Listen to your mother.

Going in with Myasthenia Gravis, being admitted with Graves Disease Crisis

So, I have a story for you. When I was just diagnosed with myasthenia gravis in September 2016 and told that I have a tumor on my thymus gland, I was freaking out a little. After being dismissed by the  ladies working the front desks at my neurologists office numerous times and getting worse by the day, I was losing my marbles. 

You can check out my whole diagnosis story here:

https://youtu.be/X__nj-eF-Fw

So, after it got to a point that I would almost pass out following any physical activity, my mother made the decision to simply take me to the emergency room at the University Clinic in Hamburg and not leave until they had done... well something. Since I am the type to never want to bother anyone ever, I was against that idea, but my mother is very persuasive. So she and her husband made the 1.5h trip from their home to get me, they loaded me into their car and off we went another 2h to Hamburg.

In the car I started feeling even worse. My heart rate was always insane at about 110 resting pulse, and I always had slight arrhythmia (which is why I almost passed out that often) but on the way to the clinic I started feeling extra faint - basically like I was about to have a heart attack. So we arrived there after struggling through inner city traffic for what felt like forever, my Mum grabs me walks straight up to the front desk and lays out my case, while I just stand there looking awful.

Exhibit A - Imagine this beauty plus sweating and shaking.

They take me into first admission and the doctor checking my vitals looks appropriately shocked.

He wants to know if my neuro just let me go in this state and tells me that he should have referred me to the emergency room immediately, when I first came in with these symptoms 2 months ago.

My Neuro diagnosed me in September. We finally ended up in the ER the end of November. 

Since he did not like what he saw a nurse was sent in immediately to get me admitted into an ER bed. Within about 30min of arrival including the admission check up, the nurse had me in a hospital gown in a private room in the Emergency Room. Immediately she put in an IV, tied the blood pressure thing around my arm (yes, that is the technical term), and basically strapped me to the bed with electrodes for the heart monitor. I was terrified, but my Mum and her husband stayed with me until the night and held my hand.  While I waited there a bunch of specialists came through. A cardiologist, a neurologist, another cardiologist and finally an endocrinologist. The endo immediately realises what is wrong with me. She touches my arm once, asked me if I was always hot (the answer is yes, I hadn't been cold in years) and rolled in an ultra sound machine. Within 5 minutes she explained to be that

1. I had graves disease

2. I was suffering from hormone poisoning

3. My thyroid was already severely damaged and basically had leopard spots

4. We made the right decision coming in. Any further hormone activity and I might have suffered a heart attack - at 28.

So what is the moral of the story? When your mother tells you to go to the ER - you go!!!

(And my doctors at home were idiots)

You can check out my incredible story telling ability(cough) right here!

https://youtu.be/TSeievJJ040