the folks on the other end of his conference call . . . could it have been governor Doyle?
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