Jenn's Bad Day

Thursday is a day I never want to repeat. I had skin prick allergy testing done because my allergies are quite bad. It has been 6 years since I was tested and I was pretty sure that I had developed new ones since then. I reacted quite quickly to the test and was given Zyrtec in the doctor's office for the itching. As you can see below, my forearms were not a pretty sight.
















I left the allergist's office and ran to the bank. Still feeling fine (but itchy) I headed home from there. All of a sudden, while driving, I felt very flush and faint and my heart started pounding HARD - like it was going to jump out of my chest. Instantly I was frightened, but knew that I had to get somewhere and get some help. I didn't want to pull off on a side street, pass out and have no one find me so I made it to a Culver's. I had the presence of mind to grab my wallet (in case I passed out I could be identified) and my phone. I locked the van and went in and asked the manager to call me an ambulance. I explained that I just had allergy testing done and was driving home and all of a sudden felt awful. I managed to hit the send button on my phone and have the guy at Culver's explain to my Mom what was happening. The ambulance came and took me to Rockford Memorial. My heart rate was in the 180's and I remember them saying that my blood pressure was 180/100-something. Not good. In the ER I was given a bolus of fluid and Benadry, a steriod and Ativan in my IV. I was hooked up to heart monitors and s-l-o-w-l-y began to feel better. From the labs they drew it was determined that my potassium was low and that, in itself, can cause wacky things with your heart. The ER nurse came and gave me 2 potassium pills to take, but after a while the doctor came back and said that they had been watching my heart monitors and that my heart rate kept jumping up then going back down. They said I needed to stay overnight to get an IV potassium infusion and to be monitored. Lovely. By now my arms looked like this.


My night went fine. Not much sleep was had as I was scheduled to have vitals every 4 hours and then at 5 a.m. they drew labs and did an EKG. A few hours later I had an Echo and a chest x-ray. Everything looked good with my heart and my potassium level was in the normal range so I was discharged around 1:30.

Thursday I follow-up with my regular doctor. Who knows why my potassium level was so low. When I was sick a few weeks ago it was normal. My "official" diagnosis upon discharge was tachychardia brought on by hypokalemia (low potassium) and allergic reaction.