Check out my other blogs to see the rest of my story.
Quick recap, I was a early 30s TV producer who didn't take any daily medicine. Then I battled a constant sinus infection and 5 surgerys. I had a arterial bleed at home after tonsil surgery, and woke up in severe all over pain.
I guess we can talk a little about CFS now. At one point, 10 years before I got sick, I really wanted to be a firefighter/medic. I graduated from both EMT and fire academy. I know enough about medicine to be deadly. If you don't know, your average EMT can just keep you alive long enough to get you to somebody that knows what they are doing.
While doing ride alongs with my buddy's in fire I became a little big for my britches. We encountered a few pt who claimed to have CFS. Many were the same, middle aged women who didn't seem sick. They were typically very demanding.
In ems terms patients are either sick (dieing), kind of sick (walking wounded, need help eventually) or not sick. We have things we look for that say you are sick, like cool, clammy, grey skin means you might be having a heart attack or MI. Most of these patients who claimed to have CFS probably didn't but hey we aren't Drs and we just drop them off at the ER, driving no lights and sirens.
When you call 911 here we are obligated to drive lights and sirens. EMS, fire, and police will race to get to you. This is insanely dangerous, not only to us but to anyone near the roads with us.
In the area I was in 50% of calls we ran were for not sick pts. 25% were for walking wounded. For example, a 18 year old with 2 kids called 911 at 7am to get a ride 2 blocks to the ER for her 3 year old who woke up with a cold. This makes us very skeptical of people claiming to be sick.
A few years later I got married and traveled to meet with her family on the east coast. We talked about their daughter who was very sick and had been for 10 years. She couldn't stay awake for more then a few hours and just hanging out was exhausting. I was very skeptical but after being around her I started to become less skeptical but thought she was sick with something else.
Let's fast forward to me, because that's what's this is all about.
I can't remember a lot of the days following my second tonsil surgery. I am in pain all over, I can't get enough sleep. I used to sleep 4 hours a night but now sleep 12 to 18 hours. 6 weeks later I am back to work but am struggling. Simple tasks that I used to be able to do are difficult and require a lot more brain power.
The worst part was I still HAD A FRAKING SINUS INFECTION. So all that pain was for not.
I feel like I'm falling asleep at work, but instead of feeling like I'm sleeping I wake up really scared. My pain is all over so I go see my pcp. She gives me tramadol and says it should pass. My wife brings up my tiredness and also tells her how I used to trick the pulse ox machine post surgery.
So my dr decides to do a over night pulse ox test. Up next we see every specialist known to man.
Thanks for reading !
Quick recap, I was a early 30s TV producer who didn't take any daily medicine. Then I battled a constant sinus infection and 5 surgerys. I had a arterial bleed at home after tonsil surgery, and woke up in severe all over pain.
I guess we can talk a little about CFS now. At one point, 10 years before I got sick, I really wanted to be a firefighter/medic. I graduated from both EMT and fire academy. I know enough about medicine to be deadly. If you don't know, your average EMT can just keep you alive long enough to get you to somebody that knows what they are doing.
While doing ride alongs with my buddy's in fire I became a little big for my britches. We encountered a few pt who claimed to have CFS. Many were the same, middle aged women who didn't seem sick. They were typically very demanding.
In ems terms patients are either sick (dieing), kind of sick (walking wounded, need help eventually) or not sick. We have things we look for that say you are sick, like cool, clammy, grey skin means you might be having a heart attack or MI. Most of these patients who claimed to have CFS probably didn't but hey we aren't Drs and we just drop them off at the ER, driving no lights and sirens.
When you call 911 here we are obligated to drive lights and sirens. EMS, fire, and police will race to get to you. This is insanely dangerous, not only to us but to anyone near the roads with us.
In the area I was in 50% of calls we ran were for not sick pts. 25% were for walking wounded. For example, a 18 year old with 2 kids called 911 at 7am to get a ride 2 blocks to the ER for her 3 year old who woke up with a cold. This makes us very skeptical of people claiming to be sick.
A few years later I got married and traveled to meet with her family on the east coast. We talked about their daughter who was very sick and had been for 10 years. She couldn't stay awake for more then a few hours and just hanging out was exhausting. I was very skeptical but after being around her I started to become less skeptical but thought she was sick with something else.
Let's fast forward to me, because that's what's this is all about.
I can't remember a lot of the days following my second tonsil surgery. I am in pain all over, I can't get enough sleep. I used to sleep 4 hours a night but now sleep 12 to 18 hours. 6 weeks later I am back to work but am struggling. Simple tasks that I used to be able to do are difficult and require a lot more brain power.
The worst part was I still HAD A FRAKING SINUS INFECTION. So all that pain was for not.
I feel like I'm falling asleep at work, but instead of feeling like I'm sleeping I wake up really scared. My pain is all over so I go see my pcp. She gives me tramadol and says it should pass. My wife brings up my tiredness and also tells her how I used to trick the pulse ox machine post surgery.
So my dr decides to do a over night pulse ox test. Up next we see every specialist known to man.
Thanks for reading !
