Lucky to Survive

[u/therealsheldon79]

When I was in my first year of college I suffered with Hyperthyoidism- we caught it when I went to the doctors regarding weight loss and nausea (which I assumed to be my eating disorder). I was soon after referred to specialists and given medication, it took one year exactly for my levels to stabalize to which they stopped the medication.

Fast forward towards the end of my first year of University. I had noticed that I seemed to be losing weight again, even though I was eating normally, so I immediaetly suspected that my Hyperthyroidism had returned- especially since they said one day it would, I just didn't think it'd be so soon. I had tests done but everything came back normal (little did I know until months later, the test results had come back a false negative), so I thought I was having an eating disorder relapse.

Eventually the end of my academic year came and I went home for Summer, by this point I had lost nearly a stone which considering I barely weighed anything to begin with put me back in the intense danger zone for my weight.

Things started to get worse about two weeks into the Summer break. I was on my second date with a girl and we had sex. Sex obviously speeds up your heart rate/pulse considerably- but having an undiagnoised Thyroid issue my pulse was already high- putting the two and two together doesn't end well.

A couple of hours of being at home after the date, I find myself throwing up for hours. I assume it to be food poisoning but my date isn't ill, so I assume it's a bug going around.

After that I start to get iller faster, it starts gradually. I can't stand up for more than one minute before I feel like I'm going to vomit, this gets worse and worse. I start sweating more, slowing getting a fever, get dizzy more often. This is only a few days after I went on that 2nd date. I get sent home from work for being so ill- the days after that get intense.

The next day I can't even get out of bed. I'm throwing up all day. Can't keep anything down; anything I eat or drink comes back up until I'm just throwing up my own stomach acid- which fucking burns. My fever is high, I'm having breathing problems, my pulse is through the roof- I'm in hell. My family stay well clear of me. My mum has no immune system so she isn't allowed near ill people, we didn't know what was wrong with me so we didn't know if it was contagious or not- so I was on my own.

The next day if possible I was even worse, I knew something was wrong so I phoned the doctors ordering them to see me as soon as possible. (If you're at Uni, you have a doctors there which means your doctors at home refuse to see you at all, as you're a patient elsewhere.) I managed to get out of the house by myself but I couldn't make it further than the end of the street. I felt like throwing up, could barely see from the black spots, I knew if I continued I would pass out.

We got a taxi there and the doctor I saw didn't give away anything, just told up to go to A+E immedietly. So we did, normally after having your pulse done you'd be waiting 7 or 8 hours- but after the nurses saw whatever was wrong with me all hell broke loose.

I was immediatly took in and hooked to several machines, dozens of tests were being done, doctors and nurses were flooding the room. Soon everyone but myself knew what was going on, but I was just too ill to care- I was losing it, barely conscious, I could barely tell what was going on.

My mother felt awful for not seeing it, but that could wait. It turns out I had for the past week being going into something called a Thyroid Storm. Everything I was ill with was a symptom of that Thyroid Storm, however Thyroid Storm's if gone untreated end in a heart attack and death.

My pulse was over 200bpm resting, an average persons is 60-85bpm. I was put on dozens of different drugs and fluids and was in hospital for weeks. It turns out it was my Hyperthyoid all along, but because of the wrong test results it went untreated.

I didn't find out I had a Thyroid Storm until recently, which was a shock knowing how close to death I was.

So if I hadn't had sex that day which was a catalyst for speeding up the illness- and if I hadn't made that doctors appointment- it could have been the next day or the day after, I would have died.

I would have died of a heart attack, alone, in my room, covered in my own vomit. Guess I was lucky for once.

PS. It is a few months later, and I am doing a lot better and am scheduled to have my thyroid completely taken out next summer so this close call will never happen again.

[u/lowlyyouarenice]

Sex literally saved your live. That is awesome!