Just a Little Scare

I had quite the scare Thursday. Apparently I have been having some health issues that I didn't know I had. When the first tangible symptom presented I quickly went to the local Express Med (my doctor's office, 30 mins away, had already closed for the day). I was the only patient there. I got checked in, gave the standard samples they needed, filled out all the info, and sat waiting in the smaller waiting exam room.

I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

When the nurse, or whatever she was (she was not a doctor) came in, she was stumped. She began asking questions. I told her I was on the hcg diet, and she immediately blamed that, even though I was exhibiting several symptoms for an infection. She didn't know what to make of it, and left to do research....get this.... on the internet.

My confidence in her abilities was quickly crumbling.

After waiting an hour and a half, and listening to her tell me that my body was eating muscle (pretty sure hcg doesn't cause that....Dr. Simeon would have noted it in his book), she decided to send me to the hospital for some further testing.

OH JOY!

Fast forward to the hospital. After hours, the ER has to check you in. So not fun. I get checked in, return to the lab dept. and have MORE blood drawn. I requested they do it in the left arm, so I would have matching battle scars. They didn't think I was funny.

Now, I know it is weird to be able to give yourself an injection every day but not be able to watch blood being drawn, but have you seen the needle they use for that? It's HUGE compared to my little, teeny tiny injection needle. Plus, with an HCG injection, nothing is coming out of your body. Unlike when they draw blood and you can't feel your arm because the tourniquet is so tight, and then you can feel the blood leaving through the incredibly HUGE, painful needle that has just been jabbed, hopefully, into a vein in your inner elbow. Yeah, not my favorite part.

Then they let me leave. I went home, stressed. I was hoping they would rerun the tests that Express Med had supposedly run, and that it would in fact come back as some weird, common infection, and nothing more serious.

At one point the lady at Express Med had suggested that either a) my body was eating my muscle tissue or b) my kidneys were failing/not working as well as they should. Now, when you can see that a patient is visibly FREAKED OUT about suddenly being sick, when there had been no sign at all that they were, you should NEVER, ever, NEVER tell them that their organs might not be working, until you are absolutely 100% positive that the said organs are in fact not working.

I kind of felt like I was in my own episode of House, only without Dr. House or his staff (mainly Dr. Chase....mmmm.....) to take care of me and figure out what was wrong.

After about an hour of anxious waiting (I know it's not that long, but it seemed like forever), I got a call from Express Med. It was a really nasty infection. The nurse was so surprised. She seemed to think that it was something much more serious, and hcg related. I was kind of bugged, because she obviously didn't know anything about hcg, so for her to make such suggestions was just silly. She told me that I would need to eat more than 500 calories (because "it's not healthy...your body can't support itself on that little amount of food") and/or stop taking the injections immediately ("it's not really safe").

Let me ask you this: If it weren't safe, would my entire family have been on the diet and lost as much weight as we had? And, don't you think that I would have exhibited these symptoms during the first round of hcg, and not two weeks into my second round? And, if it wasn't safe and your body couldn't sustain itself on that amount of food, don't you think that doctors wouldn't be prescribing it to people as a weight loss aid? Just some questions to mull over.

So, I am glad to report that I do NOT have to quit the diet. I don't have to stop taking the injections. I don't need to eat more food. And, most importantly, I am NOT losing/eating my muscle tissue, contrary to the belief of the staff at Express Med, and my organs are all fine.

There is a lesson learned from all this. What is it?

If you're sick, just go straight to the ER. You'll probably end up there anyway, especially if you go to Express Med. Save yourself the extra 15 mins of driving through ripped up SR 192 through 3 towns to get to the hospital while you're freaking out because the people who are supposed to know what they're taking about don't. Just go right to the ER. It'll save you a lot of stress in the long run, I'm sure of it.