casey almost died
adventure! part 2
They told
me I was going to have pretty sore arms for the next few days since they didn't
have time to be gentle with me, and I said that was ok since I was alive. After
about an hour, the liquids really started to hit me, and I had to go pee. I
went to the bathroom on my own and then made my way back to the bed. A few minutes
later, a nurse came in and asked me if I was ok. I asked her what had happened
to me. She told me I had had a vasovagal and then hyperventilated. Basically,
my blood pressurehad dropped suddenly
and my heart ratehad become irregular. This caused me to almost
pass out, which made me hyperventilate. The two together resulted
in that rapid loss of control of my nervous system, which was pretty
crazy-go-nuts. I told her that I needed to go pee again, and she
walked me to the bathroom.
After
that, I got my prescription things taken care of at the pharmacy part, which
was 70 antibiotic pills, 50 ibuprofen, and 100 Tylenol to treat the bacterial
infection and take out my fever, respectively. The blood work I had done had
lots of immature white blood cells floating around kicking ass. This pointed
to a bacterial response, not a viral one which would be the flu. I thought it
was just my immature nature coming to form on the cellular level. I then had
the task of lying down for what seemed forever on the plastic sheet they used
to cover my soft "bed."
Andy finally
showed up when that nurse-in-training led him in the room and said that he could
take her home now. That's right, her. She thought Andy was there to get the
girl in the bed next to mine, and Andy
,
seeing the error, said, "Oh, I'm here to get that Casey." To
the nurses' credit, the girl's name was Kelsey, and they had been calling me
Casimir the whole day, but it's a good thing they had taken him there or he
would have never found me.
We went
back to Andy's room and talked about things for a while, and then I went back
to my room. Alone. I called my parents and learned that they have used hyperventilation
as a very healing and beneficial process in rebirthing ceremonies. What a bunch
of hippy crap. I tried to make what happened to me sound as life threatening
as humanly possible and then got off the phone with them. The rest of the night
I took my medications and felt reasonably well.
The
next day I went to both my earlier classes and then went into the health center
again for the checkup I was supposed to do first thing in the morning. The waiting
room was packed full, about three times as busy as when I went in the first
time. When I got there at about 3:30, they didn't even have walk in appointments
anymore, and so I went to the desk with the intent to use my newfound fame.
I merely said, "Hello, I'm here for my checkup. I was told to home here
first thing in the morning." The lady looked at me skeptically. "I
was the one who had the vasovagal and the paramedics came and everything."
"Oh,
I wasn't here but I heard about that. Wait over there for me." I sat down
in the waiting room, and after about two minutes one of the nurses in the observation
room recognized me through the large window. They all looked up and waved to
me, and I shyly waved back. She popped her head out the door and told me to
come on back. About half the people stirred and got an expression of "WTF!!??"
while I was whisked past any bureaucratic waiting crap. They checked my vitals
a final time and released me in good health.
The
total cost of the whole fiasco? $7.60. That's right, through the beauty of public
education, I only paid for the medication I purchased. Oh, and the girl who
saved mein the waiting room ended up being in my Government class. What a small,
unhealthy world we live in.
