In the days leading up to August 17th, I had basically stopped eating (aside from taking syrup by the spoonful to give me enough energy to go to the bathroom) and was barely drinking any water.

My medical care team was going to have me admitted to the hospital on the 14th, but the hospital was booked because of COVID inpatients so each day I received an email saying I needed to wait another day.

My wonderful roommate and my dad found a way of how to get me to the bathroom since I was basically just a lump of a person at that time. They put my desk chair on a towel and would pull me to the bathroom since my dad had a shoulder injury and couldn’t carry me anymore.

August 17th I was woken up at 2:30 a.m. by esophagus pain and felt like I was being choked. This pain remained until 1 p.m. that day. I had a swallowing flare and developed stress hives all over my neck.

By 3:30 p.m., I was so weak that I couldn’t talk or even type on my phone. My dad messaged my primary care doctor and they told us to call 911. My body just couldn’t wait for an inpatient room to be available anymore.

The EMTs arrived and took my blood sugar immediately. It was 42. They informed me that this was dangerously low as many people who have this sugar level and haven’t eaten, can easily slip into comas. They kept asking me what year it was and who was the president.

They didn’t even bother with their normal lift protocol, and one EMT just carried me onto the stretcher.

When I arrived at the ED, they kept moving me between pediatric and adult wards since they didn’t know where to put me. I got a saline drip started with sugars as my dad had to answer all of the doctor’s questions since I still couldn’t talk.

After 3 liters of IV fluids with sugar, my blood sugar levels were now too high, but they said it was easy to reduce it back down to normal.

After getting my sugar replenished, I was able to stand fully upright and walk to the bathroom to pee.

My primary came to visit me in the ED and said they scheduled an MRI (since I wasn’t allowed to do any more CT scans because of how many I had done in Texas) that evening and a couple other procedures while I would be there as an inpatient.

They said there still wasn’t any rooms available, so they’d be moving me around for the rest of the night.

I had a chest x-ray done which came back clear-just to see if there were any hints there.

It was almost 10 p.m. and my dad headed back to my apartment since he wasn’t allowed to stay overnight.

I was wheeled in to do my MRI around 2 a.m. and then my bed was moved into an MICU unit to sleep.

I basically did not sleep at all that night. I was in a room with 8 other very ill patients and the only thing separating us was a curtain. I heard crying, vomiting, and monitors beeping. I was visited by multiple nurses and doctors throughout the night and was still in a lot of pain and uncomfortable, so I only got a few hours of sleep.

August 18th, I started my morning by swallowing 8 pills and then was told to drink some apple juice since my sugars were dropping again.

I needed to use the restroom and walked with my IV pole in the busy MICU unit. On my walk over, I was hunched over.

I walked into the bathroom and saw my face in the mirror which was pale white. When I stood up and was leaving the bathroom, I was suddenly in more pain and hunched over more.

As I walked to the middle of the unit, I dropped to the floor and had a dry heaving flare. I was given nausea medication, but it wasn’t helping very much.

I was moved to a pediatric ED room as they waited to transfer me to the adult GI inpatient ward.

I was moved into my inpatient room at around noon that day. I had multiple CCT nurses (critical care transport nurses) who switched out every day to help me get from my bed to the bathroom.

My dad came to visit me before my procedure. We had been told the night before that my care team had decided to put in a PICC (peripherally inserted central catheter) for my feeding plan instead of an NG tube. They said that anything going through my digestive system would likely not be tolerated so they wanted to bypass it and feed me through my bloodstream.  

I was very happy with this decision and felt more comfortable with the procedure since I had watched videos of people putting NG tubes in and wasn’t sure if I would be able to do it.

I had my full inpatient care team visit me and there was SOO many doctors, residents, nurses, CCTs, dieticians, etc. It was insane!

I was informed I’d have to be awake for the procedure and that it would be a bedside surgery, so I didn’t have to leave my room.

During all the times we were waiting, I would talk to my dad about how stage management works and the process of theatre. He always had a plethora of questions on hand, and I loved being able to talk about my passion amidst the chaos.

I had a heart monitor hooked up to me the whole time and it was always alarming since I arrived at the ED. My resting heart rate had always been in the 110-120s range. If I moved or talked or did anything it would jump up to 150-180s and nurses would all come, running in. If I talked about stage management, the monitor would alarm because I was talking about something I was really passionate about :-) .

Find out what happens during the PICC Line Placement in the story, “PICC Placed…?”