An update on my hospitalization

If you have seen my previous post then this first paragraph is information that you already know and you can skip to the next paragraph. If you haven’t seen my previous post, than reading this first paragraph will give you some insight into what the heck I am talking about. In early August, I decided to take a spin class after traveling down south for vacation. I went to the gym regularly and did high intensity workouts regularly so this was something that I wasn’t worried about (other than how early in the morning it was). As the class went on I felt pain and numbness and when the class ended I could not hold myself up, and ended up falling twice coming out of the facility. I somehow drove myself home and it wasn’t until two days later my mom took me to the ER where they found my CK levels to be at around 80,000 (the normal range is 4-195) and my legs had swollen up so bad I couldn’t walk. I had no use from the waist down and was admitted to the hospital where my CK level rose to 200,000. This was due to a condition called rhabdomyolysis.

**UPDATE** Hi all! Thank you so much for all of the loving comments on my last post, I really read all of them and they really helped especially when I was feeling hopeless at the hospital. I ended up staying for 2 weeks and they released me with a 987 CK level, which is still elevated, but was nothing compared to the 200,000 it originally was. My swelling had gone down tremendously, I got the central line out of my neck, and best of all, I was able to take a full shower by myself!! I did have to relearn to walk while in the hospital. When the swelling went down, it took a while to learn how to stand, walk, get up and down steps, etc by myself. Sometimes I still really struggle with steps, not because it is painful, but because for some reason it takes my muscles longer to remember to work when using the steps. Relearning to walk was one of the most challenging parts of this whole recovery process. I was released on a Tuesday and on Wednesday I was a my college band camp. I was not doing everything everyone else was doing but I was doing the best I could while still recovering. I did lose my permanent position since I had to miss a couple days for being in the hospital so that really had me down but I have accepted that it was probably for the best since I wasn’t 100% throughout most of the season. It has been an extremely long recovery physically and mentally. I still swell and have pitting in my legs on game days and can only do low impact exercise until I build all the muscle up that I lost (I lost all of my muscle). Although I still have some minor issues, overall I am healthy and recovered and I am so so grateful that nothing more serious arose out of this and that I am still alive.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! #Lemon8Diary #recovery #hospital #gratitude