Ok, so here's a tale of something we all deal with, usually in the mountains though!
On Friday I got a pretty sudden and nasty swollen throat to the point of having trouble swallowing. Doc said it was some kind of viral infection like Strep and put me on anti-biotics. BUT, since I could barely swallow without needles of pain jabbing into my brain she gave me a lower dosage in liquid form, which tasted like a McDonalds Vanilla Shake and, of course, took forever to take effect. In the meantime, over the weekend, I could barely eat or drink anything so I got dehydrated.
On Monday I went back with the news that not only was that dosage not working, but I was getting migraines and slept about three hours all weekend. (Yeah, not eating or drinking or sleeping much for 48 hours - foreshadowing alert!)
So she was, like, hey I know, we'll give give you a direct shot of steroids to get the swelling down so we can jam some more effective pills down your throat. Sounds good to me I said through my migraine-addled brain.
Next thing you know my pants are down and I'm getting a syringe full of happy juice pumped right into the muscle, like in Pulp Fiction I thought only my butt! And what do you know, in about ten seconds I can suddenly breath and my throat feels great and I think I can run home.
About ten seconds after that, I start shaking, and break out into a sweat like I've been in a sauna for two days and my hands begin to feel like Capt. Kirk's hands from the last Star Trek movie and little round bubbles are floating in front of my eyes. Well, the whole office breaks out all this emergency equipment (I think I saw the defibrillator there) and all the while I'm thinking, well, even though my lips feel like they've just been pumped full of collagen at least I can swallow. Like my brain had weighed the trade off and figured, hey, good deal!
Meantime, they're reading my blood pressure and shoving water down my throat and they go to get the on-duty doctor or some such thing. This goes on for about five minutes before the shakes stop and my breathing gets back to normal and all the nurses in there breath what appears to be a collective sigh.
Turns out it was the dehydration. My body had already begun shutting down oxygen flow to certain places (ergo the migraines and the dry mouth) and the entrance of the super-mega-steroid dose made it panic and hit the emergency flush button (sweats, shakes, etc.). At least that's how they explained it. The whole thing lasted maybe ten minutes, though they let me lay down for half hour after that so I could get myself together.
The weird thing was that my blood pressure was fine prior to the shot.
But, man oh man, the moral of this story kiddies.... drink water!
On Friday I got a pretty sudden and nasty swollen throat to the point of having trouble swallowing. Doc said it was some kind of viral infection like Strep and put me on anti-biotics. BUT, since I could barely swallow without needles of pain jabbing into my brain she gave me a lower dosage in liquid form, which tasted like a McDonalds Vanilla Shake and, of course, took forever to take effect. In the meantime, over the weekend, I could barely eat or drink anything so I got dehydrated.
On Monday I went back with the news that not only was that dosage not working, but I was getting migraines and slept about three hours all weekend. (Yeah, not eating or drinking or sleeping much for 48 hours - foreshadowing alert!)
So she was, like, hey I know, we'll give give you a direct shot of steroids to get the swelling down so we can jam some more effective pills down your throat. Sounds good to me I said through my migraine-addled brain.
Next thing you know my pants are down and I'm getting a syringe full of happy juice pumped right into the muscle, like in Pulp Fiction I thought only my butt! And what do you know, in about ten seconds I can suddenly breath and my throat feels great and I think I can run home.
About ten seconds after that, I start shaking, and break out into a sweat like I've been in a sauna for two days and my hands begin to feel like Capt. Kirk's hands from the last Star Trek movie and little round bubbles are floating in front of my eyes. Well, the whole office breaks out all this emergency equipment (I think I saw the defibrillator there) and all the while I'm thinking, well, even though my lips feel like they've just been pumped full of collagen at least I can swallow. Like my brain had weighed the trade off and figured, hey, good deal!
Meantime, they're reading my blood pressure and shoving water down my throat and they go to get the on-duty doctor or some such thing. This goes on for about five minutes before the shakes stop and my breathing gets back to normal and all the nurses in there breath what appears to be a collective sigh.
Turns out it was the dehydration. My body had already begun shutting down oxygen flow to certain places (ergo the migraines and the dry mouth) and the entrance of the super-mega-steroid dose made it panic and hit the emergency flush button (sweats, shakes, etc.). At least that's how they explained it. The whole thing lasted maybe ten minutes, though they let me lay down for half hour after that so I could get myself together.
The weird thing was that my blood pressure was fine prior to the shot.
But, man oh man, the moral of this story kiddies.... drink water!
And nope, that's not something they did at the doctor's office.
