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I've been having weird pains and cramps in my legs for just over a month. Been seeing several different doctors who finally diagnosed hyperthyroidism. i had all the symptoms : hot flashes, weight loss, headaches, tremors in my hands and muscle pain.

friday I was scheduled for a radiocative iodine uptake test.

Thursday night at 4 am I discovered that my limbs would not move. I literally threw myself on the floor and ...basically wiggled myself over to my roommate's door. He wasn't home. I wiggled back to my room and searched for my cell phone in the dark ( couldn't reach light switches as my limbs weren't working ) and finally called my friend Jeni, thinking she would take me to the ER. finally my arms were sort of working and somehow i got a light turned on using a windex bottle.

of course, the first thing that pops into my head now is that I'm going to the hospitol and I need to be wearing clean underwear. what follows is a hilarious episode of changing underwear with extremely limited limb movement. it took at least 15 minutes because suddenly Jeni was knocking on my window.

so somehow Um was now home and he let Jeni in and they both came downstairs and laughed at me as I lay on the ground in the hallway. Let me mention that i wasn't really in pain, I just couldn't move my legs.

we conferred about going to the hospitol and calling an ambulance becasue they couldn't really carry me. I really needed a restroom NOW, so UM sort of helped me in there....
let's just say that i was in there for a half hour and got the job done but ended up falling flat on my face on the hard ceramic tile floor and then threw up for some reason.

anyway, i get back into the hallway and we call the ambulance. i swear it took like 2 minutes and we hear the sirens. the paramedics come and we chat for a bit and decide i have to be ambulanced. a few minutes later the ambulance arrives and the ambulance drivers(cute) lift me up and strap me to a chair. they get me to the stairs and one says to the other "you wanna be top or bottom?" it didn't really register to me because i was stressed, but Jeni and UM about died. they drag me up the stairs and just about rip my foot off on a corner.

anyway, off to the ER where a bunch of gay nurses chatted with me about how odd my symptoms were. turns out that I had a severe potassium deficiency and they hook me to a potassium IV drip. somehow the thyroid was sucking all the potassium and magnesium out of my muslces and into the cells. after a few hours i was feeling better, but they decided to keep me overnight for observation.

i don't ever want to spend the night in a hospitol again. It's loud and the room temp changes every few minutes. i watched more tv friday and saturday than I have in years.
also, the woman in the next room was dying. she was screaming all night long.

anyway, i was released late saturday and had the radioactive iodine uptake test on monday. turns out I have graves disease and am now on two different pills. A beta blocker for two months and another for a year.

they say i should feel 100% with 2 weeks and the thyroid issue should be in remission within a year.

in the meantime, the drugs I'm on make me antsy and I can't sleep.

fascinating, I know. the whole experience was terrifying and quite eye opening.