Quick background: I have had JRA and fibromyaliga for nine and four years respectively, so suffice to say I know pain very well.
About two weeks ago, I noticed what was either a spider bite or a mosquito bite was still pretty red and rather swollen. Went to a walk in clinic, got diagnosed with cellulitus in my toe. I was prescribed a really heavy antibiotic called clyndomiason and another one that started with b. First time I took it, I woke up from a nap with every nerve ending freaking the ever living fuck out. Absolutely /everything/ hurt. Oh, and light gave me a huge headache. After a few hours it died down some, and I was taken off one of the meds on the assumption the reaction was a sulfur allergy.
Well, I was feeling pretty good over the next week; enough so that I saw Cirque du Soleil (it was amazing!). But a few days after that, the sensitivity returned with a vengeance. After it didn't go away like the previous time, we went to Our Lady of the Lake. Unbeknownst to my mom and I, it had turned into LSU's charity hospital. So we waited like four to five hours, even though they took my blood pressure and heartbeart and both were way too high and I couldn't stand so much as my arms touching my sides. Once we FINALLY got into a room (inside an inner corridor to keep a closer eye on me, mind you) I was given morphine and an IV. I slept for a while, but was really pretty surprised when they released me a few hours later...still with high blood pressure and heartbeat too high. They assured me it was a reaction to the antibiotic and I'd be fine.
The extent of the suck was not readily apparent until the next day. I woke up after only a few hours sweating, spacey, and sensitive. I sat on the couch and looked bad enough that my dad took one look at me and sat down to keep an eye on me. He stayed home after I went to the bathroom and had massive, urine-esque diarrhea and threw up. Now, keep in mind that I never vomit. I have this weird reflex to swallow the bile, and it has to be Pretty Fucking Bad to get past that. Last time I threw up was when a grapefruit-sized cyst twisted and started killing my ovary, and that was in 2008. Instead of going to the ER right then, I was stupid and waited.
A few hours later I start shaking, and mom and I go to a different hospital--Baton Rouge General. Wait was so much better--maybe 15-30 minutes. They stuck me in isolation and gave me an IV. I was so bad the doctor on call stayed two or three hours after his shift ended to make sure I was stable. After I was admitted (pediatrics ward, Disney Princess room with a rocket on the door--accommodations were bitchin'), tests came back that not only did I have a bacterial infection associated with clyndomiason, CDIF, but food poisoning as well. They were indistinguishable from each other until you looked under a microscope. :| Funnily enough, though, the strain started with 'C' too. Oh, and I managed to get my period during this time, too--I thought I was fixing to go downhill, gave me quite a fucking scare. But those shakes? That was my body leeching water from my muscles. If we had waited overnight, I would have almost certainly died--that's how bad it got so quickly.
But I'm almost fully better now! Was discharged after only two days. BRG was very, very good to me and my parents. The nurses and pediatricians were all SUPER nice, my parents got meals delivered, and the couches were apparently quite nice for hospital couches.
Apparently I shouldn't expect to be thoroughly taken care of at the first hospital I go to when something major is going on. This is the second time I've been written off and sent home when something is very clearly still Very Wrong. Only upside is both hospitals would be more likely to kill me than fix me, and the second hospitals were both amazing.
Quick question: are we allowed to bitch about a public school that has to be signed up for? It's a charter school, if that makes a difference. Being it's first year for this branch only goes so far to excuse the headaches and not at all for the blatantly false advertising. :|