I live and work in the SF Bay region while my wife and daughter remain in Canada for the time being. They are currently down here visiting me in California for the Easter break since it is a 4-day holiday in Canada. They just arrived late Tuesday night, and on Wednesday my daughter and I did some daddy-daughter bonding by going to the gun range and go-karting all afternoon while my wife (let’s call her Nathalie) went shopping and then retuned home around 3 pm to relax and prepare dinner.
We finished karting at 4:30 pm and were heading home when I got a call from my landlord (I live in the awesome pool house behind his huge home). Nathalie came to his back door and fainted, and then when she awoke was shaking uncontrollably and numb on one side. He thought she was having a heart attack or a stroke so he called 911. The ambulance was just arriving and was going to take her to the hospital just three minutes from his house - one I pass ever morning. I was a little bewildered by the call as she had texted me about 10 minutes earlier saying dinner was on. So My daughter and I continued home in rush hour traffic and stopped at the hospital to check on her.
She was in the emerg and the doctors had ordered blood tests, done an ECG, and were about to take her for a CT scan. Of course the hospital jumped on me right away being the conscious spouse of someone whom was rolled in on a gurney near comatose and no identifying information on her (or probably more important, no evidence of insurance or ability to pay).
The doctor had given her some medication to stop her uncontrollable shaking upon arrival, and one of the side effects was drowsiness. She was very, very drowsy, almost falling asleep, and was having a hard time keeping control of her head or move her body on the bed. After sitting with her for a couple of hours she started to complain she was extremely hungry, and I asked her what she had eaten since lunch and all she said was pieces of some fruit that she was cutting up for dinner. She had also mentioned that she couldn’t remember anything.
TL;DR She wasn’t able to recognize the people coming in her room, thinking that they were all seeing her for the first time. She mentioned that she could think and her brain was functioning properly, but that she wasn’t able to speak to articulate any thoughts or responses. She recalled understanding the questions the EMT and medical staff and forming the responses, but she could tell by their reactions to her responses that her inability to coherently speak prevented her from providing them the information they were seeking.
Well, the doc came back and said they only thing they could find was a calcium level slightly below the normal range. I thought this was quite strange since she eats a significant amount of Greek yogurt and cottage cheese for protein as part of her gym training. But I thought it was not a huge deal and she’s about 50 now. So at 8:55 pm we left the hospital with a prescription for calcium supplements and instructions to immediately follow up her family doctor in Canada.
TL;DR She couldn’t support herself to walk out to the car so they wheeled her out in a wheelchair. We were home in my place before the clock struck 9 pm. Nathalie got out of the car and walked to my guest house. At this time I was fetching some stuff out of the back seat and I watched a bit bewildered that this woman who could not stand and bear her own weight not five minutes ago could miraculously walk almost normal. But I thought maybe the fresh air refreshed her a bit.
So when we get in our place she hits the kitchen to get some food in her belly since she hasn’t eaten in almost nine hours. Afterwards she starts walking, talking, and acting line almost at the “normal” level. Now I’m thinking what the hell? This recovery is almost too miraculous. The low blood-sugar levels due to lack of food in nine hours might have something to do with it, but the sudden just seemed too miraculous. Almost like some Christian faith healer dropped from the sky and blessed divine intervention from the supernatural on her.
And that’s about when all the seemingly irrelevant and unconnected comments Nathalie had made over the past few hours suddenly connected! Hunger? Lack of an enduring short-term memory? Brain working coherently but being unable to express thoughts? Body numbness? Blackouts? Hmmm…now I’m starting to sense a relationship with something I have experienced.
So I ask again:
Me: "What did you eat this afternoon?”
Nathalie: "Just some fruit.”
Me: “Is there anything else you ate here?”
Nathalie: “Nope.”
Me: "Are you sure there is nothing else here you ate this afternoon?"
Nathalie: "Oh, I had chocolate raisins.”
WELL…sometimes it’s the innocuous details that are the most important…
Me: “How many did you have?”
Nathalie: “A handful.”
Me: “A handful? How many is that???”
Nathalie: “About ten.”
Me: “Ten?!? You had ten???”
Nathalie: "About that.”
So we have to step back a bit here now.
So some background here: California permits medicinal cannabis use, and it seems like medical cannabis industry runs outside the checks and balances in the regular medical system. I recently received my 420 card as my desk job occasionally aggravates my scoliosis, but I have not told Nathalie such.
I noodled on whether to tell Nathalie about my new-found treatment but elected to not tell her for fear she determines I’m being to comfortable with the California lifestyle. I proceeded to hide the products the refrigerator in paper-towels tucked in Tupperware containers and the stuff on the shelves were tucked against the back wall under the sink. I was happy I had done a pretty good job hiding the evidence, but I would later find out that that was a false sense of security...
That morning Nathalie and I went out for breakfast and left my daughter with Pablo, and I sternly told her twice not to eat anything in my place that we hadn’t picked up at Safeway the day prior. Nathalie had to of heard this.
So now tying the two parts together, I had apparently failed to remove two products - the tins of cannabis-infused chocolate-covered blueberries and coffee beans on the kitchen shelves. Nathalie came across these tins when searching for ingredients for dinner. Without her reading glasses, all she could distinguish was “Chocolate-covered XXX”. So she decided to take a few. Each chocolate treat is about 5 mg THC content, and I was told the recommended “dose" is for 15 mg for new users to 50 mg for heavy hitters with some intolerances. She opened the two tins, took a just five (recounted the next day) from each tin, and quaffed them.
By the time we got the call from my landlord at around 5 pm, the cannabis treats were in her for 90 minutes and would be hitting their full effectiveness. Given she had taken three times the recommended dose, she blacked out, came too feeling her right side was suffering from partial paralysis and shaking uncontrollably, and stumbled to the landlord’s place to faint. Buddy bing and buddy boom, emergency room visit.
Next time I shall be more diligent, but there likely will not be a next time as I inadvertently outed myself!
Submitted March 25, 2016 at 12:35PM by sf_canuck http://ift.tt/21K1ZFB tifu
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