It all started in Scotland

While studying abroad for the semester at The University of Glasgow in Scotland I got the flu. I ended up in the hospital extremely dehydrated and have nausea and vomiting. After being released I just never got any better and Converse decided to bring me home early. I ended up at Greenville Memorial the day I got back to the states. I was diagnosed with a kidney infection given antibiotics and sent home to Florida to recover. I was feeling better and went back to school full time in January. About 2 weeks into the semester all of my symptoms were back and multiplied by 20. I saw a doctor off campus and was diagnosed with Lyme Disease, however the medication made me feel worse so they took me off the dioxycycline and ran another Lyme test, that came back negative the second time. By this point I was in so much pain and having such bad nausea that I could not longer attend classes. The decision had to be made for me to take a medical leave the last semester of my senior year. I went back home to Florida but without health insurance was having a hard time finding doctors that would even see me. A friend of the family offered for me to live with them in Massachusetts because they have state health insurance. After seeing multiple doctors and staying the hospital once I still had no answers. The living situation was becoming strained so I went back home to Florida once again. Within two weeks of getting home I ended up in the ER with a Heart Rate of 210 and it took them 3 1/2 hours to bring it down. I was cardioverted 3 times, which did not work then given some medication that stabilized me. I was put in cardiac ICU and then transferred to another hospital to see an electrophysioloical cardiologist. The next step was doing an electrophyisioloical heart cath done. They could not get my heart to race under the anesthesia so the dr started me on Beta Blockers and sent me home. Last summer was a roller coaster of trying out new medications and trying to stabilize both my heart rate and a blood pressure. Due to the heart medication for the fast heart rate the medication drops my blood pressure to dangerously low levels. By August I was doing really well, my heart rate was relatively stable so I made the decision to go back to school full time and try and finish out my senior year. Fall semester was a little rough but I made it through until Thanksgiving. While driving back to school I had a horrible blacking out spell that they still don't know why. I had to finish up my finals when I got back to school in January. Spring semester would bring even more challenges. During the last weekend of spring break I was having severe right side pain and nausea/vomiting so I ended up in the ER yet again. I thought they would tell me I have a kidney stone and they would give me some pain meds and nausea meds and send me on my way. This is not what happened. I was in the hospital for two weeks and had to have gallbladder surgery. My gallbladder had lots of sludge and stones in it and was 3 times the size it was supposed to be. I was so out of it in the hospital I had to have a picc line put in and a feeding tube into my small intestine. After keeping my breakfast down one morning they decided I was welll enough to go home. That night I kept down dinner but by the next evening I was throwing everything up again. By Tuesday I had gained 7 lbs over night and was sent to the ER by my surgeons office. I was yet again admitted to the ER. The next two were spent trying new medications and trying to get me to keep food down. I lost a total of 30 Lbs in the 4 weeks I was in the hospital but was told that there was nothing else they could do for me and sent me home. Their suggestion was to go to some sort of research hospital and hope they had better luck. So after being released I made an appointment with Dr. Horton, an internist here in Greenville and told her my story. She has gotten all my medical records and has decided the next step was a urine sample. To make all of this more complicated has been my lack of health insurance, everything has to be paid out of pocket and I am too sick to work.