Vacation off to a Crappy Start

So, I bust my butt to get out of work early on Friday. I get home and start getting my camper ready to go on Monday, off to the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival, for a solid week of banjo pickin and homebrew. Back to Friday. I'm on my third beer, I'm firing up the grill for dinner and BAM! Stung by a yellowjacket. No big deal. I've been stung before. No problem. Hmm, everything looks a little funny. No problem. I'll just turn off the grill and sit down for a minute and let this head rush pass. No problem. Fifteen minutes later, I wake up on the floor with a couple EMTs over me. I tell them "No problem, I feel fine". They say "No problem", you're going for a ride. So, long story short, I spent the weekend in the hospital. I had a cardio-cath today. Plumbing looks good. I feel fine. I'll get some more tests next week, but I think it was a combination of hard work, hot weather, a couple beers and a bee sting. I'm home from the hospital now, and I still get to go to Gettysburg, although a couple days late. No problem.

That's a crappy way to start you vaca...

Glad to hear you made it through OK. Give that banjo hell when you get to G-burg!

Glad you're ok, man.

Had a similar thing happen to me, minus the beers and bee sting a little over 4 years ago. Had just started grad school so the workload and stress was crazy, and my daughter was about a month old, so on top of classes was little sleep. Was heating up my lunch in the break room of the lab I was rotating in at the time, then next thing I know I'm waking up on the floor. Trip to the ER was quick as I was in a hospital to begin with. Heart monitor for 48 hours, and ****ty bills later and it gets billed as "extreme stress."

Wow- that's crazy. I'm so glad that you're really ok! That must have been so scary for your wife.

Wow. Had something similar happen a couple years ago... company party, chowed down lunch and 2 beers in a hurry for the kayak race, snapped a toe in half getting into the kayak, finished the race, hobbled to shore, passed out, woke up with EMTs over me wanting to take me to for a ride. Well, I felt fine and all I could think about was the gigantic co-pay bill I would get for the ambulance ride. I refused the ride (suckers!) and nearly passed out again in the car (who's stupid now?:cross while my wife drove me to the hospital 45 min. away.

Hope all is well with your bee stings. I had a few (like 8) yellow jacket stings a few weeks ago... not fun.

My one week vacation turned into an unexpected 6 week vacation about 7 years ago. Long story but my doctor misdiagnosed a lump in the back of my knee (and lots of pain and swelling later, again another long story) as a bakers cyst so he said I needed to make an appointment with a surgeon to have it removed but no rush. Anyway, while on vacation I decided to pop in to have him look at it and make an appointment for later the next month.

Next thing I know he tells me to go straight to the hospital and calls ahead for them to take me right in. As soon as I told them my doctor’s name and what was wrong with me they took me back and I was seen in 10 minutes. Spent the next week in the hospital and the next six weeks at home sticking needles in my stomach. At first it sucked but later I started to enjoy the extended paid time off with my job waiting for me.

Correction: He did send me for an ultrasound before sending me to the emergency room to be sure.

Definitely a bad weekend.

"That which does not kill us makes us stronger." Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche.

what kind of work do you do? If you do manual labor or work outside dehydration would be my first thought combined with three beers (more dehydration) and then a bee sting to get the heart rate up .... Even sitting in an air conditioned office you become dehydrated just because the air is dry. I drink at least 2 liters of water a day in the office if not my throat becomes dry and scratchy

jgln said:

My one week vacation turned into an unexpected 6 week vacation about 7 years ago. Long story but my doctor misdiagnosed a lump in the back of my knee (and lots of pain and swelling later, again another long story) as a bakers cyst so he said I needed to make an appointment with a surgeon to have it removed but no rush. Anyway, while on vacation I decided to pop in to have him look at it and make an appointment for later the next month.

Next thing I know he tells me to go straight to the hospital and calls ahead for them to take me right in. As soon as I told them my doctor’s name and what was wrong with me they took me back and I was seen in 10 minutes. Spent the next week in the hospital and the next six weeks at home sticking needles in my stomach. At first it sucked but later I started to enjoy the extended paid time off with my job waiting for me.

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So, what was it?

ChshreCat said:

So, what was it?

Click to expand...

Oh sorry, blood clot. I should have sued him but I was told there was a chance my leg would return to normal so I took that chance but it didn't so I have to wear a compression stocking (forever) except when sleeping to keep the blood flowing. What happened was since he told me it was fine I did not realize I was stretching out my veins below my knee with the swelling and now they cannot pump the blood back well. There is some permanent swelling but not too much but I can pretty do much everything, just sucks to have that problem and wear a stocking all the time.

I called a lawyer eventually when it didn't get better but he said I waited too long but had a definite case to win. You see, I have the prescriptions for pain he continued to increase over the phone while I was complaining about the pain for about 2 days, after that the pain stopped because my veins were done stretching out. He never asked to see me when I called in about the pain. In my records which I got a hold of later after he retired about 6 months later he had in big bold letters I never mentioned pain which is a lie. Why else would he continue to write prescriptions for pain and increase them in a day at the same time I had the clot??

The surgeon knew it was a clot the moment he looked at it. He didn't say anything when I told him the other doctor (whose office was across the hall) told me it was a simple baker’s cyst a month earlier, but I am sure he was thinking he was negligent but didn't want to go on record stating so.