Sick & Tired of Being Sick and Tired

I have not felt well for a long time. I was beginning to feel like a whining hypochondriac! First there was the foot surgery in August and then the foot surgery in October. I've been tired and had occasional bouts of nausea. A few weeks ago I started having lower back pain. The doctor scheduled me for a series of tests to rule out kidney stones. The test results came back with minor problems but definitely not kidney stones. Then, I developed symptoms of a UTI. A routine urinalysis in the doctor's office confirmed a severe bladder infection. While taking the medication for the bladder infection, my nausea changed to occasional vomiting. I was feeling sick & tired one day and and tired but fine the next. Finally, on Monday, November 27, I couldn't suffer anymore. I called the doctor's office again to "complain." She was concerned I was having a reaction to the UTI medication and sent me to the emergency room for tests.

I went to the hospital that is about a mile away from home. When I arrived, I had a temperature of 102.8, my blood pressure was high and I felt rotten. The ER staff drew blood, took urine samples and gave me medicine to bring the fever down and stop the vomiting nausea. The blood work & urine tests came back "normal". Since the medication was working they sent me home - diagnosis: viral infection unknown.

Tuesday morning I woke up feeling tired and achy but no fever and no nausea. I stayed home from work and by the end of the day was feeling pretty good. I planned on going to work Wednesday. But, when Wednesday morning came, I was feeling lousy. By the time my husband came home from work, I was in bed with chills, nausea & had been vomiting. I took my temperature and was shocked to see it was around 105 degrees. He insisted I go back to ER. I did not want to go - I could take Tylenol or Motrin & bring the fever down just as well as the ER team & it would be cheaper. After taking the Motrin, my fever seemed to come down but I had an awful pounding in my head. I thought my blood pressure was probably sky high and decided I should follow advice & be seen at ER. But, I would not go back to the same hospital.

Instead I went to Hackley Hospital. When I checked in, my temperature was 102.7 degrees and my blood pressure wasn't very good either. I informed ER personnel I had been seen at the "other" hospital Monday. They asked me why I didn't return there. My response was they couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. I was assured that Hackley Hospital staff would find out what was wrong.

I was poked, prodded, and tests were run - just like on Monday. Then the doctor decided I might have a blood clot (foot surgery was 7 weeks earlier) and wanted to run some more tests. He felt I should be admitted to the hospital so tests could be run.

On the way up to my room, we stopped for a sonogram of my legs - looking for blood clots. After getting settled in my room & taking a sleeping pill, a young man came in my room with a gurney - he was taking me for a sonogram. Hmmmm, was he kidding, I already had a sonogram. Was he trying to kidnap me. Why would anybody want to kidnap sick old me? I was too sick & too tired to care, I scootched over to his gurney and we went for a ride to the 2nd floor for a sonogram of my kidneys.

On the way back to my hospital room, my nurse was standing in the hallway. She seemed pretty excited. She asked me if I had been out of the country. Ok, I'm thinking, have I been gone that long? I went to the 2nd floor for a sonogram. My 2nd thought was I really don't want to talk about my vacation right now. All that came out of my mouth was "Yes". She asked "where?" My response - "Vanuatu.....South Pacific Ocean".

The young man pushed me back to my room & I could hear the nurse relaying my vacation information over the phone. I thought this was strange but didn't give it a 2nd thought. I moved back in my bed and proceeded to go back to sleep.

A short time later, I sensed someone in my room. I opened my eyes to see my admitting doctor standing at the foot of my bed. He was smiling - they found out what was wrong with me. Apparently, down in the lab, the lab techs were looking at my blood work and were very puzzled. They were seeing something they had not seen before. Finally, one of the techs says he knows me and is it possible I picked up something when I was overseas. They started looking and determined I had Malaria. When my admitting doctor called the hospital's infectious disease doctor to tell her they had a "suspected" case of Malaria, the infectious disease doctor's initial response was "at Hackley Hospital? In Michigan? I don't think so. You will have to get that confirmed." The CDC was contacted and they confirmed it - I have Malaria.

There are several different forms of Malaria, some are easier to treat that others. Fortunately, I have the form that is the easiest to treat. Unfortunately, the original dose of medication - which is very strong - can cause some pretty serious side effects. I had the original dose on Thanksgiving day. The following Sunday, I experienced my first side effects. Nothing serious but pretty scary - I'll tell you more about the side effects in another post - another day.

After spending six nights in the hospital, I am home. I'm still tired but for the first time in many months, I can honestly say I feel good. If you are ever sick and visit an emergency room, don't accept a diagnosis of "unknown". If a person is sick, there must be a reason. I feel very lucky somebody knew me and cared enough to dig deep enough to figure out what was wrong with me.

I received excellent care at both hospitals - the difference between them is one cared just enough to cover my symptoms to make me feel better. The other hospital took the time to care and diagnosis what was wrong and make the symptoms go away.