Let's Get Branden Moving Again!
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WARNING LONG POST
Hello friends and family!
As you may or may not know I have been hospitalized for the past two weeks due to some life-threatening conditions that have resulted in me being disabled knee-down in both of my legs, but I hope to get out of here by the end of the week. It is quite possible that life will never be the same for me ever again. My road to recovery will be a long one with physical therapy and reparative/reconstructive surgeries in both of my legs to try to bring my quality of living as close to what it was before. Fingers crossed, I have faith everything will be okay in the end!
But how did this all happen? My doctors believe that all of this had started with my diagnosis of hypernatremia, also known as water poisoning. This is a condition in which sodium levels in the body become fatally low, with one of my doctors remarking that I had the lowest sodium levels he had ever seen. I am blessed to still be where I am today, but how did my sodium levels ever get so low? There were many factors that had put me at risk for low-sodium, and they include:
-My physical activity, weight-training and cardio 1.5-2.5hrs 6-7 days a week
-My water consumption of 1.5-2 gallons a day on average
-My otherwise healthy diet that is low in sodium
-My blood-pressure medication which was a diuretic known to cause electrolyte imbalances
-I generally sweat a lot more than most and can lose a lot of electrolytes through perspiration
So even though hypernatremia is extremely rare, especially in the western diet, all of these factors combined brewed the perfect storm for this life-threatening condition. But It wasn’t solely the hypernatremia that landed me in the hospital. The hypernatremia likely caused my diagnoses of rhabdomyolysis which is another fatal condition in which the muscles in the body begin to rapidly die and release myoglobin, which places a tremendous burden on the kidneys and can result in renal failure with a high mortality rate. Fortunately, my kidneys held strong and unlike many who have suffered from rhabdomyolysis I will not be on dialysis for the rest of my life!
But it just got worse and worse. The rhabdomyolysis had then caused compartment syndrome in both of my lower legs. When I had traveled to the hospital to present my symptoms of excruciating pain and near inability to walk, the doctors had thankfully caught the diagnosis right away and performed an emergency orthopedic operation called a fasciotomy in my left leg and then my right. After many more operations at the hospital to remove as much dead muscle from my legs as possible while preserving what little still appeared healthy, my legs were then closed up and I had received the disturbing news from my orthopedic surgeon about the condition of my legs; two of the four muscle compartments in my legs are dead, and my right leg is in worse condition than my left. The plastic surgeon who had performed my last operation in my legs has recommended that I get my right ankle fused, which would mean that I would never be able to do many of the physical things I enjoy most, such as running, jumping, and squatting. As someone who has enjoyed fitness and sports all my life this is a very hard pill to swallow and I will be searching far and wide for second and third opinions from the most specialized doctors known.
I am currently waiting to be allowed to bear weight onto my legs and hope that within the next few days I’ll be working with the physical therapist to re-learn how to walk again, albeit with assistance from a walker and crutches. Thank you to all my friends and family who had reached out and visited me in the hospital! This hospitalization would have been so much harder without your messages of love and support.
So now I reach out to you all and ask for your financial and emotional support. I have just set up a gofundme in order to cover lost wages from being on short-term disability, medical bills, reparative/reconstructive surgeries, and future physical therapy expenses. Every little bit counts so please contribute what you can. This has truly been a humbling experience for me that reminds me to never take for granted the small things in life. Thank you for reading my post!
Hello friends and family!
As you may or may not know I have been hospitalized for the past two weeks due to some life-threatening conditions that have resulted in me being disabled knee-down in both of my legs, but I hope to get out of here by the end of the week. It is quite possible that life will never be the same for me ever again. My road to recovery will be a long one with physical therapy and reparative/reconstructive surgeries in both of my legs to try to bring my quality of living as close to what it was before. Fingers crossed, I have faith everything will be okay in the end!
But how did this all happen? My doctors believe that all of this had started with my diagnosis of hypernatremia, also known as water poisoning. This is a condition in which sodium levels in the body become fatally low, with one of my doctors remarking that I had the lowest sodium levels he had ever seen. I am blessed to still be where I am today, but how did my sodium levels ever get so low? There were many factors that had put me at risk for low-sodium, and they include:
-My physical activity, weight-training and cardio 1.5-2.5hrs 6-7 days a week
-My water consumption of 1.5-2 gallons a day on average
-My otherwise healthy diet that is low in sodium
-My blood-pressure medication which was a diuretic known to cause electrolyte imbalances
-I generally sweat a lot more than most and can lose a lot of electrolytes through perspiration
So even though hypernatremia is extremely rare, especially in the western diet, all of these factors combined brewed the perfect storm for this life-threatening condition. But It wasn’t solely the hypernatremia that landed me in the hospital. The hypernatremia likely caused my diagnoses of rhabdomyolysis which is another fatal condition in which the muscles in the body begin to rapidly die and release myoglobin, which places a tremendous burden on the kidneys and can result in renal failure with a high mortality rate. Fortunately, my kidneys held strong and unlike many who have suffered from rhabdomyolysis I will not be on dialysis for the rest of my life!
But it just got worse and worse. The rhabdomyolysis had then caused compartment syndrome in both of my lower legs. When I had traveled to the hospital to present my symptoms of excruciating pain and near inability to walk, the doctors had thankfully caught the diagnosis right away and performed an emergency orthopedic operation called a fasciotomy in my left leg and then my right. After many more operations at the hospital to remove as much dead muscle from my legs as possible while preserving what little still appeared healthy, my legs were then closed up and I had received the disturbing news from my orthopedic surgeon about the condition of my legs; two of the four muscle compartments in my legs are dead, and my right leg is in worse condition than my left. The plastic surgeon who had performed my last operation in my legs has recommended that I get my right ankle fused, which would mean that I would never be able to do many of the physical things I enjoy most, such as running, jumping, and squatting. As someone who has enjoyed fitness and sports all my life this is a very hard pill to swallow and I will be searching far and wide for second and third opinions from the most specialized doctors known.
I am currently waiting to be allowed to bear weight onto my legs and hope that within the next few days I’ll be working with the physical therapist to re-learn how to walk again, albeit with assistance from a walker and crutches. Thank you to all my friends and family who had reached out and visited me in the hospital! This hospitalization would have been so much harder without your messages of love and support.
So now I reach out to you all and ask for your financial and emotional support. I have just set up a gofundme in order to cover lost wages from being on short-term disability, medical bills, reparative/reconstructive surgeries, and future physical therapy expenses. Every little bit counts so please contribute what you can. This has truly been a humbling experience for me that reminds me to never take for granted the small things in life. Thank you for reading my post!
Organizer
Branden Boston
Organizer
Washington D.C., DC
