Lizzy McFly

Had an interesting experience last night – one I hope I don’t have again. At around 4:00, I started to feel quite nauseous at work. My friend gave me some Tums, as neither of us had any Gravol. I thought I was going to be sick so I ran to the bathroom. Two people in there said that if I was sick, they would be too! I told them I would refrain and went outside for some fresh air. It was a little after 4:30 when I decided I needed to go home. A friend who lives in my building (the one I mentioned in my previous blog that had a cookie under her tire!) drove me home. I was sick twice in the downstairs bathroom, then my friend escorted me up to my apartment. That’s when things got pretty bad. I was sick every five to ten minutes. Dehydration was becoming a problemo. Within two hours, my heart rate felt erratic and slowing down, I was having a hard time breathing and my hands went numb and blue. I phoned my mother and she came up to St. Catherines. I was really out of it at that point and she called 911. The ambulance came about twenty minutes later. There were three paramedics – I believe one was in training. They were all so nice and caring. Little Mya and Boo came over to greet them. My mother said Mya was crawling on their equipment. One of the paramedics said she was very nosy. I was sick again while they were there. I sat down and had an IV put in to get a shot of Gravol. I had a fever of about 101, so they asked that I not put a sweater on and only covered me with a sheet, once we got down to the stretcher in the lobby. Once in the ambulance, I started asking for water. Obviously they couldn’t give any to me since I wouldn’t keep it down. I don’t ever remember being that dehydrated and thirsty in my life. I guess that’s why I annoyingly asked for water about 7,364 times that night. I want to send the paramedics a card, thanking them for their kindness and professionalism, plus tell them how sorry I am for annoying the heck out of them with my constant pleas for water. Anyway, Jan and Chuck met me at the hospital. They couldn’t wait with me while I was on the gurney in the hall, as it was too small of a space. To shut me up, the paramedic gave me 250ml of saline. It wasn’t even dripping, rather pouring through the line since I was so dehydrated. The male paramedic pointed out to the trainee that my colour was starting to come back. There were no beds available so they put me in a wheel chair and rolled me out into the rather full waiting room. The chair was quite uncomfortable and all I wanted to do was to lay on the floor and sleep. I then continued with my annoying pleas for water with my mother. She wouldn’t give in. Chuck went and asked if I could have a drink but was told no. Then I came up with a plan. I am extremely against lying and have a very hard time even uttering a white lie. However, I was desperate. I told Jan that I really needed to pee. Hello! How is that possible if I was totally dehydrated. After begging for a few minutes, she finally relented and wheeled me down to the washroom. I was going to pretend to pee then get a drink from the tap while washing my hands. It didn’t happen. I darted over to the sink and drank out of my hand. I could hear Jan in the background saying “Come on! Stop it! Knock it off! Blah, blah, blah.”. She told me that I suck while she wheeled me back go the waiting room. *sheepish grin* I decided to kick Jan and Chuck off of the chairs as I just needed to lay down. Not very comfortable lying across three chairs with huge gaps between them. I think this is when I overheard someone say the wait time for a bed was nine to ten hours. I then decided to go home. Jan asked the nurse if I could and she asked her to bring me to the triage area. She took my blood pressure which was back up to my normal 90/60. She told me to only take a sip of water or apple juice every fifteen minutes. Then she told us about the “brat” foods that I could eat tomorrow. I think she said it stood for bread, rice, apples and toast. I think it should have been burritos, rigatoni, apple pie and Tostitos. Hmmmmm… Chuck brought the car up out front while Jan drove to a convenience store to get me a jug of apple juice. I ran into bed, still wearing my coat when we got home. Jan stayed for a little bit before driving back home. I was sick a couple more times, before trying to sleep. For some reason, I thought the nurse said only move every fifteen minutes rather than only sip fluids. Really makes no sense but for about four hours, I only let myself reposition every fifteen minutes. What a dork!!!