from the ocean to the ER

For some, the information I’m about to share with you isn’t new. For others who are just now joining us on our journey, I have been asked about what exactly happened the day I ended up in the ER in September of 2016. It was an eye-opener for me (and probably my husband as well) and can help explain why I am so excited and grateful to be taking this 52 week adventure-on-wheels. Making  memories, doing life with my most favorite people, and taking on challenges, such as year long road trips – each day celebrating the life I am blessed to be living.

So, here is that story…

September 15, 2016, my family and I left for our annual vacation. We went to The Reef Resort and Spa in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. It was our third time going to this resort, the second time having the kids with us. In fact, it was the resort we went to for our honeymoon in 2000! We love it there!

We had an amazing time. Great weather. Beautiful ocean. Delicious food. Much needed and enjoyed family time.

We snorkeled, played in the ocean, chilled in the sun, ate more food than a person should eat – and enjoyed every minute of our time together!

Our last day was wonderful. We devoured an amazing breakfast, spent a little more time in the ocean – then we headed to the airport. It was going to be a long time before we actually landed in Colorado and had a chance to eat again, so we made our annual stop at Johnny Rocket’s at the Cancun airport. I mean, American food sounded so good by this time!

Now once we had landed, 8 1/2 hours later, our son said he wasn’t feeling too good :/ And by that time, neither was Charley. You guessed it – it was the dreaded “traveler’s diarrhea”!  We picked up our pug from my parent’s house, we walked down to see the chickens in the coop – and we just wanted to go to sleep. It was a great trip, but those traveling days can make you tired! Fortunately, our daughter, nor I felt yucky at all! PTL! I took care of the boys the best I could with essential oils and activated charcoal – and everyone went to bed.

About midnight I woke up not feeling that great. Ugh. I got it too. I typically don’t have any issues with this – I’m pretty healthy. Yet, this wouldn’t let up. I started out getting up every 1/2 hour, but then it turned into every 10 minutes. My husband was so tired and sleeping very hard, he never heard me getting up throughout the night.

His alarm went off around 6:00am because he had a meeting he had to be at for his job and he reluctantly went. He had planned on staying home that day to recover from all the travel, but was told he needed to be at this meeting. Before he left I told him I wasn’t feeling good and that I had been up all night. We agreed that I’d let him know if I needed him to come home.

He left. Everything seemed to get worse.

I couldn’t go back to sleep. Not that I even slept at all – getting up every ten minutes. I was agitated, and my back seemed sore and I just had this whole feeling of “uncomfortable” over me. I was also having a harder time dragging myself out of bed to go to the bathroom.

Why wasn’t this stopping?

I sent a text to a nurse friend and asked her about food poisoning and dehydration and she told me to hydrate with electrolytes and she told me food poisoning can leave lingering symptoms for 2-3 days, but hang tight. She also mentioned I could take some ibuprofen for the pain and to see if it would help me sleep.

I did. It didn’t work.

After many texts back and forth with my husband, he left work and was making his way home. The kicker is that he works 60 miles away. Yes, 60 miles…one way. It would take at least an hour and 20 minutes for him to get home.

We had promised to feed our neighbor’s horses at 11:30 that day, and I thought getting some sunshine would do me some good. I got myself out of bed and drove my daughter a couple houses down. Normally we’d walk, but I had no energy. I stayed in the car while my daughter fed the horses, then I drove back home. Once I stepped inside my house, I had to get on my hands and knees and literally crawl to my bedroom, which involved a set of stairs.

I couldn’t take it anymore. I sent my husband another text and told him I needed to go to urgent care or the ER.

He was stuck in traffic – a parking lot on the highway in the middle of the day. Really?

I waited. In pain. No energy. Shaking.

I sent one more text because I felt like I couldn’t make it any longer. He had just pulled into the garage.

He immediately came up and helped me out of bed and gave me some clothes to put on – and he called urgent care and told them what was going on. They directed him to take me to the ER since their current wait time was 5 hours.

Oh my goodness.

I did my best to get to the car, but ended up needing help. I literally was zapped of any energy at this point. The kids hopped in the back of the car and we made the 15 minute drive to the ER. I was now shaking and nauseated and couldn’t even sit up.

Once we got to the ER, I had to wait to get paperwork filled out and they had no empty rooms. Which meant I had to wait to be seen by a doctor or nurse.

Whaaaaaa?????

Finally, somebody behind the counter saw how bad I was and they decided to put me in a triage room.

Thank you, Jesus. In all seriousness.

As they rolled me back in the wheelchair, we had to stop in an office and answer some questions – and by this time I was so nauseated – I started vomiting up a lot of liquid.

They quickly moved me to the triage room and started doing what they needed to do. I was getting hooked up to machines, asked tons of questions and I had about 6 people working on me.

I was so cold and I couldn’t stop shaking. This was because I now had a bad fever. I was still nauseated and had to go to the bathroom again. Are you kidding me?

Fast forward a bit later – I had some issues. At first, the nurses thought I was just dehydrated and told us that we would be heading home in a couple hours after they gave me some liquids. This quickly changed. The doctor came in and told me that he had looked at my blood tests and stats and, one, he was confused because he said my appearance didn’t match my blood tests (I guess I looked healthier than I should have – I mean with a great tan and charming personality, you couldn’t tell my body was having major issues) and, two, he wanted me to get a CT scan. When he told me this, my husband was not in the room. They ended up rolling me off before he got back (I believe he was out with the kids).

When I was brought back to the room, the nurses continued working on my other issues as they waited for the CT scan results. My heart rate was too high and wouldn’t go down. My blood pressure was dangerously low – and they couldn’t get it to come back up. I had a high fever. Then the CT results showed I had a severe intestinal infection – pancolitis – that infected my small and large intestines and my colon. It was aggressive and moving fast – fast enough that the doctor was concerned it might get in my blood, which could be fatal. Because of what this was doing to my body, it put me in a bad place. Even one of the nurses told Charley that if I had gotten to the ER 30 minutes later, I would have had permanent heart damage, because my potassium levels were almost at zero!

They now concluded I had sepsis. Now, neither my husband nor I really knew what pancolitis or sepsis was at that time. Until Charley did a little research and the reality hit hard. To know more accurately what sepsis is, below is some info taken from the Mayo Clinic:

“What is sepsis? Sepsis occurs when chemicals released into the bloodstream to fight an infection trigger inflammatory responses throughout the body. This inflammation can trigger a cascade of changes that can damage multiple organ systems, causing them to fail.

What are symptoms to watch for? A high fever; inability to keep fluids down; rapid heartbeat; rapid, shallow breathing; lethargy and confusion are among the signs. If sepsis is suspected, seek emergency care, Dr. Peters advises. Rapid intervention is critical.

What are the differences among sepsis, severe sepsis and septic shock? Sepsis refers to signs of inflammation in the presence of a presumed infection, Dr. Peters says.

“Severe sepsis means you’ve got that and signs of organ damage: lung injury, impaired kidney function, impaired liver function,” Dr. Peters explains. “Septic shock means you have all of those findings of severe sepsis, but now you’ve been given fluids, and there’s still poor blood pressure, poor urine output, breathing troubles, and there are still ongoing signs of sepsis.”

Septic shock can be fatal. Among hospitalized patients, septic shock is associated with a 20 to 30 percent risk of death, Dr. Peters says.”

Unreal. They worked fast and hard to get me out of this state, buzzing around like little bees. Three times over the course of the next few hours, I was asked by the doctor and two nurses if I had a living will, standing will or regular will.

Wow. How is this possible right now?

I spent 7 hours in the ER until they were able to stabilize me. It was taking too long to get my vitals under control and this wasn’t good. I was pricked, prodded, given shots, and just internally sat there watching this whirlwind go on around me in slow motion. Yet, all the while I had a certain peace, because God’s hand of protection was on me and I knew it. Faith in Him will bring you through any situation, no matter how hard, difficult or scary.

The doctor immediately started me on bags of liquid antibiotics that was a “cocktail” of medicine that would kill anything I could have contracted internationally. Seven hours to get my vitals in a workable place.

I was then moved to the ICU and immediately proceeded to vomit all over my new clean bed. I was still going to the bathroom – well not really – it was more like gallons of water flushing out of me every 10 minutes. I spent 17 hours in the ICU, then was moved to a regular room for the next 26 hours. Over the course of this time, going to the bathroom was still constant, but then my body started flushing out intestinal tissue. Then bile. My body was literally getting stripped of everything it had.

All the while, nurses were monitoring me vigilantly. I’m not gonna lie -those 3 days were hard and challenged me. There was a lot of stress, anxiety, pain and I was completely overwhelmed with all of this since I am normally an extremely healthy person. I battled nausea, severe abdominal and back pain, no strength to even walk to a bathroom 10 feet away, chills, shaking, restlessness, no sleep for almost 48 hours, 12+ bags of fluids, 10 rounds of liquid antibiotics, 4 doses of anti-nausea medication, 3 shots in my stomach to prevent blood clots, various pills and about 15 holes in my arms for the blood they drew every 4-6 hours (I had 26 blood tests to see what caused the infection, and they never found the culprit). I missed my kids, my animals and I hurt from laying on my back for so long.

Things get put into perspective when the doctor is required to ask you, under your circumstances, that if anything were to happen and I needed to be revived, if and what measures I wanted them to take. I told them I would want them to do everything they could to save me. My husband and kids standing next to me having to hear this. I was not about to die.

My first night home was unpleasant. I was no longer hooked to machines which meant my body was now trying to function on it’s own and the adjustment wasn’t smooth. They had pumped so many fluids into my body, I left the hospital 10 pounds heavier than when I was admitted. I was off pain medication and feeling things again for the first time – and this was uncomfortable. I was getting the chills, but had no fever. I didn’t have energy or speed to walk anywhere and my entire torso hurt so much, there was no way to be comfortable so I could lay down and sleep.

Then there is the psychology of it all. I was no longer hooked to machines giving me fluids, nor did I have people right there to give me a shot of something if I started feeling nauseous or had pain. And now I had to get my fluids from actually drinking. Would I drink enough? If I didn’t, would I get a fever and dehydrated and all my stats drop too low again. I wasn’t at peace and had to fight anxiety that entire first night home. To be honest, I wanted to go back to the hospital.

It felt like recovery was slow, although in reality, I recovered quickly. I made it home – many do not. I had all my limbs in tact, many who suffer what I went through, if they don’t die or have organ failure, they lose their limbs. At least I had the chance to recover.

I couldn’t really walk and Charley would give me little therapy sessions every day. I’d grab a hold of his arm and walk like I was 103, hunched over and shuffling. We’d walk about 50 ft, turn around and come back and I’d have to sit and rest. For a couple hours. Sometimes these simple little things would cause me to be so tired, I’d have to lay down and I’d sleep 3-4 hours.

All I could eat was bone broth – and my husband was amazing enough to make me homemade broth (not a fan of canned stuff) and made sure I was drinking enough every day. I wasn’t able to go down and see my chickens and I missed them so much. The day after I got home from the hospital, my daughter let them out and they followed her up to the front yard so I could see them. I cried. I absolutely adore my chickens (you can read about that here!)

I just wanted to be better so I could get back to all my chores and daily routine. My kids waited on me. Charley did too. When he finally had to go back to work on my third day home, I wasn’t ready to be alone, so my mom spent the day with me and made some meals for us. I had friends bring food over, visit with me, even take our kids for the night so Charley and I could just have a night together.

Man, how life sometimes takes some turns you weren’t expecting. I also know that others have walked through ordeals that make mine look trivial and I don’t take that lightly. Overall, I came out of it great. I recovered faster than I medically should have and I tried my best to get my life back to normal. Unfortunately, a few things arose from that awful situation and I spent more time in 2017 getting that worked out. I had some health issues come up and I also started having panic attacks. All of that is a testimony and post of it’s own – but it’s a part of the journey to where I am today.

It’s interesting how one event can change your life in such a drastic way. I’m taking all the good out of it that I can and I’m most definitely making sure that I take time to enjoy the life I have been given. Am I scared to travel? Absolutely not! Besides, they think the infection was triggered by a hamburger I ate from an American chain fast food restaurant. So, no, I’m not scared to travel. I will say that it took me over a year to eat another hamburger and I tend to steer clear of airport food – but I will never stop traveling.

Now, I am fortunate and blessed to be able to take off on this crazy, year long, road trip adventure, and it starts in exactly 70 days! I will cherish the time I have with my family. I will make memories. Take lots of pictures. Laugh as often as I can. And each day I will be grateful that I am alive to enjoy this once in a lifetime opportunity.

As Dory in Finding Nemo says, “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming!”