So since I apparently "like" (only in the sense of have frequently) weird illnesses, maladies and plagues, my body decided to give me another one. I mean finding out about mild lactose intolerance the "hard way", then being told I had swine flu when it was just good ol' flu wasn't enough for the past month. I mean going to the Galapagos with sunburn in the midst of that and elevation sickness weren't enough. No no no...
So I'm the girl who's stubborn and only 1 week after my 103 fever I flew to Chicago to participate in my walk thingy - the Overnight Walk benefitting the AFSP. I walked the whole damn thing (see my next post which will come shortly after this about that experience). I drank and porta-pottied my way through Chicago in the middle of the night to stay hydrated in the 70-86F weather.
There's my propensity for dehydration when I travel or exercise since I tend to over-caffenate and under-water myself. I was hyper concious of this taking on lots of Gatorade and a moderate amount of water during the walk. I didn't think I was drinking when I wasn't thirsty, but apparently...
I WAS!
After walking the 18 miles, I was exhaaauuuussted. I got done around 4am and we promptly went back to the hotel to crash. I smelled nearly as bad as my swimsuit from the Galapagos (see Confessions of a Skanktastic Swimsuit for context) so I claimed a shower. I climbed into bed around 5am and suddenly - without warning - realized I felt like crap and a few more fundamentally vulgar words. I was shivering madly, covered in a sheet and a blanket (considering the night before it was only a sheet and I was hot, that was a lot). I apparently was also whimpering periodically since Laura asked me what was wrong Head to toe in goosebumps I finally gave up and layered the down comforter across myself multiple times so as to not overheat Laura. I finally fell asleep for an hour.
I woke up sweaty and overheating - no surprise since I had the blanket on. I felt feverish and nauseated. I didn't wanna drink. I was shaking uncontrollably, weak and dizzy. After Laura got me sitting up and ice packed down, I finally thought "hospital time" so asked if I should go and they both emphatically agreed. At 7am I was in the ambulance on my way 3 blocks away to a fine Chicago ER. Carrie and Laura walked to meet me.. they WALKED after the night we had. I love them too!
So we get there and I was confused - I kept thinking I was dehydrated because I had all the symptoms... There was just one problem. I knew I'd consumed a metric ton of gatorade and water. Like holy hydration due to paranoia. But it felt like dehydration. Confused, naucous, whimpering, wanting to die rather than sit through that I got into the ER (with a very cute dr and a frazzled nurse) and eventually found out after being IVed and sitting around with Laura lying on the floor that I was OVER hydrated.
Overhydration is when you thin your blood out with too much liquid - especially water. So your blood levels get off whack for transporting oxygen On top of that your sodium level goes WAY down which causes an imbalance in cell osmosis since your cells start trying to re-sodium your blood stream etc to make up for your low sodium levels. It's a lot easier to treat than dehydration (eat salt and don't drink water or any fluid that doesn't contain salt, rather than a rehydration IV), however it feels vastly similar in symptoms.
Yup, I overhydrated. I still laugh and think it sounds ridiculous. I also know I was an idiot to think I was dehydrated, but whatever.
The hospital fed me saltines and told me to go eat potato chips all day and 24 hrs without water (if I needed to decotton my mouth I could swish and spit with water).
I'm finally off my water restriction and onto a mild water restriction where I'm supposed to drink as little as possible and stick to things like Gatorade as much as possible (Gatorade has electolytes like sodium).
So yeah, the sad thing about this is going to the ER and feeling like I'd rather die than sit through the way my body felt (ironic after a charity walk for suicide prevention - trust me, irony recognized), well, that entire fiasco made me miss my flight to NY yesterday. When I went to reschedule I had the realization that the rest the dr recommended was also probably a good thing and not something I was likely to get if I went running off to work and play hard in NY and then traipsing up into New England. So I'm missing my friends bigtime and wishing I could spend time with my peeps, but instead I'm in the Chicago airport on my way back to Seattle. Y'see, the cost of the flight change was reasonable for flying back to Seattle. It would've more than doubled my flight cost to do NY & VT. So that trip wasn't meant to be and I'll be visiting peeps at a later date for some good ol' friend time. I'm a sad Yvette in that I get ridiculous illnesses however I'm also starting to feel more human so that's probably good.
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