Boys and girls,
Having been on estrogen now for somewhat past 5 months, I should be aware of certain things. Things like, "No, really, it's *not* probably okay to eat, even though it's been in the freezer. We had a different president back when I bought that..."
But I was lazy and didn't feel like cooking. At least, it seems that that is where I caught this. I was awoken early Friday by my electrolysis appointment being pushed back an hour. As I tried to return to sleep, I felt quite suddenly ill.
Symptoms persisted throughout the day, though lessened by medication, the night, and into Saturday.
Around 7:30, as my parents were leaving to go to the store, I began feeling cold and shivering. My mother commented that she gets really cold sometimes. I lost feeling in my hands. They left.
And after they left my lip went numb, along with full body convulsions and spasms. I flopped on the couch and screamed in agony as my entire body seized up and my body was wracked by horrible pain. My arms and legs thrashed wildly as I fought to maintain motor control and ran my throat ragged yelling. Of course, my parents don't have functional cell phones.
After several minutes of this, and googling symptoms of severe dehydration, i stumbled into the kitchen and downed 3 glasses of water. I was barely able to stand or hold the phone as I called 911. At the end of the call he told me not to eat or drink anything.
Welp.
Shortly after that I threw up 8 times - but the convulsing went away. EMT arrived with me sitting next to an enormous puddle of vomit.
So I had to out myself to everyone for the sake of care (medical history, and because insurance billing has to say M.) Everyone was really respectful though. One of the EMT was female and asked me if I planned to get breast implants. I laughed and said they're small but they're mine damnit. Then she told me that she'd gotten them a year ago and warned me to take off 2 weeks from work if I decided to
Everyone at the hospital was respectful, a few nurses were confused by my chart until I explained the situation, but all things considered, it went a lot better than I had hoped.
It *really* made me recognize how important getting your name changed is, though - even if you can't have an operation and get the gender marker changed, the name at least will offer you a lot more dignity when official documentation is involved. I honestly did not feel that I was disrespected at all, though, as I always got female pronouns. It's definitely past the point where I needed to go full time, but, argh, the last 2 months have been a whirlwind of medical problems and being too busy.
I've really got to make up my mind regarding my new full name soon, it's getting pretty frustrating being held back by names still. Though, I just recently decided that I should change my last name - and man, that's a completely different hurdle to deal with.
It's also amazing how good you feel after vomiting. Vomiting cures everything, except bulimia. But dehydration is no joke.
If you're suffering from severe enough stomach bugs, be *VERY CAREFUL* because you can end up in trouble very quickly. They ran two liters of fluid into me via IV... and that's a lot of fluid. The internet says that old people sometimes allow themselves to die via dehydration for a peaceful passing. That's a crock of ->-bleeped-<-.
Side note: When my parents got home, they did not notice the vomit in the living room. When dad sat down at the computer, he tossed the note I'd written about going to the hospital aside without reading it, *then* noticed the vomit. They then assumed that I'd gone to bed and only when I called them from the ER did they find out what happened. After picking me up, dad didn't want to have to drive all the way to wal-mart to buy gatorade and jello, which got my parents into a short fight. And then dad returned with sugar-free jello. Let me tell you, at 10 calories per cup, it's going to take me a LOT of these to meet my required caloric intake...
*sigh*
