What It's Like Being A Medical Mystery
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Health and Wellness

What It's Like Being A Medical Mystery

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What It's Like Being A Medical Mystery
Cynthia Langlois

It's been an interesting past few days, to say the least.

It all started on Thursday, the day after Valentine's Day when I went to the Student Health Center with a high fever and headache. They tested me for a few things including flu, did some blood work and sent me home.

A few hours later I got a call from the nurse of the doctor I saw and the told me that from my blood work it looked like I had Anemia and they wanted me to either go see them or go to the ER.

I went to the ER and got there about 5:30 or so with my aunt and we went into triage where they had said they felt I had a viral infection.

We were then led back to the waiting room to wait for a bed and for me to have chest X-rays. When we got one it was in the hallway.

It was decided that I would be given a migraine cocktail and some Tylenol to help with a headache and fever. As it turned out it I was also dehydrated, so I was given two bags of fluids as well and had a few problems trying to get an IV in. We went home that night around 11:45.

The next few days, I mostly sat in bed and took Tylenol or Excedrin to help keep both my fever and headaches away and that had helped for a few days.

Everything was fine and taking the medicine stopped working on Sunday. I then had to go back to the hospital as my symptoms weren't going down and were only controlled by the medicine I was taking.

Again, I was admitted to the ER and this time they did some blood work of their own. They discovered that I might have some type of autoimmune disease and wanted to admit me.

Day 1: Sunday

I woke up with a severe headache and a fever of about 100, so I went to the ER again.

I was out in the hallway for a little while again, like Thursday but it was in a quieter part of the ER. It turned out that my white blood cells and platelets were down, but higher than Thursday and my Hemoglobin had dropped since Thursday.

Then they ran additional tests and decided they wanted to admit me at least for one night.

Day 2: Monday

This was the busiest day, to start with I had only had about three hours of sleep total that night, so I was tired.

It was another day full of more blood work and test. On the bright side, at least, my mom arrived around noon and I got a three-page paper done that was due that week. From that point, things became a little bit better, I only had about two blood test done.

At this point, when enough test had come back, we knew more of what it wasn't then what it could be so the doctor who was on my case with all the blood work decided to have a group of infectious disease doctors look at me and see if there was anything that they could think of that it could be.

Around 2, about seven or so of these doctors came into my room and asked me a few question and then left.

After that, (since they wanted me to stay one more night because the hemoglobin and white blood cells were still a little low) they told us they had found a room for me to stay in that wasn't in the emergency area.

After classes, that day, two of my friends came by to see how I was doing which I was very grateful for.

Day 3: Tuesday

This was the day that I finally got to go back home. I still had low blood counts but it was improving enough for me to leave. I also had to find and follow up with a primary care doctor, so I'd be more prepared if something like this happened again.

While it wasn't my first ever hospital stay/visit it certainly will be one I remember really well. We still don't really know everything but it's at least a start.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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