Wedding Weekend...

Friday morning I packed up all my things and headed down to Plymouth for the big wedding weekend. I met up with Lauren at her mom's house (my aunt) and together with one of the other bridesmaids and my aunt we headed off to the nail salon. The other girls met us there. Then headed back to the house to get ready for the rehearsal dinner. We got through the rehearsal, no problem. Then it was off to dinner. I had steak tips, potatoes, veggies and 2 or 3 glasses of wine. After that we went over to a bar where a friend of the groom's was playing a gig. This is where the weekend started to turn ugly. They did not have any ciders so I opted for rum and coke. They were serving them to me in 16oz cups. Before I knew it, I was quite tipsy. We went back to my aunt's and stayed there for the night. We had to be up very early to go to the hall to set up the chair covers. I was feeling horrible but I was trying to suck it up. It was my own fault that I drank too much the night before. When we got back to the house I ate a bunch of food and drank a ton of water and took a shower and was feeling a lot better so I sat down to get my makeup done. Not too long into it, I started to feel sick again. I took a break. Tried again, but by now I'm shaky, weak, and my face is actually tingling. Not cool at all. I thought I might die. The thing about it is, I have a history of severe dehydration which leads to fainting episodes that send me to the hospital to have IV treatments. I knew all morning that this was where I was probably heading but I tried really hard to fight it. My sister, knowing me all too well, and all the other girls thought it would probably be a good idea to take a trip to the ER. So yeah. The Maid-of-Honor lands in the emergency room in the middle of the day of her best friend's wedding. I got to the ER and tried not to burst into tears as I explained to the nurse at the desk that I was dehydrated and about to pass out and needed to be back for a wedding in a few hours. The ER staff was so amazing, they rushed me right in and hooked me up to the IV and did the standard blood and urine tests. Came back that I actually did have a urinary tract infection, same thing that happened last time. I don't really get any symptoms when I have these, but they contribute to the dehydration and that's when I go down. I was in the hospital for about 2 hours and they let me go at 3:30. I was back at the house and getting my hair done by 4 and in the limo heading off for pictures by 5. It was a whirlwind! Very emotional, very upsetting, but it all worked out in the end. The wedding was perfect, the reception was awesome, I gave my speech without balling my eyes out even though both the bride and I wanted to at that point. We were both just so happy that I made it. Today I'm just trying to recover. Adrenaline took over last night but today I'm feeling it. This is the 3rd time in the past year that I've landed in the ER because of severe dehydration. The other two times alcohol was not involved, but I was sick both of the other times. It's so frustrating. I was just the other day thinking about how it has been since January that I'd been in that situation and I was hoping that because of the meds and whatnot that I wouldn't go through it again. And then, there I was.

I had an appointment with The Doc on Friday and will be telling him all about it and asking him what he thinks I can do to help this. They just keep telling me to drink a lot of fluids, but I want to know why I'm not able to stay hydrated in the first place. I do drink a lot of fluids already, so what's up? I'm definitely going to ask for the small bowel biopsy. We'll see. Funny thing, I know the photographer because she has shot a bunch of my friends' weddings and I also was talking to her last year about being her second shooter, and I found out yesterday that she has celiac! Crazy. It seems like every time I mention that I'm gluten-free, someone else tells me they are too.

The photo is my place at the table, my salad is blurry, then my table card, and then my bouquet is behind that. I took a lot of pictures and you can see them all at my picasa site.