After a long day of travel, she woke up unable to walk. Then he crawled to his car and got on ER (exclusive)

I need to know

• Ella Katecamp was days from the finishing school when he woke up an incapable of walking

• At first, she suggested that the pain in her calves was from work after a long trip

• A week later she left the hospital with a diagnosis that changed the way he sees her health

Ella Katten Kamp was a few days since she was completed, when she woke up to a sharp, cheeky pain in the calves, her legs twisted in a locked position and the muscles froze. There was a hospital stay during the week, a terrifying diagnosis and a viral tick that caused a conversation among millions.

“I made an excursion a week before Georgia and it was a lot like tourism,” Kattencamp tells people, looking back at what looked like a fun escape before things were stopped. “On the last day we made a hike with thousands of stairs and then drove 13 hours straight back to Florida.”

The former college athlete does not waste time jumping back into her routine. “As I came back, I did a foot training in the gym,” she says, noting that spasms do not look like a big job at the beginning.

“I got, like really bad calf pain after that,” she explains. “My legs locked themselves in a pointed position on my toes and I couldn’t walk with a flat leg. My dresses were stuck like that.”

Assuming that this is a standard athletic spasm, Katten Kamp drinks water, stretched and went to bed. But by 5am the pain was painful and her legs refused to move. “At the time, I lived with a roommate, but it was like five in the morning and I didn’t want to wake her up,” she says. “So, I crawled to my car and drove to the hospital.”

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With ER, her condition worsened. “As I went in there, they ran and put me in a wheelchair and it was about a week,” she recalls. Throughout his hospital stay, walking was almost impossible. “If I walked at all, someone had to hold me because I couldn’t move my calves,” she says. “They just stopped working.”

Doctors struggled to identify the cause of its symptoms. “They took them about three or four days to understand it,” Katecamp notes. “The sisters would come in and just lose my symptoms – no one knew what it was.”

In the end, she was diagnosed: rhabdomyolysis, a rare condition that causes muscle fibers to break down and release toxins in the blood. “It’s like the breakdown of your muscle to the extent that it poisons your blood,” she explains.

Katenkamp was shocked when he learned the level of Creatine Kinase (CK), a muscle breakdown marker was well above normal. “Your CK level shouldn’t really be over 200 and when I got to the hospital, it was in thousands,” she says.

The treatment involved washing her system with fluids and monitoring her blood several times a day. “They had to take my blood like three times a day,” she says. “After two days, the CK level actually increased, which was really disappointing.”

By the time it was discharged, the CK level was still about 600-700. “I wasn’t where I had to be, but I started to go again,” she says. “These were just my legs.”

Doctors attribute the appearance of a combination of factors. “I was told that it was probably from the red bulls I drank in Georgia, insufficient water, my control of the birth rate and the passage from sitting for 13 hours directly into an intense foot training,” says Kattenkamp.

Experience has constantly changed her approach to fitness and health. “I made a huge step back from energy drinks,” she says. “I didn’t touch them for a long time and now I only drink them very moderately.”

After hyperactive with practices, classes and games early in the morning, Katenkamp is now much more careful. “I drink a lot more water now,” she says. “And I definitely think about which days to go hard to the gym – like, I sat a lot of the previous day?”

The condition was new to her and many. “I had no idea what it was,” says Kattenkamp. “Even the doctors didn’t know.”

She posted for Tiktok’s test, with the text, “She still doesn’t know it … But the next morning she would crawl from the bed of all 4s and get to the hospital at 6 o’clock in the morning to stay for next week because her legs were paralyzed by rhabdomyolysis.”

While some followers offered support, others jumped to conclusions. But for Katenkamp, this was a moment that turned criticism into a community. “Even I didn’t have to defend myself,” she says. “Other people did it for me.”

Many shared their own experiences or those of loved ones. “Many people said they had survived something similar and knew how painful it was,” she says. “There were tons of comments that wished me a good recovery.”

Looking back, she says the condition was more than muscle cramps. “My legs were not even the same size when I left the hospital,” she says. “This is definitely a process, but fortunately now I go.”

However, the risk of lasting damage was real. “They say it can ruin your kidneys,” Katten Kamp says. “Fortunately, I didn’t get to this point, but if I hadn’t gone to the hospital, it could have destroyed my organs.”

That is why her message is firm. “It’s more than just cramps,” she says. “People kept saying,” Control through it, “but I couldn’t do it – I had to go to the hospital.”

Two years later, Katenkamp’s tips for others in recovery are simple and compassionate. “Make sure you take care of yourself and read your body,” she says. “Continue with your water, stretch and do not overdo it.”

It encourages anyone who experiences similar symptoms to examine all options. “Follow the steps your doctors give you,” Katten Kamp adds. “It can definitely be back.”

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If she could tell social media users one thing, that’s it: don’t pretend an expert. “You never know what’s going on,” she says. “There were over 20 different comments that take into account the cause. It is different for each person.”

Katenkamp says he understands the appeal of quick decisions, especially online. But she hopes her story will show why empathy matters. “Don’t talk about other people’s health,” she says. “If there is one thing I learned, you really don’t know what someone goes through.”

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