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.
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