I just typed out this post in about 15 minutes this morning. I haven't really even re-read it. It is quite wordy and medical. If you are like my friend, Sarah, then you totally shut down when medical terminology is used (although she is getting better since she married a nurse!) So, I put a small summary at the bottom if you just want to skip to that. Hoping this makes sense!
This is so completely random. I will start from the beginning.
When I got home Friday night at 2 am Lonnie had accidentally locked me out. He had to come upstairs and unlock the door for me. When we went back down to bed he was shivering and said he had the chills. He sleeps with no sheets or blankets so I knew this was weird. I covered him up and turned the heat up. I knew he had a fever because he was so hot. The next morning he woke up to go to work, took some Tyl.enol and felt better. In fact he felt good so we went on with our plans to go have a fun family day.
About half way through our great day I could tell he was uncomfortable. He mentioned that his muscles were hurting, mainly his neck and his back. Like I said before, I thought he just slept wrong. He went on home while I took B for ice cream.
While we were watching the movie that night he was moaning and groaning pretty frequently. His fever had returned earlier in the day and Ty.lenol was not getting it to go down. As he progressively got worse we started to get a little bit worried. He kept saying that his back and neck hurt so bad and this is coming from the guy who never complains about pain. He has had a few injuries since I have known him and he just has a high tolerance for pain. Around 8:00 pm is when he told me to call my mom to watch B so he could go get checked out in the ER. I tried not to freak the eff out but I'm pretty sure I failed. I knew that if he thought he should get checked out then he was really feeling worse than I even knew and he was worried.
Saturday night in the ER....no bueno
At this point I think we were both worried about it being meningitis or something and giving it to Blakely. That was our main concern heading in to the ER. He had a fever, chills and severe muscle pain. None of which was getting better with medication. They worked him up and everything was normal. We were there only a couple of hours but he was so uncomfortable. I have never seen him like that.
Keep in mind. He was on call all weekend. So he worked Saturday but Sunday he felt so awful he decided he wasn't going to go in unless they called with an emergency. Thankfully they didn't. He was worse Sunday. Still had the fever and severe muscle pain.
Monday morning rolls around and he heads to work. He told me that morning that his muscles were very weak. It was hard for him to move his hands and arms. At about 11 he called me from his cell phone. Something he never does from work. He told me he had called his partner in (from his vacation!) and he left work and was headed to see our doctor. He couldn't hold the wires and needles for his cases. He said that his muscle weakness had gotten much worse over the last few hours.
They ran some labs and then Lonnie came home to wait for the results. Dr. W called and said that one of his labs (CK) that measures the breakdown of muscles was high. (It was not high yet when we were in the ER) He wanted him to hydrate as much as possible and come back in the morning for repeat labs. They were thinking it was some sort of myositis (inflammation of the muscles...this can be caused by about a million different things). But there were also a few scarier things that it could be and if the labs were abnormal the next day we would start ruling those out.
That afternoon and evening we started to get really worried. In 15 years Lonnie has never missed a single day of work. He laid on the couch and shivered and groaned all evening just getting worse. The next morning (yesterday) he could barely get out of bed. He hurt so much and his muscles just would not work, they were so weak. He forced himself to get in the shower thinking it would make him feel better. He had to go to work! I got up as he was trying to brush his teeth. Trying and failing. He couldn't even squeeze the toothpaste out. I told him there was no way he was going to work. Absolutely not. My foot was down. He agreed and called his partner who knew he may not be able to make it.
Once that was settled we sat down to figure out what in the hell to do. We were getting worried about a couple of really serious illnesses. I mean how random to have rapid onset of severe muscle pain, muscle weakness and a fever? He called one of the neurologists and he agreed to see him immediately. I drove him up there and the neurologist worked him over. They ordered a few tests and ran a few tests in the office. The one they ran in the office ruled out the most serious illness (Guillain-Barre). It would have been really random for him to have that so I was happy to know it wasn't that. We moved on to the MRI to rule out the next most serious illness. Right after it was done Lonnie went and looked at it and it was normal. Wonderful. Then we went for more labs.
We were at the hospital all morning. Once we were done there we went to our regular internal medicine doctor...let's call him Dr. W, the one Lonnie saw the day before. We talked to him about things and the labs still weren't back. He sent us home and the plan was for him to call us with the results. If his CK was higher then he wanted to admit him to the hospital. The problem with high CK is that it can build up in your kidneys and cause kidney failure. So they would want him in the hospital to pump him full of fluids to try and prevent that. Dr. W made me feel a little better while we were there. He told me that this is not a mystery. He still thinks it is an infectious myositis and rhabdomyolysis. We just don't know what caused it.
We came home and waited. Dr. W called a little later and said that his CK had gone up significantly. Like more than quadrupled. BUT! He had talked to an infectious disease specialist and since his kidney function labs were normal she thought it would be okay to recheck the labs in the morning (Wednesday). As long as he hydrated as much as possible and went to the ER if he got any worse.
This made me nervous but going to the hospital didn't sound all that awesome either. I made him lay on the couch all evening and forced him to drink a ton of water and Gat.orade. When he woke up yesterday morning he felt a little better. That was the first time since this started that he wasn't getting worse. His labs came back yesterday and his CK had gone up but only slightly. Dr. W thinks that he has plateaued and is turning the corner. So we go back in a few minutes for another recheck and HOPEFULLY it will have started to come down.
He was definitely feeling better yesterday afternoon. He still can't write his name with a pen or text (his fingers just will not work right) but he does not have as much pain and he feels somewhat stronger. I am so so happy he is starting to feel better. We are supposed to leave for the beach soon! Now that he is on the mend (please let that be the case) we are still planning on going. I have been on hold with packing and getting things ready because I wasn't sure it was going to work out. And I've also been super busy taking care of him and driving him to all these places and just stressing out about his illness in general. So now I have to get on it!
I love this husband of mine so very much. We had a few scary days there but I am glad we are past that. I respect him so much for being such a hard worker. He has told the partner that worked for him a hundred times how much he appreciates it. He keeps telling me things that we need to get or do for the doctors that helped him and took care of him. He has told them numerous times how grateful he is to have them. He just does not like being the patient! I am so thankful for his partner that came in to work for him this week. If he had been out of town I don't know what we would have done! We may never know what caused this. More than likely it was just the way his body reacted to a virus that he had. Who knows. All I know is that I am happy he is getting better! His official diagnosis is infectious myositis (inflammation of the muscles caused by an infectious process and rhabdomyolysis (breakdown of the muscle tissue).
*short version* Lonnie started having severe muscle pain and weakness along with a fever 5 days ago. We spent a few scary days worrying that it could be something life-altering since he only continued to get worse. We have been in and out of the doctors office for tests and planning to be admitted to the hospital but, thankfully, we have avoided that. Yesterday was the first day he felt a little bit better. We are going back for more labs this morning and hoping that he is on the mend! His diagnosis is infectious myositis (inflammation of the muscles caused by an infectious process) and rhabdomyolysis (breakdown of muscle tissue). So freaking random.
