A day in the ER

I haven't posted for a long time. I feel like I have been so busy over the last few weeks, but when I think back to what I have done, it doesn't seem like much. I think I just feel pulled in every direction and it overwhelms me. I have been putting in a lot of hours at work. We are moving in a couple of weeks also, so I have been packing and cleaning. My husband. Jerome, has been to see several doctors. A little over a week ago, he called me home from work. I knew it was serious because he never asks me to leave work.

When I got home his skin was gray and he was sweating profusely. He walked with a slight limp. I called his family doctor and made an appointment for that afternoon. With in half an hour, I was on the phone with 911 and asking for an ambulance. Jerome is a big guy, 6' tall and 240 pounds and I knew he needed to get to a hospital but I am only 5'4" and 125 pounds. I couldn't move him at all.

I had helped him get to the couch and when he sat down his whole body seemed to freeze. I could tell that the muscles in his hands were cramped by the way they were twisted. He was crying and kept saying his head felt like it was going to explode. He said his whole body was in severe pain and felt numb. His head and face were numb. His whole body started to twitch and convulse, but not like a seizure. I called 911 and I actually got an answering machine at first! It only took about 30 seconds for the operator to come on, but I was sitting there thinking, "You have got to be kidding! I have heard of things like this, but I never thought it was real."

I thought Jerome might be having a stroke or something. When the paramedics got there, they said that they were called in for chest pain. (I never said chest pain to the 911 operator.) Jerome's heart rate was over at 127. They told him to calm down and asked me if he was a hyperventilated. I told them no and he wasn't hyperventilating when I called 911. He had been barely breathing and the operator was yelling at me because I couldn't tell by looking at him if he was breathing when he lost consciousness. His chest wasn't moving and his mouth was turning blue. I really think he did stop breathing for a few seconds. I shook him and he took a deep gasp like you would expect from someone coming up from under water for a long time. They took him to the ER.

I stayed at the house long enough to make arrangements for someone to pick up the girls from school and then I headed to the hospital. When I got there he was sleeping. They drew blood and did a CT scan on his head. About half an hour after he got the CT scan, the doctor came in and said they were sending him in for an MRI because they CT scan showed white matter hypoattenuation of the bilateral cerebral hemispheres. At the time I had no clue what that meant. I now know that it could be an indicator of Multiple Sclerosis. The MRI showed no lesions on the brain, so the doctor said Jerome didn't have MS. They sent Jerome home even though he was in so much pain that he could barely move. I thought that they assumed that Jerome was faking or something. His own doctor often seems unconcerned with the symptoms that Jerome or I describe to him and I have felt like he thinks Jerome is a headcase for a while now.

The discharge papers that they sent us home with stated that Jerome had suffered from Hyperventilation Syndrome and Chonic Pain. They did not prescribe any thing for pain. That didn't matter because Jerome hates the way that pain meds make him feel. Even though they do provide relief for him, they knock him out and make him light-headed.

The ER doctor called Jerome the next day and told him that he made arrangements for Jerome to see a rheumatologist as soon as possible. The appointment was in a few days. He also wanted to make sure that Jerome saw a neurologist as soon as possible.

I sent Jerome to see his family doctor for a follow up and the doctor had made him two packets that contained Jeromes entire medical history for the past 3-4 years. One was for the neurologist and one was for the rheumatologist. He told Jerome that the CT scan on his head was a dramatic difference from the one that he had recieved a year ago.

I looked through the papers and I had been right all along. His doctor did think that Jerome was faking his symptoms. He even stated it in his notes. That explains why he prescribed Jerome with anti-depression medication. Even the ER doctor had put in one of his differential diagnoses as psychatric etiology.

We went to the rheumatologist on Friday and left him scratching his head. He looked over all of the paper work that I gave him. He doesn't agree with the ER doctors diagnosis of hyperventialtion. He kept talking about Jerome's CBC results. Every thing he was saying was going over my head. He used the term auto-immune disease a lot. I knew what that was due to my hours of online research. I have suspected and autoimmune disease for a long time, but when I told Jerome's regular doctor of my suspision and the symptoms that made me think that might be the problem, he blew me off and just said I was describing many of the symptoms of depression. I told him I didn't think that his physical symptoms were related to depression. He just said he would see Jerome again in a few weeks and then he never bothered to look into it.

When I got home I immediately looked at Jerome's blood work lab results and looked for any numbers that were not in the normal range. The one that caught my eye was the lymphocyte count. The range that was considered normal on the form was 24-44% and Jerome's was only 4%. For his lymphocyte absolute was 0.4 L with the normal range being 1.2-3.4 L. His monocyte was at 2% with the normal range being 0-12% and his monocyte absolute was at 0.2 with the normal range being 0.2-0.9. We are going to see the neurologist tomorrow. I hope he has some answers for us.

If any is a specialist that would be willing to look at Jerome's case and give us an idea of what is wrong with him, it would be greatly appreciated.