I was at Beaver Creek and Vail from Feb 11-18 (well really just 11-12 and then Denver until the 26th read on). Sadly I had to go to the ER in Avon on the 13th. I had either what is known as Angio Edema (rare) or Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (exceedingly rare). They are still trying to figure out which one it was. This actually started before I left home as a rash and welts. I left from home and seemed like no big deal (my allergist whom I had just started seeing had cleared me to go on this trip and said I would be fine-lol). I could just take some antihistamines and live with it
Got up to ski on Sunday Feb12th and headed to the top of BC Mountain where all the green runs are to get my ski legs under me. I skied all of 30 feet before becoming so short of breath I had to stop just outside the ski patrol station. I told them I was fine. They said ok but would be back to check on me. 5 minutes later and I am no better. They said I was done and carted me down to the gondola where I was allowed to ride down with a ski patrol escort. I thought this is stupid I will just take the day off and try again tomorrow. I thought I just needed to maybe adjust to the altitude. I would later learn the altitude had nothing to due with this.
I got up the next morning and my rash and welts were worst. My face was starting to swell and I knew I needed to seek help. I Ubered it over to the ER in Avon, over by Northside Kitchen. They got me seen pretty quickly and started hooking me up to everything immediately: oxygen, IV's, heart monitor. They hit me with 3 or 4 kinds of IV antihistamines to no avail. Then Infused me with a huge dose of steroids-nada. At this point I told them my throat felt funny-it was starting to swell shut. There last hope was their big gun Epinephrine (the stuff in Epi Pens). No change, after that so they gave me 2 more rounds to tried and slow the swelling. They realized then I needed more advance care than they could give me there and I had to be rushed to Denver (Lakewood to be exact). The ER doctor called my wife who was still in Tennessee (as she does not ski) and told her she needed to get on the next plane to Denver.
This would be the start of my 13 days in hospital. 10 of those were in the Intensive Care Unit and the PT folks wanted to keep me longer. The PT person refused to sign off on my released. My doctor left it up to me. I just wanted to go home. My wife is a RN and I knew she could care for me, if it were not for that there is no way I would have been allowed to leave at that point. It was a freaky and life threatening issue. I was told I came really close to dying a couple of times during that stay.
My admission papers said I was in "respiratory failure" when I arrived at the Hospital in Lakewood. It was bad enough they had to put me into a medically induced coma for a week and placed me on a ventilator to breath for me. I lost 16 lbs in 13 days. My last memory is being in the ER in Avon and they were frantically trying to help me. 10 days later is my next memory and I am still in the critical care unit struggling to breath and wondering what the hell happened. I am in an amazing amount of pain even with all the Dilaudid they are pumping in me. For those that don't know your narcotics Dilaudid is the closet pharmaceutical on the market to heroin, or so I am told. I have never had heroin.
My first thought that I can remember when they pulled me off the vent and pulled my Endotracheal Tube out and woke me up was, I knew I had been skiing (at this point I did not recall for how long or stopping and being carted off) that I must have had a bad wreck and probably sustained some kind of head injury. I thought this because every time the nurses asked me (and they asked me a few times a day) I could not even tell them what month or even the correct year it was at this point. That was fortunately not the case as my problem was strictly this unrelated medical issue of either Angio Edema or the Mast Cell Activation Syndrome.. A couple of weeks later (now) and I would just vaguely remember my entire ski season...those 30 feet after getting off the lift at the top of BC on day 1. I still don't even remember the ride up the mountain, and worse yet, I don't remember even getting on the plane to go to Denver. I have recalled bits and pieces of the first day and half since.
I honestly did not think I was going to make it out of that hospital for a while. I remember looking at my own EKG one night and recognizing the fact I was in (SVT) Super Ventricular Tachycardia. I thought this is it. I am going to die right here any minute. So this is how it ends. I thought about all this things I wanted to do and never got to and The people I would never see again, if they don't convert this rhythm which they were struggling to due. Some how I made it thru that night and finally stabilized. The next day I ate solid food for the first time in 10 days, a couple of crackers. I struggled to swallow them with some apple sauce. The next few days they rans dozens of tests which we are still awaiting results of. They wanted to get me stable enough to get back home so my doctors here could take over and I could be closer to home. Mentally I was done. Outside of the coma i did not sleep at all there. Tired is not the word. I can't describe how bad, but the poor guy across the hall would scream on and off all day and night. They told me he had a bad head injury from a snow mobile accident.
What makes this even weirder is the fact that I am a very healthy in shape person. Don't think it can't happen to you. I jog and work out all the time. I do not smoke and only rarely have a drink. As long as I take my blood pressure pill I stay normal. I have never had a bizarre heart rhythms until that stay. So it can happen to any of us. It sounds so trite but now I truly know the meaning of living each day as though it was your last. People say it all the time and only rarely do folks really get it. I know I didn't. I do now, and right now I am just happy to be alive and on the mend at home looking out the window.
