I can't breathe

For about two weeks, I was often short of breath.  I couldn't sleep because I could not breathe laying down.  Eventually, I found a way to sleep with several pillows propping me up.  I would become short of breath when walking uphill- I'm overall in good health, so this was new for me.  Since I don't have a lot of money, and I don't have health insurance, I was determined to deal with this issue until January when my 'Obamacare' plan began.  It didn't seem to be getting any worse, so I thought I could handle sleeping sitting up for a month and a half in order to avoid massive medical bills (especially since I have to pay tuition for school). 

Apparently my body had other plans.  Thanksgiving was approaching, and my partner and I flew to Florida to visit his family for the holiday.  We arrived on Monday evening and had some time to relax before going to bed.  At 4am I woke up having trouble breathing- I was sitting up at this point, so I didn't know what to do.  When I breathed in, my lungs made a crackling sound, and it was hard to get enough air.  I was getting scared, but the last thing I wanted to do was wake up his parents and head to the ER in Florida.  So I waited to see if breathing would get easier- it didn't, and Eric suggested we go to the hospital.  I reluctantly agreed, and he woke his parents; his dad drove me to the ER while he followed in another vehicle. 

When I walked into the ER, I was very short of breath.  No one was in the waiting room, and I was helped rather quickly.  I told them that I have IGA Nephropathy and a heart murmer, and they put me on oxygen.  My blood pressure was very high (over 200), so they gave me hydro-something to decrease it.  I got a chest x-ray, and they took blood.  I was told that my kidneys were not working properly and they needed to prepare me for dialysis.  Everything happened so fast that I don't really remember the order of things.  Mostly I remember asking how long it would be until I could breathe again.  I was panicking, so they gave me some Ativan through IV. 

Eric asked a few times whether he should call my mom.  After the ER doctor told me I would be here awhile, I agreed to let him call.  My mom left work and got on a plane as soon as possible.  It seemed really fast, but everything was still so fuzzy at that point.  They inserted a catheter into my neck- a very uncomfortable experience.  Shortly after this, I had my first dialysis treatment.  I had an excruciating headache, and felt pretty nauseous, but I was glad that I was finally able to breathe, and I could sleep laying down.  I spent a lot of time sleeping then- it felt so miserable to be awake anyway. I was only allowed to take Tylenol for my headache, so I was sleeping as much as possible to avoid the pain.