I came out of last weekend feeling really good. On Sunday a friend of mine and I installed some new Eufy security cameras. I returned to work Monday and was a little tired but felt so much better. By Tuesday I felt so good that the 12 hours day I had to work didn't feel like it was going to kill me. I didn't work as much on Wednesday or Thursday but overall I put in a solid work week of 37 hours by Thursday!
Thursday night Emily and I drove up to Idyllwild to stay at my dad's house. This was to get out of the heat, but also to celebrate my post phase 1 treatment. It was a great night. We ate dinner down in the valley before we went up the hill. Emily drove up so I could just relax. Once we were in Idyllwild we went to the Idyllwild Brew Pub. We got the S’mores Sundae dessert and a flight of 4 beers which had 4 ounce tasters. I had a little of each but since I hadn't had any alcoholic drinks in nearly 2 months, I wanted to take it easy.
We drove back up to the house, watched the sunset and then went to bed.
A great end to a pretty great day.
I woke up Friday morning, early as usual. I piddled around a bit and made myself a cup of coffee. As I was sitting on the sofa in the living room, I suddenly felt very "wrong". My heart rate jumped, and I felt dizzy. I got tunnel vision.
I yelled out to Emily that something was wrong ... and then I had a syncopal episode. Emily rushed out to the living room, saw that I was unresponsive and called 911. They asked for the address but Emily didn't know it. So she went outside to get the cross streets. By the time she came back inside I was awake. She asked me if I knew the address and indicated I had it in my phone. We gave the operator the address and about 10 minutes later an Ambulance showed up.
The EMTs were great. They did an EKG and monitored me for a while. They asked if I wanted to be transported to the ER via the ambulance, which I declined. Everything seemed good, but Emily and I decided to come back home so that we'd be closer to the Urgent Care / ER if needed.
As we were packing up I got light headed again and had to sit down. The EMTs were getting ready to leave but Emily called them back in. They monitored me again for a few minutes and then helped walk me to the car. Meanwhile Emily packed up and brought all of the stuff to the car so we could come back home.
Once we got home I decided to take a shower. While taking my shower I got a bit dizzy and light headed. We decided that a trip to Urgent Care was needed.
We got there about 8:30 and were talking with the nurses by 8:45. By 8:55 I was on a gurney in their infusion room getting hooked up for cardiac monitoring (EKG, HR, Pulse Ox, BP Cuff) and had a PIC line installed. They took blood for tests and I got 2L of a saline IV. AT about 12:45 I had been discharged. My HR was high, by BP was high, but nothing that was concerning from a medical perspective.
I spent the next 5+ hours drinking water and napping. My HR eventually got down to a more reasonable level and I'm feeling so much better, but not going to lie, it was pretty scary.
I've never experience syncope before. I hope I don't experience it again.
In retrospect I think what happened was:
1. I drank probably 20 ounces of Diet Pepsi
2. I drank probably 40 ounces of Dr. Pepper
3. I drank 8 ounces of various beers
4. I was at an altitude of about 5280 feet
5. I didn't drink enough water
6. I had way too much caffeine
I likely got VERY dehydrated based on how little water I had Thursday night. I hadn't had anything that wasn't water (or my morning coffee) for almost 2 months. My guess is that my body just wasn't sure what the hell was going on.
I'm feeling much better now. Still a little shortness of breath, but my Heart Rate is back to a more normal level (mid-70s) and I don't feel so scared anymore.
But I won't lie ... I was terrified Friday morning. Being awake and then blacking out for a minute and then not really sure what was gong on. Very scary.
I'm drinking a LOT of water and an occasional electrolyte drink and like I said feeling much better.