I felt a little better the next day in time for Christmas Eve ( my family calls it the Christmas Miracle) 🎄🎅🏼 and days to follow were on and off- I was able to get off the ship at every stop and there were days I was ok, but I was never able to get through 24 hours without being sick again. By the 4th day I had nothing but horrible dry heaves left in me. Eric and I both knew something was not right but couldn't understand what could possible be wrong. Everyday there was something different. Some evenings I was having flutters in my chest, others I was having muscle cramps and spasms, I was beginning to have horrible body odor and I was just not peeing!
Its Ok though, the kids were in a different room and barely noticed I was down and out the entire time. I mean the show must go on right??? I have some photos of formal night with Eric and the kids I can photo shop myself into and I was well enough to wear my Mrs Clause ugly Christmas dress (see photo below) one night! And although there were some terrible moments - ok a lot of terrible moments - about being sick at seas for ten days...... with my family, we still managed to have a lot of laughs..... perhaps we even had over 99 giggles!!!! 😂
Anyway, on Dec 30, the 10th day of the cruise (or what felt like the 100th day) when we docked back in Ft Lauderdale I thought " finally I will stop feeling so bad" but that wasn't the case. I was actually the worst I had been!! My sister used her "elite" status she somehow ended up with to get me off the ship right away. There was nothing comforting about the looks I got leaving the ship! We arrived home on December 31 when I finally went a full 36 hours without dry heaving, which is good because Jenny and Forrest had extended there Christmas trip home to VaBeach so they could spend a few days with us! Sorry guys, that didnt work out to well did it???🤷🏻♀️
On the night of January 1st all shit hit the fan. It was around dinner time when I felt my face started to burn, my lips felt like they were about to split open and my head was pounding. No matter how much chap stick i applied or lotion I put on there was no relief. My legs started cramping again and my stomach was very unsettled. By the middle of the night I must have started hallucinating. I felt feverish, confused, every organ in my body was screaming at me. My feet were burning, I wasn't sure if the house was burning or if my feet were on fire. The nausea started and then then dry heaving returned. My heart actually started hurting and it began to be hard to breath, talk, and make decisions. I was seen at my office that morning and had a full workup...... every test we could have done in the office came back ok and despite appearing as a train wreck my vitals and physical exam were normal and it looked like dehydration - IV fluids seemed the best route but would have to go to ED or somewhere else for that. Despite my Stubbornness and Fear of “overreacting” Later that day we finally decided it would be best if Eric took me somewhere to get IV fluids.
So there I was with a bucket for vomit, looking like a complete HOT mess and it was the day after New Years 🤦🏻♀️Luckily the PA that saw me didn't just take one look at this pathetic human being, throwing up and miserable and just blow me off as a hungover drunk! LOL!!!! He was able to run an electrolyte test in office and got the results just as I was finishing a second bag of IV fluids. He came into the room very startled and forcefully suggested we get to the ED right away——my sodium was 110 (normal is 135-145: remember these numbers you will her a LOT about them)
A sodium of 110 is a critical emergency and can be life threatening.. I was taken by ambulance to the ED and was quickly diagnosed with Critical Hyponatremia (fancy medical term for low sodium). After 18 hours in the ED and a round of 3% hypertonic saline (very potent sodium IV used to carefully increase sodium) my level was finally up to 119. (WOO HOO! Sad that 119 sounded great at that time.) A bed in ICU step down unit was finally available and I was moved out of the ER.
LOOOONNNGGGGG story shortish I spent 5 days in the hospital where my sodium fluctuated daily. They speculated a lot- even blammed my love of water consumption for causing the hyponatremia. Wonder why they never questioned my love for wine consumption. 😄 I eventually was diagnosed with SIADH- Syndrome of Inappropriate Anti Diuretic Hormone (another term you will hear a lot)……..what does this mean???? Well we all have the ability to produce ADH (anti diuretic hormone) its what keeps us from peeing all the time. But sometimes it gets a little crazy out of control and decides it just wont let your body get rid of ANY fluid, hense why I wasn't peeing! Ok great- so what caused it???? The FAMOUS question- whelp in the hospital they "ruled out" all obvious causes- supposedly- ie obvious medications and malignancies with a CT of chest, abdomen, and pelvis and they figured it was just taking my system to a little while to regulate from being "sea sick". There were a lot of “theories” but ultimately it came down to fact that despite not identifying a cause and needing a second round of hypertonic saline, my sodium was settling into the 130s and it was getting time for them to boot me out. SO on Jan 6, they sent me home just to have my sodium drop into mid 120s the very next day!
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