Artwork as mysterious as my illness-- Mystery Valley in Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Arizona.
Last night I ended up in my local hospital’s emergency room. No, I’m not kidding– I spent an hour of New Year’s Day family dinner hanging out with brother in the ER.
It all started around 5 pm EST. I’d just finished dinner. My wife, youngest daughter, and I went over to Mom’s house to partake in my Mom’s annual New Year’s Day Polish style feast. Dinner was absolutely wonderful and I was having a great time. That’s when I all of sudden had trouble breathing. Shortly after that I went outside to get some air and then I started having trouble focusing. Dizziness then set in. I went back inside and sat down. I started feeling numb all over my body. I then went upstairs around 5:30 pm to lay down in my sister’s bed. I put my feet up, but things started getting worse. I felt “disconnected” from my body. Like I was standing behind myself looking through my head. I don’t know how else to describe. I then became very nauseous and threw up only a small amount though I’d eaten much more. Then diarrhea set in. At about 6 pm, my brother took me to ER after he offered to do so. He’s a cop and I asked him if he found me like this would he take me to the ER– when he answered yes I wasn’t going to argue. Off we went.
They checked my heart rate and it was a bit fast than normal (124 bpm) but not erratic. My blood pressure was a bit high (138/88) but not outrageous. They checked my eyes’ response to light and my ability to follow objects. They took blood and ran a battery of tests. My temperature was a perfect 98.8 degrees. I was determined to be 100% healthy by medical standards though clearly something had to be wrong. They gave me some Xanax at 6:30 pm and by 7 pm I felt fairly normal enough.
The doctor said it could have been some sort of virus or bacterial infection in my system. That my body probably experienced panic attack like symptoms because it couldn’t figure out what was going. The Xanax helped calm my brain’s auto-defenses down and let my immune system kick in. With that they discharged me at shortly after 7 pm and I went back to my Mom’s so my wife could drive me home.
My wife brought me back to our house. I changed into my PJs and dug out my drum machine. I watched the BET hip hop awards while drawing up some new beats in bed. I sipped about a liter of seltzer (the doctor said it may have been dehydration and to drink lots of clear liquids). I then fell asleep at around 10:00 pm.
I hadn’t been drinking any alcohol that whole day. I do not consume illegal narcotics at any time. The only thing I had that day was an Aleve in the morning and my acid reflux medicine. I had a grand total of five beers the night before on New Year’s Eve and had awoken that next morning with only a slight headache. Otherwise I felt great. I hadn’t done anything strenuous the whole day. I had no mental stress that whole day. I’m just not sure what to make of it.
I feel 100% normal today though maybe a bit tired and sore. Maybe it was some flu or bacterial infection. Maybe it was a Lyme’s Disease flair up (those are random like that). I don’t know– all I do know is it absolutely scared the crap out me.
It also screwed up me recording Pirate Radio as planned that night, but I guess that’s another story. I’ll have to give recording another shot tonight and see how it goes. Any night though where I don’t end up in the ER is a good one in my book. So ultimately that is my goal for tonight. To take it easy and not end up in the ER.
