Monday; October 19th, 2009
(For a few days, the entire family besides my mom had been sick with a small case of the flu...)

It was dark outside, but the night was still young as it was around 7:30PM or so when I got up to wash my hands while I played Boom Blox: Bash Party on Wii with my sister. I returned from the bathroom and tried to sit down on the ground to continue playing, but my body all of a sudden started to shake uncontrollably. I thought it might pass so I sat there for a few moments. It didn't stop. I told my sister to turn off the Wii because I was going to go upstairs and tell my parents about it. I had the hardest time walking up the stairs as my muscles shook with every movement.

When I got to the upstairs living room, I told my mom that I couldn't stop shaking. She simply told me to lie down on the couch and put a blanket on myself. And so, I did. She changed the channel to abc for "Dancing with the Stars" and I laid down and tried to get comfortable under a blanket. Every movement I made had my body violently shaking under the covers. I couldn't stop. If I held still, I wouldn't shake, but I had to hold COMPLETELY still. Even a single twitch sent me shivering again. My body was so tired. I just kept shaking and I laid there and cried because I had no idea why it was doing it. My parents took my temperature; it was 103 degrees F. Much above the normal 98.7. They had me take a tylenol and lie back down. I was still shaking with every movement. I was shaking so much that I began to feel nauseous. I prayed and prayed and prayed to God that I wouldn't throw up as I had such awful times in the past doing so. Unfortunately, I did end up throwing up. It was so violent and rough on my already shaking body that I embarrassingly did pee myself. I cried and sobbed like a little girl and told my mom I had to change clothes.

I went to my room and changed in the bathroom. My body still shaking even though it wasn't cold. My parents took my temperature again; it had risen another by another degree and they decided to take me to the hospital. I started to cry because I was so scared. I cried the entire time in the car to the emergency room. We got there and I felt like crap. The lady at the desk kept asking for my name. It was at this time that I curse having a last name that was hard to spell. She had to keep typing it in so she could print some wristband so I could go into the ER. Another lady took me to a different room. She weighed me, took my temperature, and my blood pressure. I had my blood pressure taken 3 different times while I was there because they said it was really high. I think it was high just because I was scared, but who knows...

They made me swallow 3 pills of ibuprofen and put on a mask as they took me into the back. It was a room filled with many beds and curtains and they had me change into those hospital clothes and lay down. It was so busy. There were so many people in the ER besides me and for so many different reasons. Laying down was the worst part. The mask made it hard to breathe and it made my face so hot. The lights were so bright that I had trouble opening my eyes. I felt nauseous again and looked over at the trash can next to the bed. I looked at my parents who were so worried. I ended up crying again because I was scared I would die. A man took my temperature again, along with my blood pressure, which was still high.

The nurse told me I had 2 options. I can either go home and drink lots of fluids and he would give me medicine so I wouldn't throw up, or I could have an IV treatment instead. I didn't like the sound of either of those. I KNEW I would throw up if I tried to drink a lot of water...but I had a fear of needles so I didn't want the IV. Since I told him no to the first option, they decided to give me an IV.

But first, I was going to get an xray of my lungs to make sure I didn't have pneumonia. Oh at that moment my hopes dropped. What if I DID have pneumonia?! I was sure to die. So many fears rushed through my head as another man came in to push my bed to the xray room. I had to stand up and push myself against this wall. He took two xrays and pushed me back to the ER where I laid in fear. I prayed to God to help me live because there were so many things I had yet to do in life. I prayed to God that if I died, to help my family and friends be strong. I prayed to him so badly that I could live. I cried more. A female nurse came in and said only one of my parents could stay because it was ER rules. I chose my dad cause I knew I'd want to hold his hand while I got the IV.

The nurse came back with the doctor this time. The doctor was a funny looking man in a white coat. He reminded me of my uncle...but anyways the nurse checked my right arm for a good place to stick in the needle. He wrapped a tight banding of rubber around my arm to get the blood flowing..and then decided to use my left arm instead because he saw a better vein or something. I held onto my dad's hand tight as they inserted the needle. They took a lot of blood samples before leaving. A lady came in and attached a bag of saline solution to the IV. My dad switched with my mother and he went home to stay with my sister. My mom sat next to me and leaned on the bars of the bed. I could see how tired she was. A man came in and told me that my lungs were clear. I cried tears of joy knowing that I wasn't going to die. I had to stay until the entire bag had gone into my arm. We were there for a good 30-40 minutes waiting for it to finish.

The torturous mask that I was still wearing, made me feel horrible though. The lady came in to check on the bag and told me THEN that I didn't have to wear the mask because it was just a precaution. Lady, I thank you for helping me to get better, but FUCK YOU for not telling me sooner. They (EDIT: TOLD ME I HAD A VERY BAD CASE OF THE FLU AND...)released me from the hospital and told me to take tylenol and such every few hours to keep my fever down. So for the past week I have been resting and drinking so many fluids that I've had to pee every 2 hours! I've felt like a drug addict swallowing pills like mad the past week, but now I'm much better and currently just have a bad cough.

That was the longass story of my experience in the ER.

I just finished checking around 100 deviations and it's down to 985 left to go. I'm going from old to new and I still have deviations from September so I'll get to commenting on the new stuff soon. I can't wait to get back into drawing as well! \o/