This past Sunday my gf just fainted, fell to the ground, was unresponsive and was slightly shaking. about 7 seconds later she snapped out of it and had no idea what it was. She didn't eat all day, was only drinking Dew and not sleeping well lately. Chalked it up to maybe low sugar. Couple hours later watching TV with her she slumped over near me and once again, unresponsive and shaking for about 20 seconds. Scared the holy crap out of me. Never seen something like that before. Googled it and symptoms looked to point at it possibly being seizures. I wanted to take her to the ER but she said she's not going. She was an addict years ago so that made me wonder and ask her "why, are you afraid something will show up?"...she just said no and that was it. Couldn't force her to go.
Next day I drive her to work cuz there was no way i was letting her drive and possibly pass out while driving. Drop her off, get home, 10 mins later I get a call to come back because she had 2 more episodes. She had a 3rd on my way there (40 min drive) so they called 911. Got there while the ambulance got there.
Got to ER and she was all hooked up to monitors. From our explanations the doctors said it sounds like a seizure but the fact that she's pretty much back to normal after snapping out of it, something didn't seem right. My GF's sister was also there, she's an ER Nurse. She asked them to hook her sister up to the heart monitor so she could see what's happening. The GF had another episode and the heart monitor told a different tale. Tox ER doc came back and asked her if she's been taking Imodium recently. To my surprise my gf said yes she has. I thought to myself "so what". The doctor asked her how many she's been taking..he asked "30 to 40?"...she said "yes, 30-40". I thought I heard them wrong and he meant 3-4. She then had another episode...passing out on the bed for about 10 seconds and then sitting up and tightly clenching. It's some of the scariest shit I've ever seen. Asked when the last time she took them she told them "this morning"...so after 2 seizures the day before and me dropping her off in the morning she took a "handful" of Imodium at work.
Her heart rate dropped down to 28-32 BPM at certain points. It was then determined she a lethal heart arrhythmia due to abuse of Imodium pills. I was shocked. I had no fucking clue she was doing this. I could never even tell she was high.
So after that she was giving drugs to speed up her heart so it doesn't dip down to levels to cause another attack. She was pumped with Magnesium and something else because her mag and potassium levels were very low. As of Monday she's in the ICU, her potassium and magnesium levels are up but her heart is still too toxic and needs to be on the Isopropysomething. She may have to have a temporary pace maker put on. They're keeping her there for a week. If she was stubborn and refused to go to the ER she would have died from fucking an overdose of anti-shitting pills. RIDICULOUS!
After further discussion we found out she was getting a 200 pill bottle every 2 days from Walmart. I'm was so disappointed in her. Told her when we started dating if she ever abuses again that I'm out of here. Seems like she chose addiction/drugs over our relationship. We will talk when she's out of the hospital and take it one day at a time. I love her but I told her i would not tolerate drug use again.
While she was zonked out in her ICU room I went through her phone and opened up her web browser and this forum was actually open on the screen. Lookign at her history she was researching the effects of imodium, seeing if imodium is causing her swelled feet...so she read shit yet still took it. I'm not addicted to anything so I have no idea what an addict is thinking when they choose possible death and getting high over family/relationship/job/money.
So you folks abusing this shit should be very careful. She's not in the clear yet. Heart still not clean enough to pump at a normal BPM without the drug they're giving her. Her seizures just keep replaying in my mind every so often. It's horrible to see.