Thursday, January 22, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
Scarry Night in the ER
It's time for an update, since I haven't posted for a month. Flying home from my visit with Nate, Mallory and Sage, I was somewhere over Kansas, about 36,000 feet in the air, when I started to feel pressure on my chest. Soon it felt like an elephant was sitting there. About 45 min. before landing in Las Vegas, my left shoulder started to ache and then my arm. Now I was getting very nervous. I asked the flight attendant for an aspirin, which he promptly forgot, so I re-asked. I took one aspirin and the acheleft my arm, but then it started to hurt to breathe if I took more than shallow breaths. We landed in Vegas, and, of course, my flight to SLC was delayed an hour. I knew I should go to the ER, but who wants to be stuck in
Vegas alone in the ER. I thought about Lynn's dad, when he had his heart attack and he waited 3 days before going in, so I took one more aspirin and took my flight to SLC. My new phone was not working everytime I had a layover, so I couldn't call Lynn and tell him to meet me inside, but he was a mindreader and was at the luggage carosel. We picked up my suitcase and headed straight to the IMC ER. If you want to by pass the 600 people in the waiting area, just say chest pain, and they hustled me to room 65. That ER is so big tht they have street signs on the hallways, Sout Temple, etc. They hooked me up for an EKG, drew blood, inserted the IV needle, got me hooked up to all their monitors and we waited for results. I was in so much pain I was tensed up everywhere and clinching my jaw. The nurse offered me something for pain, but I declined it. I don't like taking drugs. An hour later, she commented on how I didn't look too comfy and re-offered the pain med. I took her up on it this time. She gave me some morphine, which took the edge off the pain. None of the heart tests showed anything abnormal, so they started checking for a blood clot in my lungs. I had a chest x-ray, then a CAT scan. These were negative too. I did have an elevated white count (infection). They didn't dare send me home with the elephant still sitting on my chest, so they admitted me about 3:00a.m. Sunday morning. Andrea was working, so she came to visit on her break. Lynn stayed until 4, then headed home for a couple hours sleep before his curch meetings. They woke me a 6 am for some peanut butter and toast, then no more food or drink 'til noon when they radioactivated me and gave me a stress test. Luckily my heart and lungs looked fine. I asked the Dr. if I could have pleursey (an infection of the lining of the lungs). He said he didn't think so because my sed rate was not elevated. I still felt like crap, but they sent me home. It took several days, and I finally felt good again. I really think I had pleuresy, because it hurt so bad to take more than a shallow breath and I've had four friends tell me they've had the same symptoms, and been dianosed with pleuresy. Isn't modern health care nice, with the first bill for $8,000, more bills to come and all they can say is we don't know what's wrong, we know you feel like crap, but just go home and suffer there.
Vegas alone in the ER. I thought about Lynn's dad, when he had his heart attack and he waited 3 days before going in, so I took one more aspirin and took my flight to SLC. My new phone was not working everytime I had a layover, so I couldn't call Lynn and tell him to meet me inside, but he was a mindreader and was at the luggage carosel. We picked up my suitcase and headed straight to the IMC ER. If you want to by pass the 600 people in the waiting area, just say chest pain, and they hustled me to room 65. That ER is so big tht they have street signs on the hallways, Sout Temple, etc. They hooked me up for an EKG, drew blood, inserted the IV needle, got me hooked up to all their monitors and we waited for results. I was in so much pain I was tensed up everywhere and clinching my jaw. The nurse offered me something for pain, but I declined it. I don't like taking drugs. An hour later, she commented on how I didn't look too comfy and re-offered the pain med. I took her up on it this time. She gave me some morphine, which took the edge off the pain. None of the heart tests showed anything abnormal, so they started checking for a blood clot in my lungs. I had a chest x-ray, then a CAT scan. These were negative too. I did have an elevated white count (infection). They didn't dare send me home with the elephant still sitting on my chest, so they admitted me about 3:00a.m. Sunday morning. Andrea was working, so she came to visit on her break. Lynn stayed until 4, then headed home for a couple hours sleep before his curch meetings. They woke me a 6 am for some peanut butter and toast, then no more food or drink 'til noon when they radioactivated me and gave me a stress test. Luckily my heart and lungs looked fine. I asked the Dr. if I could have pleursey (an infection of the lining of the lungs). He said he didn't think so because my sed rate was not elevated. I still felt like crap, but they sent me home. It took several days, and I finally felt good again. I really think I had pleuresy, because it hurt so bad to take more than a shallow breath and I've had four friends tell me they've had the same symptoms, and been dianosed with pleuresy. Isn't modern health care nice, with the first bill for $8,000, more bills to come and all they can say is we don't know what's wrong, we know you feel like crap, but just go home and suffer there.
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