Emergency Rooms....

On Monday, October 3, one of our life group members was going to have a nuclear stress test for some odd symptoms -- primarily fatigue -- that he was experiencing. I'm a nurse, but didn't have a clue as to what the test was, so another of our life group explained it as he had not only had one, but then undergone emergency triple bypass surgery just a couple of months ago.

Ah.

I now know more than I ever wanted to know about a nuclear stress test as I'm still probably a bit radioactive from the one I ended up having this past Monday. Be careful what you really want to know about.....

It all started with some funky chest pain at about 4:00 in the morning. "Chest pain," like "lump in the breast," are probably two of the scariest words I know. For women, heart attacks don't generally present in the usual manner -- severe chest pain radiating to the shoulder blades or down the left arm with shortness of breath, nausea and sweating. It can be relatively mild and eminently ignorable. Which makes it all the more scary.

By 6:00, I decided to go ahead and go to the ER at the hospital where I have worked in one capacity or another for the last 23 years.

They don't mess around with vague chest pain symptoms either. An IV was started, I was given nitroglycerine orally and in a patch, some aspirin and oxygen. Blood was drawn for cardiac enzymes to see if any were elevated. The doc kept coming in and pushing on my chest..."does this hurt?" "Well, yeah...."

A bit later the cardiologist came down, and said that since I was at risk for heart disease (all those nacho cheese flavored Doritos and Lays sour cream and onion chips, I'm sure), and no longer a "young" woman (hahaha!), and had these "bizarre symptoms" (his words) he recommended a -- yup --

Nuclear stress test....

Radioactive dye, pictures of the heart, a treadmill (boy, am I out of shape -- but I knew that!), more dye, more pictures and 8 hours later, I was pronounced heart healthy and good for at least another two years. Heart wise, that is.

The diagnosis was chest wall pain for no discernable reason.

Of course, as I was driving to the hospital, I was picturing triple bypass surgery and wondering if I would be well enough to make it to Adam's wedding in Asheville in November, and get everything done I need to do for OUR wedding -- not to mention that I have a 6 day lactation education program that starts tomorrow.

It couldn't have been stress, could it?

Nah.

No time for stress. Nope, no time.