A Visit to the ER

I spent yesterday in the ER with chest pains.....had had them since Sunday night -- all day Monday (but were faint enough that I could fob them off).

Tuesday morning I woke up at 12:30 am and couldn't go back to sleep. There they were. Definitely left sided pains, radiating down to my left arm. No elephant sitting on my chest feeling, no huge sweats, no feeling of impending doom, just a pulse rate that was out of sight, and the pain -- front, back, arm. Hmmm.

At 4:45 I got up, showered, dressed, and told Bob we needed to go to the ER....

He showered and dressed while I stocked computer, book, Bible, contact lens case, glasses -- all the "just in case stuff", and, of course, put on makeup. You think I'm going to show up in the ER with last night's underwear and no makeup? Not me!!

12 hours later I was discharged with a clean bill of health. At least whatever I have in the chest is not my heart. (I will NOT listen to those TV shows that discuss how women's heart attacks do not have the same symptoms that men's do. The fact that my father died of a sudden coronary after being given a clean bill of health at exactly my age may have something to do with my paranoia).

My chest X-ray was normal. (Evidently they don't count fat as abnormal). My cardiac enzymes (blood work) was normal. I talked them into ordering all the other blood work my doc wants for my yearly check up which is next week....and then I had a nuclear stress test.

Uh -- don't do that. Not fun. Took about three hours. And I'm still, I guess, glowing in the dark. Not to mention the walking on the treadmill part. The walking isn't bad. The speed -- not so bad. The INCLINE??? BAD!! I will not tell you how many minutes I lasted. Suffice it to say I might have made it through two auditions on American Idol complete with Simon's caustic comments.

Maybe.

But the little donuts that demonstrate my blood vessels evidently are all clear. No clogging with Doritos, onion chip dip or chocolate.

Bob was most thankful that my chest pains happened on Tuesday and not today because he really has a very busy schedule today, including having breakfast with our new senior pastor. So glad I could accommodate him. Especially since Torrey was born on a Wednesday against his express wishes.

Memo to self: Avoid Wednesdays for emergencies or childbirth. Doesn't make Bob happy.

Oh yes, the day of Torrey's birth, he managed to leave my bedside in the labor room to go to his Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee (P&T) meeting.

Grateful to Jill -- born on a Sunday, and Tim -- born on a Thursday.

But I digress. However, keep in mind that my "emergency" did occur on a Tuesday. Whew!

Anyway -- I'm here, safe and sound for the moment. And truly thanking God that there was nothing that showed up. I'm still not sure what the chest pains are all about, but the ER doc assured me that all they needed to do was make sure I was safe to go home, it wasn't my heart, and they didn't care beyond that.... Evidently they worry about lawsuits in which they declare the chest pains a figment of an old ladies' imagination (especially if she is wearing lipstick and bringing her book to read) and send them home to drop dead within 24 hours. Not good for the corporate image.

But as to really what CAUSED the chest pain? Let's leave that to Marie to figure out when I see her next week. (Marie being my long-suffering *real* physician).

Nice....

Sorry no pictures -- too bad they won't let me have a snapshot of my amazingly clear arteries. I'm sure you would all be quite interested.

Um, not.