After receiving the go ahead to go to the hospital from my doctor on Thursday afternoon, Sara drove me over to Chester County Hospital at about dinner time. At this point I was so weak that I really could not stand or even sit upright for very long without becoming extremely dizzy and weak. When we got to the emergency area of the hospital, they brought a wheelchair right up to the car since I did not really have the strength to walk very far.
I am not sure if it was my condition or the fact that they were not very busy, but they took me in for triage immediately. After getting a quick look at my condition, they took me back to the emergency area and started to work on me.
What happened during the next few hours is a bit of a blur to me now. I do remember that they took me to get chest xrays to check for pneumonia. They also hooked me up immediately with an IV drip because I was dehydrated from excessive sweating. I also remember that I was wearing a heart monitor. Other than that, those hours were dotted with various doctors coming to assess what was wrong with me and visits from nurses. After a few hours of receiving liquid via the IV drip, my fever seemed to lower a bit and level off.
It was now close to midnight and the attending doctor made the decision that I was more stable and could go home. I was elated. At that point, the doctors thought that I had a non-specific virus that had gotten a bit out of control and that bed rest with lots of fluids would be the answer. They removed the IV from my left arm and had Sara sign the release waver. I began to put on my street clothes when it happened.
In a matter of moments, rigors set in. For those of you not familiar with the term, rigors refers to the shaky chills one feels when your body sets a new set point for body temperature in the hypothalamus. The feeling is very similar to when you are exposed to extreme cold and cannot get warm. Your body shivers and shakes in an attempt to generate enough heat to keep you warm. But this was much more dramatic. I began shaking in my legs and alternately in my upper body and arms. I immediately asked for blankets from the nurses, but they were unwilling as they exclaimed that covering me would only cause my fever to rise too much. Sara grabbed both my jacket and her jacket to give me some warmth, but it was a little too little too late. By this time I was shaking uncontrollably. In fact the shaking was to terrific that I could no longer breathe easily or steadily. The best I could muster was occasional gasps. The nurse asked if I wanted a Motrin, but I could not respond as I could not get enough air into my lungs to form even a simple yes or no. Sara noted that it was at this point my lips were blue from lack of oxygen.
In addition to the inability to breathe, I could feel muscles all over my body getting pulled too tight. My ribcage muscles ached from over tension, as did my thigh muscles, arm muscled, back muscles and neck muscles. About 15 minutes into this minor drama terror, the doctor showed up and obviously did not like what he saw. He immediately rescinded the release waver and a new IV was installed in the bend of my right arm as the rigors slowly subsided. The whole episode lasted about 20 minutes, but the fear of the event and the pain from pulled muscled lasted for the next few days.
In the next hour and a half, the hospital found me a room and I was taken there. It was now around 1:30 in the morning on Friday morning and I sent Sara home. It had been a full night for both Sara and I.
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