what a trip...

So camping officially sucked big time. I woke up Thursday morning with a slight tickle in my throat but I just assumed it was allergies. I took a benedryl and that was that.

It rained as we were packing up the truck...it rained the entire way to Pennsylvania...we stopped in Binghamton to meet up with Tom and Nikki for the rest of the drive down. It had started to let up...and even got sunny as we got closer to PA.

We got to our campsite and it was sunny and beautiful! We were hoping it would stay that way...too bad it only lasted long enough for us to set up our tents, get dinner started, then it started to downpour. I mean DOWNPOUR. It was awful. The boys set up a tarp and luckily, Nikki and Tom brought down a canopy type thing to set up also. We had plenty of room for all of us under the tarp and canopy, but it still sucked. The dogs were not having a good time either.

So that night, Thursday night, we just hung around, drank some, smoked some, etc. It was a good time overall. Went to bed around 3am...I woke up Friday morning and felt like absolute shit. I mean SHIT. My nose was plugged, hell, my entire head felt like it was filled with mucus. Everyone went paintballing, except for Steve and I...we had originally wanted to go hiking with the dogs, but since it was STILL downpouring, we just hung around our campsite and read magazines. Eventually, since it was so muddy out, we put the dogs in the back of the truck so they could lie down and relax. By the time everyone got back from paintballing, I was still feeling horrible. We settled in for a nice steak dinner and just hung around the campfire (even though it was still raining at this point). I had had enough of the rain, so I took the dogs and went to sleep in our tent around 10:30pm. Our tent has windows, but because it was raining so hard, we closed all the windows...it was a hot, humid, sticky mess in the tent. I woke up at 3am gasping for air. I mean...I couldn't get ANY air in. I could exhale, but not inhale. I started to freak out. I woke Steve up around 4am and told him to call 911. The ambulance met us at the front of the camp sign in area and gave me a breathing treatment. The treatment only lasted long enough for Steve to drive me to the local hospital. We get to this rinky dink hospital in god knows where PA and get me taken care of. I spent about 3 hours in the ER, they gave me two more breathing treatments and an IV of steroids. They sent me home with two prescriptions.

Steve went back to our campsite while I was still in the ER to pack up our stuff....it was about 6am at this point...none of our friends were awake so when they woke up, our stuff was gone. Steve came back to get me at the hospital and we headed home. Steve made it back to Rochester in 3 hours. It's normally about a 4 and a half hour drive. That was one of the scariest moments in my life...not knowing if I'd make it all the way home or not. I did NOT want to stop at another rinky dink hospital on the thruway. We get home and my mom meets us at our house with my nebulizer. Between the hours of 1pm and five pm, I had 4 breathing treatments...none of which worked. My mom told me it was time to head to the hospital again. I didn't think I'd make the drive, so we called 911 again and had an ambulance take me.

I spent the next 11 hours in the ER, with all sorts of tubes, IVs, tests, Xrays etc. They initally thought I had a blogclot in my lungs, which would NOT be good. Fortunately, they could tell by a bloodtest that I did NOT have a bloodclot (phew). I was finally admitted to a floor at five am. They sent me to the Intensive Care Unit so I would have around the clock care. That way, they could monitor my heartrate, O2 level etc. My heartrate went up to around 140 which was a bit scary and my blood pressue was up to around 150 over 90 or something. Scary! I was hooked up to Oxygen and heart monitors and on IV steroids until Sunday night. They finally moved me to a regular floor, since I was no longer considered an ICU patient.

My primary care physician saw me Sunday morning and took a listen to my lungs. He said I was still wheezing pretty bad and said that he couldn't let me go home. Bummer. By Sunday night, I was removed from all tubes and IVs and no longer kept on a heart monitor. I was feeling much, much better. That night, I was moved again to another room since this one old lady was found wandering around the floor, the nurses wanted to keep her within eye sight. So they moved me to another room on the same floor, just around the corner. I had been moved 3 times by this point. Whatever. Just get me better and let me go home! Steve came to visit Sunday night right before visiting hours were over and told me he was starting to feel sick too. Oh no, just our luck, I passed on this illness to him!

Monday morning, my doctor came in around 7:30 and took another listen. This time, he said I was doing much better and said I could go home! I started packing up my stuff right away and called my mom to come get me. Steve called to check on me and told me that he was feeling really rough and he was on his way home from work. Mom brought some antibiotics for him too so he could also get on the road to recovery. I got discharged around 11am Monday morning. Mom came over to help cook, clean and get us comfortable. Thank GOD for mom. She made enough food to last a couple of days and got us all settled on the couch. Needless to say, I won't be back to work for a few days. I have a doctor's appointment scheduled for Thursday 8am and hopefully, if all goes well, I'll be able to go to work after my appointment. We'll see. Fingers crossed. I hate being sick like this. Not that I've ever been THIS sick...but I still hate it nonetheless.

I was so looking forward to camping...sucks so bad that we couldn't enjoy not one minute of it! I guess while Steve and I were dealing with this sickness, the rest of our friends decided to plan a snowboarding/skiing trip for this winter. Hopefully they'll pick a place that has a hospital close by.