SOOOO Long.
Okay, maybe I'll get back into what I did with the rest of my summer later, but for now, I'm just going to update on the past week.
Last Thursday, I went down while I was taking a test, during my lunch period. No big deal, thought everyone, until I started having problems with my breathing. I was experiencing cycles of hyperventilation, followed by periods of apnea. The problem was, that it was taking a looong time for my body to kick back in with that whole breathing thing.
So medics were called, and I was taken to the hospital. Okay, we've dealt with new things before. Only this time, it was baddd. I was intubated Thursday at about 1 PM, and I woke up out of the sedatives on Friday morning at 8. My whole day, gone.
I got out of the ICU at about 9 Friday night, and was released from the hospital on Saturday morning. Because the periods of apnea were so prolonged before the intubation, I actually suffered from something called atelectasis. Basically what happened is because there wasn't enough pressure in my lungs, the alveoli started to collapse. That, plus the massive amounts of Propofol I was on (twice the maximum amount ICU pumps allow) kept me home for a few days.
On Monday, I experienced this again, while leaving my doctor's office. Once again I was intubated, only they didn't sedate me well, and as I came out of an episode, I pulled the tube out about 30 min after it was put in. They treated me on O2 for a bit, but let me go home that day.
Then, again on Thursday I had another bout of this that sent me to the ER. This time, the ER doc basically employed a "wait and see" policy. She decided not to intubate, and just used an Ambu-Bag when my breathing stopped. This helps decrease over-all stress levels, and the episodes resolved on their own.
So. When I was in the ICU, a sleep specialist talked to my parents, and they agreed I need to be on something for the Cataplexy. We don't know that this is what's causing the breathing issues, because those seem to be tied closely to stress, but we do know that since I've been on the anti-depressant, my regular episodes of Cataplexy have already cut back, and I just feel better in general.
School is going well, for the most part this year. I've missed quite a bit, I'd say 2-3 weeks already, but I'm staying caught up in my classes, and I really enjoy all of them.
I'm taking Senior English, Freshman English-Credit Retrieval, World History, Civics, Anatomy and Physiology, and Sports Medicine. So.
Yup. That's what's been up the last week.
Okay, I'm gonna go now.
~Bri
*Pic from the ICU after extubation.
