Ryan's Vacation to the Hospital

I will have to tell you all about Thanksgiving in Vegas on my next post, because something way more serious happened when we got back from Vegas.

I know some of you already know this, but for those of you who don't, I am going to tell you the whole story.

About two years ago Ryan was diagnosed with a rare genetic syndorme called Gitelman's Syndrome. Basically, what that means is that his kidney expels all potassium that should be stored or put back into the blood stream. Our bodies need potassium in our blood, and in our cells to help our muscles work (especially the heart). When you get too low on potassium they get nervous about your heart functioning properly. It first manifested itself back in 2005 when charlie horses in Ryan's legs wouldn't go away for a whole week. After many doctors visits, he was diagnosed with this genetic syndrome. They told him he would have to take a whole bunch of potassium, magnesium, and several other drugs for the rest of his life, but if he did that he would be totally fine. Well, about 3-4 months later we lost our helath insurance, and the drugs Ryan had to take were close to $200 a month. After the refills ran out we couldn't afford more drugs, so he stopped taking them. Over the past year and a half he has had small episodes, where he would get a charlie horse in his leg, but it would go away after a day or two. So, since nothing major happened we thought maybe he was misdiagnosed (especially since when they told us that was what he had, they weren't positive that he really had Gitelman's Syndrome, because they had never even seen a case before)...instills a lot of confidence doesn't it?

Anyway, on Tuesday before we left for Vegas for Thanksgiving, he started getting the leg cramps in his legs. Since they usually go away, we didn't think anything of it. Then after we left, and while we were in Vegas it just kept getting worse. By the end of our trip we were pushing him around the outlets in a wheelchair. We got home Sunday night, and he was pretty bad. Every muscle in his body was basically in a cramp. He woke up early Monday morning and went to work. I woke later to get ready for work and I was really sick with a cold, so I called in sick. Twenty minutes after I called in sick I got a phone call from Ryan, who had already been at work for 3 hours, and he said that he thought that he needed to go to the doctors because he was in so much pain from the full body muscle cramp. I was trying to figure out what to do (we don't have insurance or a primary care physician, so I didn't really know who to call. Then Ryan said that he needed to go to the emergency room. (I know when Ryan says that he means business...because he will never go to the doctor). I got in my car and drove up to Sugar House in Salt lake to pick him up. From there we went the University of Utah Hospital E.R. He couldn't walk at all, and almost collapsed in the parking lot walking to the doors of the E.R. so I ran and got a wheelchair and wheeled him the rest of the way. Once we checked in...they basically bumped us ahead of everyone else that was in there. We were put in a room, they drew a whole bunch of blood from him and we waited for the results.

First of all, none of the doctors or nurses even knew what Gitelman's Syndrome was. The nurse said he had to google it, to find about it, and one of the Doctors said, "Oh yeah, I think I learned about that in med school." When the results from the blood tests came back the doctor (who looked exactly like Patrick Dempsey, from Grey's Anatomy...I wish I would have got a picture) told us that his Potassium levels were so low that they couldn't believe that his heart was even still beating...that he should have come into the hospital in cardiac arrest, and that they needed to get him hooked to an IV drip and have him checked into the ICU. Needless to say Ryan spent 2 nights and 3 days in the hospital. We got the E.R. at 10 on Monday morning, and didn't leave until Wednesday at 3 pm. On the first night by midnight he was taken off of ICU status and got a regular team of doctors. The whole time he was on the cardiolgy floor so they could monitor his heart 24/7. It was so scary, and I was definitely freaking out, but luckily on the first day while we were still in the E.R. my aunt Laura Lee came and sat with us for most of the day, and that helped a ton. I don't even want to think about what would have happened if we had waited one more day to do something about it...he could have gone into a coma, or had a heart attack, or worse.

So, we are home now, and Ryan is back to normal. His potassium levels went up to a normal level again, and he didn't sustain any damage to his heart. While we were there at the U of U hospital we got hooked up with some really great doctors, and a kidney doctor that Ryan will be visiting on a regular basis from now on. We had ton of support from our families, and from our awesome ward.

I don't know if this weird or not but the blogger/scrapbooker in me made me take these pictures, mostly at times when we weren't too stressed out yet (like before we found out that Ryan almost died, and after we found out that he was getting discharged from the hospital in an hour). Also, my camera just so happened to still be in my purse from the trip we just got home from...it's not like I grabbed it when we heard that Ryan wanted to go to the E.R.

This is when we first checked into the E.R. and were trying to keep things light hearted. I told Ryan I wanted to take a picture of him and this is the pose he chose.

This is right after we got a hospital room, and before they gave him his comfy hospital pants.

The first night he was there they put a picc line, which is basically a catheter from his elbow pit to his heart that is inserted in a major vein. Crazy. They hook t he IV up to that and pumped the potassium and other stuff through that so it was a straight shot to where it needed to go. I wasn't there when they put it in, but I was there when they took it out, right before he was discharged...so of course I took pictures. This first one is what it looked like before they took it out.

This is nurse right before he pulled it out.

And then Ryan, good as new with no more Iv's or picc line. That is the pic line sitting the table in the fore ground. It was 45 centimeters long.