Life with Chronic Illness

It's been 10 days, and I am still in the hospital.  I walk two or three (very short) laps around this floor and my heart rate is upwards of 130, my lips, fingers, and toes are increasingly blue-tinged.  My oxygen saturation levels are even lower now, after sitting here for over a week.  So what have we accomplished so far?  Let me tell you.

I had the arterial blood gas sampling done on Sunday.  It took a couple more tries but success!  It was of course, painful but nothing that I couldn't handle, especially if it meant an answer and an easy fix.  My arterial blood looked very dark as she was drawing it out, not the bright red oxygenated blood you usually see from arteries.  The doctor commented on this, and said that it was very interesting. Unfortunately, I did not have an abnormal level of methemoglobin.  So that ruled out methemoglobinemia. 
The plan was to have an echocardiogram on Monday.  After waiting most of the day, I got pushed to the next day's schedule because …

This week, my heart rate has been over 100 since Monday.  I saw my PCP's office twice, once for labs and a vitals check, and the next for a visit, EKG, and 24 hour monitor.  Everything but the EKG looked fine, the monitor showed a normal, but fast, rhythm, averaging at 100, but peaking at 150.  Usually, my heart rate is in the 50's.

Friday, after having not a lot of answers from anyone, I had worsening shortness of breath, and couldn't walk the shortest distance without sitting down or taking a break.  I left work to go to the ER at MGH after talking to my endocrinologist.  I have had lab abnormalities for about 3 weeks, and this would be a good opportunity to investigate more.

So, I spent 1 night on the ER observation floor, got lots of monitoring, some walks which showed that my oxygen levels went down significantly with activity, a chest CT to rule out a blood clot in my lungs despite a normal D-Dimer, and some sugar and insulin to attempt to draw potassium out of my …

Happy 2015!  With a new year, lots of people make resolutions.  The most common resolution?  To exercise more, to get back to the gym.  As many of my friends and family members know, I am not one to jump at the chance of physical activity.  There are very few active things that I find enjoyable.  I grew up skiing every weekend, and was an active kid, participating in dance classes, cheerleading, and even trying soccer.  
Even though I was an active child, I dreaded gym class, and used to look for excuses when it came time for fitness tests like running a mile, doing pull ups, or climbing that rope to the ceiling.  Despite all of this, I think most of my fear came from not being able to keep up with friends and classmates, or not being able to complete the task.  In college, this lead to getting a doctor's excuse so I wouldn't have to complete my physical education requirements, something that most of my friends looked forward too.  Getting school credit for skiing, bowling or …