MacHete
Hair Cropper & Chipmunk Wrangler
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2000
- Messages
- 2,559
Friday morning around 5:00 am I woke up feeling kinda poorly. I went to the bathroom and took a couple of antacids, thinking that I just had some heartburn. I tried to lie down again, but couldn't get comfortable. I got back up and began to realize that what I was feeling was not abdominal discomfort. I have never had chest pain before, and although it wasn't that bad, I knew it was something you don't mess around with. I felt like someone was tightening a 6" wide hose clamp around my ribcage. I wasn't alarmed, because I didn't have any pain radiating down my arms, no nausea, no dizziness, no sweats- none of the other signs of heart attack. I didn't notice my shortness of breath until I went to wake Kathy a little after 6:00 am and found I could hardly finish a sentence. I took a couple of baby aspirin as a precaution while Kathy quickly dressed to take me to the ER. We left the house a little before 6:30 am.
By the time we arrived at the hospital my pain had largely abated, and by the time I was admitted, I felt fine. The triage nurse gave me a couple more aspirin and I was put in a bed to await the ministrations of the attending vampires. Blood was drawn, vitals were taken and an IV port was installed. I was in a room later in the afternoon and an EKG and chest x-ray were done. I was scheduled for a chemical stress test the following morning, but they were able to get resting ("before") images that night. A technician shot some radioactive juice into my IV port, and after awhile they took me down to the lab. When I was done, I was taken back to my room, given something to eat and informed that all my results so far are normal, if not good. BP- excellent. Cholesterol- LDL is a little low, but HDL is great. Enzymes all well within normal. White cell count normal. EKG- normal. X-ray- clear. If the stress test goes well, I can go home- if not, I'll be staying for more tests- probably a cath.
Kathy had been with me throughout, except to go let Code out and to bring me a change of clothes and my CPAP machine for the night. She wasn't allowed to stay overnight, which is just as well because she had an MRI scheduled for her knee the next morning. She wanted to cancel it so she could come as soon as visiting hours allowed, but after discussing the difficulty of rescheduling, and realizing that her procedure would be occurring at the same time as mine- when she couldn't be with me anyway- she decided to go ahead with her MRI and then join me when she was done.
The next morning, I woke up an hour or so before they came in for my first vitals check and watched Saturday morning cartoons until they came to take me for the stress test. It only took ten minutes on the treadmill to get my heartrate up to the level they wanted, meanwhile, another technician shot me with a second dose of glow-goo while I was trotting along, barely hanging on. I was very impresed that she could screw a threaded syringe onto my port and push the plunger with me bouncing like I was. I would have been more impressed if she could have done it without jacking the needle around inside my arm. Then again, maybe that was all part of the "stress". I was on the treadmill in those textured footie socks they give you- no shoes- and by the time I got off I had a dime-sized hotspot on the ball of my left foot and a pea-sized blood blister on my right.
They sat me in a waiting room for a little while with some water and then took me in for the "after" images. I got back up to my room before 10:00 am and actually met Kathy coming in at the same time as me. They brought me some lunch after a bit and I waited for the "all clear" from the cardiologist so I could go home. My stress test was good, and I got to leave around 2:00 pm.
So, my heart is very healthy, but I still don't know what caused my pain. I was already scheduled for a CT scan and a sonogram for my hernia repair next week, so I am going to ask the surgeon to add a full abdominal check to these procedures to see if maybe my gall bladder or pancreas or something is to blame.
I have been around a lot of people when their gall bladders have gone bad, and they describe a lot of similarities to my situation- though theirs were generally much more intense. Anyway, I hope to get this cleared up quickly and conclusively so I can finally go back to work. I've been off on short-term medical disabilty for over two months now, and it's gettin' pretty old. I won't be able to get a release from my Doc until after the New Year at the earliest now.
By the time we arrived at the hospital my pain had largely abated, and by the time I was admitted, I felt fine. The triage nurse gave me a couple more aspirin and I was put in a bed to await the ministrations of the attending vampires. Blood was drawn, vitals were taken and an IV port was installed. I was in a room later in the afternoon and an EKG and chest x-ray were done. I was scheduled for a chemical stress test the following morning, but they were able to get resting ("before") images that night. A technician shot some radioactive juice into my IV port, and after awhile they took me down to the lab. When I was done, I was taken back to my room, given something to eat and informed that all my results so far are normal, if not good. BP- excellent. Cholesterol- LDL is a little low, but HDL is great. Enzymes all well within normal. White cell count normal. EKG- normal. X-ray- clear. If the stress test goes well, I can go home- if not, I'll be staying for more tests- probably a cath.
Kathy had been with me throughout, except to go let Code out and to bring me a change of clothes and my CPAP machine for the night. She wasn't allowed to stay overnight, which is just as well because she had an MRI scheduled for her knee the next morning. She wanted to cancel it so she could come as soon as visiting hours allowed, but after discussing the difficulty of rescheduling, and realizing that her procedure would be occurring at the same time as mine- when she couldn't be with me anyway- she decided to go ahead with her MRI and then join me when she was done.
The next morning, I woke up an hour or so before they came in for my first vitals check and watched Saturday morning cartoons until they came to take me for the stress test. It only took ten minutes on the treadmill to get my heartrate up to the level they wanted, meanwhile, another technician shot me with a second dose of glow-goo while I was trotting along, barely hanging on. I was very impresed that she could screw a threaded syringe onto my port and push the plunger with me bouncing like I was. I would have been more impressed if she could have done it without jacking the needle around inside my arm. Then again, maybe that was all part of the "stress". I was on the treadmill in those textured footie socks they give you- no shoes- and by the time I got off I had a dime-sized hotspot on the ball of my left foot and a pea-sized blood blister on my right.
They sat me in a waiting room for a little while with some water and then took me in for the "after" images. I got back up to my room before 10:00 am and actually met Kathy coming in at the same time as me. They brought me some lunch after a bit and I waited for the "all clear" from the cardiologist so I could go home. My stress test was good, and I got to leave around 2:00 pm.
So, my heart is very healthy, but I still don't know what caused my pain. I was already scheduled for a CT scan and a sonogram for my hernia repair next week, so I am going to ask the surgeon to add a full abdominal check to these procedures to see if maybe my gall bladder or pancreas or something is to blame.
I have been around a lot of people when their gall bladders have gone bad, and they describe a lot of similarities to my situation- though theirs were generally much more intense. Anyway, I hope to get this cleared up quickly and conclusively so I can finally go back to work. I've been off on short-term medical disabilty for over two months now, and it's gettin' pretty old. I won't be able to get a release from my Doc until after the New Year at the earliest now.
