Last Thursday I ended up in the hospital from a reaction to a medicine I was taking. As this is a sociology class, I figured I should at least my experience there. My jaw started locking up/become stiff while I was at work. I thought maybe I was crazy and that it was just happening in my head. After a while it started to get worse. I called my fiance and my Mom to figure out what was going on. Immediately I left work and went home. I called my doctor who then instructed me to go to the emergency room. Now, the emergency room is great and all, but they totally take the point out of emergency. Unless you are dying, don't expect to get treated right away.
Apparently this type of reaction is something they have seen before. It is called a dystonic reaction; a seizure like state where your muscles tense up and contract. As my Mother kept saying, "It looked like you were having a stroke!" My jaw stayed locked up and clamped the whole time. It moved through my neck, face, arms and hands. The nurse said it was just a quick fix; if it was such a quick fix, why did I sit there waiting for 2 hours? It took me not being able to breathe to finally have the doctor come in and give me an IV herself. After 3 minutes all my muscles relaxed and I was fine. I was so tired that I slept for 2 days afterwards...if you know me then you know that is so rare (I never sleep)!
This was something so scary that I had never experienced in my life. It was definitely crazy but proves that you can never know what will happen. Hospital life is so crazy...you sit and wait for something that I was told was a quick fix. I guess that's how life is.
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