GeneralHow I almost died [Pics Included]
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GeneralHow I almost died [Pics Included]Posted:

Ethan
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Background:

I work at a health center that provides occupational therapy, short term rehab, long term care, memory care, and other services to people over the age of 65. Break a hip? You'll probably be in our building. Develop Alzheimer's? You'll probably be in our building. Want to take fun classes with other elderly in the community? You'll probably be in our building. Essentially, we service all of our elderly community members needs.

Many of you know COVID-19 hits the elderly the hardest because most are immunocompromised or have preexisting health conditions that put them at high risk. There are two main governing bodies, CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) and the DHS (Department of Health Services) that regulate the United States skilled nursing facilities on a federal and state level. These organizations want us to test all of our employees if an employee tests positive, and all residents/patients if one of them tests positive because just one positive counts as an outbreak. If you have an outbreak, a state surveyor comes into our building to perform a focused infection control survey. Are the workers/residents wearing masks? Are they social distanced? Is proper PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) being used? You get the idea. We were deficiency free! YAY! But that is besides the point. I work at the best infection control compliant facility in the state. We are the highest rated in the state.

Anyway, one of our employees tested positive outside of our facility so we had to test everyone. Our administrator, DON (Director of Nursing), and I were performing the nasal swab COVID tests on Monday, June 29th. Although I wore a gown, gloves, face mask and face shield, my exposure to COVID was still likely because two employees I personally tested were positive for COVID-19. I tested over 100 employees.

How I almost died:

https://i.imgur.com/C9yKdGM.png

Monday, June 29th I spiked a fever of 101 late at night. Symptoms included body aches, sore throat, difficulty breathing, vomiting and a pounding headache. My fever put me in a cold sweat as well.

Tuesday, June 30th my fever got worse. 105. My brother rushed me to the ER as I was going in and out of consciousness. This hospital put me on an IV and ran a few blood tests as well as a COVID test. All of my tests came back negative. My hospitalist doctor told me he didn't believe the COVID test, because nearly 40% of the rapid tests come back as false negatives. I was sent home after 2 IV bags and told to take ibuprofen. Even though I was negative, my "diagnosis" was most likely COVID and that I need to rest, hydrate myself and more rest.

Wednesday, July 1st and my fever rose back up to 105. My brother took me to the ER again and this time they performed some more tests. They tested me for mono and lyme disease as my body aches were getting worse. I could barely walk and fell asleep while waiting for my nurse. They were confused why I was so tired... (In my head I thought, hmm I wonder why? Maybe because I was up all night puking and couldn't fall asleep because of the fever). They prescribed me zofran for nausea and 800mg tablets of ibuprofen as a fever reducer and sent me home. I was scared because I live alone.

Thursday, July 2nd I felt pretty good. I still had a fever, body aches and my throat hurt horribly. I had a hard time keeping down food but this day started looking up.

Friday, July 3rd I felt pretty good. I switched off between acetaminophen and ibuprofen every 3 hours to help keep the fever down. It wasn't until later in the evening that things started to get really bad. My fever rose up to 104 and I felt very disoriented. I hadn't eaten anything in 3 days but had been pumping my body with water and gatorade.

At 10pm I decided it was time to go to the hospital again. This time, my mom was taking me to a different hospital as we were not getting any answers as to what was wrong with me. Upon arrival to the ER, I was going in and out of consciousness. I had a thirst that I had never felt before. The tech tried to take blood twice but could not get any to come out. The nurse then tried twice but was unable to get any out. Finally, they called someone from the lab who inserted an IV into my hand after 3 tries. It's atypical but an IV in my arm had been ruled out due to complications of getting poked so many times. They say they couldn't draw any blood because of how severely dehydrated I was.

4 ONE LITER IV bags later and I still could not produce any urine for a urine test. The ER doctor did not want to admit me because I did not meet the 'criteria'. All of my tests were coming back negative and my xray looked clean. My ER doctor then wanted to send me home with a broad spectrum antibiotic because he thought I had an atypical pneumonia that was not showing up on the x-ray. In his defense, I did have a wet cough and difficulty breathing so some of the signs were there. It took all of my begging and crying of my mother for him to admit me. It was very obvious I was getting worse and I believe that I would have died had I not been admitted that night. They kept me overnight and performed more tests in the morning. The hospitalist doctor upon admission was afraid I could experience organ failure due to sepsis. I was puking nonstop and going in and out of consciousness. A nurse would come into my room every 30 minutes to check on me. Many texts, conversations, etc happened that I simply do not remember. I have never been so disoriented in my entire life. I was so weak I couldn't walk and had to be moved via wheelchair. I had lost 19 pounds in 4 days.

On Saturday, July 4th, my doctor had the idea to test me for strep throat. It came back positive.

I was in the hospital for a total of 4 nights and 3 days in which I was given an antibiotic via one IV bag whilst on a constant 12 hour drip to ensure hydration. IV after IV, I started to feel better.

My fever eventually went down and I was excited to finally feel well enough to shower. Four days drenched in sweat was not a good a time! The antibiotic also caused the worst diarrhea so you can imagine I smelled... unpleasant.

I took a shower and my IV tape came loose. Upon replacing the IV, they ruptured my vein and it collapsed. It will permanently be collapsed but new vessels will start to grow in 6-8 weeks. I have very little grip strength in my right hand now.

Recovery:

I have been off work taking the antibiotic and sleeping all day.
I return to work tomorrow.
I have gained back 7 pounds but will have to get back into the gym to recover completely.
The antibiotics are working wonders! All my symptoms are gone!

https://i.imgur.com/WGGoJgn.png


Pretty crazy stuff huh? I am so thankful to have so many friends and family that checked up on me. I could not imagine how much worse it would have been had I been going through it alone.



TL;DR MAKE SURE YOUR DOCTORS TEST YOU FOR BASIC/PROBABLE ILLNESSES INSTEAD OF WRITING IT OFF AS COVID!

The following 35 users thanked Ethan for this useful post:

Frog (12-22-2022), Faun6367 (07-22-2020), Xbox (07-18-2020), Tom (07-17-2020), Tusk (07-17-2020), Sean (07-17-2020), Reidso (07-17-2020), Federation (07-16-2020), G6 (07-16-2020), Sam (07-15-2020), Johnny (07-14-2020), Iofthouse (07-14-2020), OS (07-14-2020), r00t (07-14-2020), C4 (07-14-2020), Saki (07-14-2020), 919 (07-14-2020), DHCP (07-14-2020), Flat_Earth_Society (07-14-2020), Matthew- (07-14-2020), Jose (07-14-2020), Brad59 (07-13-2020), Olivia- (07-13-2020), UWishIWazHostin (07-13-2020), Baba (07-13-2020), larp (07-13-2020), Jacob (07-13-2020), Brodingo (07-13-2020), Tasty (07-13-2020), Milkwagons (07-13-2020), Rob (07-13-2020), TTG (07-13-2020), ifconfig (07-13-2020), James (07-13-2020), Scizor (07-13-2020)
#2. Posted:
Disc
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thats insane man, glad you're okay ive never even had a fever of over 100 so i couldnt imagine 105
#3. Posted:
Jose
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I been very careful with my self or my family and im glad ur okay now sounds like a nightmare stay safe !
#4. Posted:
Joey
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So you actually had strep throat the whole time?
#5. Posted:
OS
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You fu*king boss! Glad you're better man, stay safe <3
#6. Posted:
HighRoss
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Glad you are back on your feet man

Some of us wouldn't be so lucky!
#7. Posted:
Ethan
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Joey wrote So you actually had strep throat the whole time?


Yeah! Isnt that crazy? Strep is no joke!
#8. Posted:
Joey
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Ethan wrote
Joey wrote So you actually had strep throat the whole time?


Yeah! Isnt that crazy? Strep is no joke!
yeah that is crazy. So upsetting hospitals are doing that to people
#9. Posted:
Federation
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Damn you've been through hell and back glad you're okay man!
#10. Posted:
xDustyx
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thats crazy


best of wishes to you my friend
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