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Friday, May 20, 2011

Drained

I am so drained. both emotionally and physically after everything that has taken place in the last 24 hours. Before I get into the details of everything that happened yesterday I should talk a little bit about what has been going on leading up to now. For the past few months Travis has been complaining about feeling weak, really shaky and having trouble seeing at times. He was chalking it up to being exhausted from working 55+ hours a week and going to school on top of it. A few weeks ago I started to notice that he was sleeping a lot more and would fall asleep at random times and be really hard to wake up. When I was able to wake him up he was very delirious and out of it. This progressively got worse to the point where it was physically impossible for him to stay awake over the last couple of days. On Wednesday night he was sleeping beside me on the couch and I could feel his heart beating out of his chest. I grabbed my fetal doppler and placed it over his heart and it was reading out in the 150's WHILE HE WAS SLEEPING! I made him a doctors appointment for the following day.

Flash forward to Thursday. Travis saw his family doctor that afternoon and she did an EKG and also felt his thyroid and said it was 3 times it's normal size and suspected he had hypothyroidism. She set him up for an appointment to get bloodwork done Friday and a few other tests next week. When Travis got home from the doctor I needed to run to the post office so I left Jameson home with him (the girls were out to eat with my mom) on my way back from the post office I was in a minor car accident. I am ok and there wasn't much damage to the car. I kept trying to call Travis and text him but I could not get a hold of him. I assumed he was on the phone with his parents letting them know about his doctors appointment. I finally got home about an hour later, very shaken up and upset about the accident. I walked in the door and Jameson was in his high chair crying hysterically. Hyperventilating, tears down his face and snot running from his nose. You could tell he had been crying for a long time. I freaked out. I picked him up from his chair and found Travis sleeping on the couch. I tried to wake him up and he was unresponsive. He finally opened his eyes and looked at me with a blank stare. I told him about the accident and that Jameson had been crying and he looked at me like I was crazy and closed his eyes and fell right back to sleep. At first I was mad. How could he not care about the accident I was in? How could he sleep through our baby crying like that? What is wrong with him?? After I had a few minutes to calm down I realized that this was not normal for him. My husband wasn't cold and insensitive. He would never leave our baby to cry. Ever. I started to panic. I called his Dad to ask him some questions (his brother has hyperthyroidism) and he thought I should take him to the hospital. I then called the nurse on call and she also thought it was a good idea to take him in. I got Jameson dressed because I would have to drop him off with my mom and went to wake Travis up. It took me over 20 minutes to wake him up. I was shaking him, yelling his name and pleading with him to get off the couch. Finally I shook him really hard and told him if he didn't get up right now I was calling 911. He opened his eyes and I was able to help sit him up. I told him to get his shoes on and get in the car. I put Jameson in the car and waited for Travis to come out of the house. After a few minutes he was still in there so I went to check on him. He was upstairs in our room. When I asked him what he was doing he said "Looking for clothes to wear to my game" he thought he was going to his baseball game. Even though I had told him numerous times we were going to the hospital. He then got mad at me. Thought I was overreacting and didn't understand why we were going. I finally got him to the car and we dropped off Jameson with my mom and sister.

We got to the ER and they immediately took him back. They ran every test you can think of and got an IV started. We waited in the ER for over 4 hours and finally the doctor came in and said that his thyroid levels were "through the roof" he said he spoke with the endocrinologist and he wanted to admit him and get medication started immediately. So finally at about 1am he finally got a room. We met with the endocrinologist this afternoon and she diagnosed Travis with Graves Disease and Hyperthyroidism he is currently on beta blockers to lower his heart rate and a medication to control his thyroid. He will need some form of treatment or medication for the rest of his life to control this. He was released from the hospital late this afternoon and has been instructed to take the next week off of work until his heart rate returns to normal.

I am very thankful that we have answers and that these conditions are manageable with medication and doctor supervision. I am glad that I listened to my instincts that something was not right. Travis kept telling me the entire time that he was fine, and just tired. If he had his way he would have never gone to the doctor and we would still not know what is wrong with him.

This was a big reminder for me to hug my loved ones tight. Good health can be taken from you at any time and is not something that should be taken for granted.

2 comments:

  1. Amen girl. I love you guys so much and am thinking about you always. I wish so much that I could be there to help whenever you needed it or just a shoulder :) You are such a great wife to take over & get him help. I hope this becomes something you never have to worry about, just medication and not affecting your life. Hugs to you all

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  2. Praying for you all! I'm so glad you listened to your instincts to seek help and they were able to figure out what is wrong.

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