Overnight in the Hospital in Mazatlan

Hum?? How to write this and make it seem fun?  Monday was a rather uneventful day. I was still feeling crappy with the cold or so I thought – not about the crappy, but about the cold. All we did all day was go out to the grocery store and I was ready to come home. As it has been all winter it was another warm day. Even with the AC going I was still hot. To bed early and up early Tuesday again. By early afternoon I was really feeling bad enough to go to a doctor. Felt worse than a cold. There is a 24 hour medical center not far from the RV park so we headed there. The doc was in and would see me right away. He spoke very good English. There was also a nurse/receptionist and another lady who spoke excellent English who was like the office manager. My heart rate was a little high. Doc asked if I took meds for it. No – Blood pressure was a little high – again No I don’t take meds for it. Checked me over and gave me injection of antibiotics and a couple prescriptions for antibiotics, strong ibuprofen and cough syrup. Went to WalMart to get them filled then home. I took the meds then all hell broke loose. Consensus is one of the meds along with the injection and just not feeling well produced a reaction and I reacted to the reaction. I was shaking, pouring sweat [like I had my own water faucet] nauseated and felt really weird. So back in the car and back to the doctor. He’d gone home but receptionist/nurse called him. He’d be there in five minutes. Mean while she took my BP and checked my heart rate. Doc walked in took one look at numbers and said “She’s going to the hospital now. Follow me.” Well let me tell you if my heart rate and BP hadn’t been up it would certainly have been after the racing ride across town following the doctor.

Pulled up to emergency, wheel chair right out. In elevator and up to a private room. In less than five minutes! Try that at home. Hooked up to IV – nurse doing it was excellent – don’t even have a bruise, Blood drawn, EKG given. Antibiotics started etc. So any way – spent the night there. Saw three different doctors. The original doctor’s nurse spent most of the night with me [us – of course Bill never left my side.] Had x-ray of chest, Meds to help stop the sweating, nausea and then they gave me some Valium to help me go to sleep – oh boy what a mistake – I’ve never taken Valium and will never take it again. It hyped me up like a shot of electricity! – Sleep HA! Then that also made me dizzier – than normal – so had to give me something for that ‘cause it caused increased nausea. Kind of like just after a drinking binge without the fun of the booze. It was a rough night. Strange part was nothing showed up as being wrong. Heart was fine, blood pressure went down, no bad infection……Lots of puzzled faces. Morning rolled around and I was feeling pretty good. They all checked me again – shook heads – brought me breakfast and said I could go home.

Final diagnosis – reaction to antibiotic injection which triggered a PANIC ATTACK! In other words I got scared out of my mind. All rational thought left my head and I guess I thought I was going to die in Mexico – regardless of how much they assured me I was going to be fine. I have heard of panic attacks but had no ideal how bad they could be or how long they could last. By morning I was fine, everything normal. Doctor wasn’t sure how I’d take the news that it was just fear that brought everything on. He was a little hesitant to tell us. But all tests run came back showing nothing wrong. All I had needed was a reaction to the injection and the reaction itself was mild – just felt weird – a little dizzy and a little more nauseated. And my brain flipped and so it went from there.

I am fine now. In fact this morning we had to go out to renew the TelCel Internet time and then went to the Plazuela Machado for lunch. It’s funny how much you appreciated feeling good after you’ve not felt good.

As for the experience – The doctors were great, answered any questions we asked, explained everything. When their English wasn’t real good they explained everything to Bill and waited for him to translate to me and made sure I understood. The nurses were great. Explained everything they were doing and very good at what they did. Tests were run and checked by cardiologist, internist and radiologist and we had the results read to us right away. Had a private room with private bath and flat screen TV. There was a couch – though uncomfortable – for Bill to spend the night on. Food for breakfast was good. Eggs were warm and melon was cold.

We were just speculating on whether or not I lost any weight – I never thought it was possible to loose so much water through sweat. I swear I left puddles where ever I was.

When we got home I looked up panic attack on the Internet – talk about a classic episode- just lasted longer than most.

Like I said we’ll probably laugh about my over active imagination in a month or two. Or when ever Bill recovers from being scared to death too. 

And so ends that adventure thank goodness.