Rhabdomyolysis or Bust

I am tired. I am chronically exhausted. And Friday night all I wanted to do was come home and go to bed. Alas, I got home and had to walk the dog and then make dinner and then eat dinner. After dinner, I walked the dog (because she is still on edge about fireworks and won't go out if it's even close to sunset) and then I started getting the process of what I thought was going to be going to bed. 

But Dr. BB's left arm was swollen and it was super noticeable and there was no real cause for the swelling. We did a brief phone consult with my FIL, a retired family physician, and he suggested we go to urgent care/ER just to get it looked at. I sighed, knowing that my early bedtime was not happening. Dr. BB drove us over the river to the hospital

(Ours is a rural hospital that is independently owned. I have no idea how it's still in business, but the employees there are the happiest I've ever met in health care.)

and we were giggling the entire time because we thought we were overreacting about a silly thing. Not a silly thing when he skipped triage and was booked into a room right away. The ER doc decided, literally because it was not busy, to run some blood tests. Turns out he has exercise-induced rhabdomyolysis and normal CK levels are between 30-200 and his was close to 12000. 

The thing about rhabdo is that it happens to people who exercise too much or too hard. I've only ever heard of rhabdo in the context of long-distance athletes, including runners and cyclists, and when some Iowa football players did a squat off that landed a bunch of them in the ER. It's also common in folks with a BMI of 35+, either because of obesity or because of musculature. You know who you don't usually see it in? Healthy 45-year-old men who weigh less than I did when I graduated from high school. On Tuesday he did a lifting practice he's done dozens of times before. On Wednesday he did a lifting practice (different body part). On Thursday he did a what he called an easy tennis lesson. On Friday he was in the ER and if we'd been twelve hours later, the doctors were pretty sure he would have been in kidney failure. 

(Several doctors have talked to him about the importance of rest and recovery. I honestly don't think he did anything unusual or out of the ordinary for him - or me, for that matter. We are both befuddled.)

Meanwhile, the ER doc gets him admitted and the hospitalist comes down to the ER to check in with him and as soon as he walks in the door, he starts laughing. He was expecting a college football player and he got my husband. Jokes all around except my husband was NOT laughing because this is a Big Deal.  

Anyway, he's a weird case. His numbers are not coming down as fast as the doctor would like, so he's still in the hospital and we don't know if he'll come home this afternoon or tomorrow. One of the doctors he saw over the weekend even seemed to indicate he could be in the hospital until Wednesday, which would be very, very bad because the hospital is very, very boring for a guy who actually feels fine, but is rather confined in his movements because he is hooked up to a constant IV drip. 

Oh, but somehow this has become about my husband.

ME! I'm so fucking tired. I am not sleeping well. Saturday night there was a terrible storm and my girls were already out of sorts because Dr. BB wasn't here and I ended up sleeping on the couch because someone has to comfort Hannah. I'm doing all the chores and bringing my husband food in the hospital. 

Oh, I guess I should stop complaining. At least I'm allowed to come home. 

So I guess this is a PSA. Exercise is bad, just like I always thought!

What about Zelda?! She needs love, too. And someone to murder.

Have you ever had rhabdo? My husband has never spent a night in the hospital before - have you? How many nights were you in the hospital?