TWO WEEKS AGO:
JUNE 19, 2017 2:00am
A Trip To The EMERGENCY ROOM!
(Not the kind of traveling you want to do)
So how’s your Sunday night going? We had a a fun Father’s Day BBQ Party and then I fell asleep early around 10pm. I woke up at midnight and went online and then did some other late night work in the home office. Around 1:30am I felt a strange (not normal) pain in my chest and 10 minutes later it hadn’t gone away. I took a Bayer aspirin and then had to make a serious decision about my health.
Chest pain (not normal) so a trip to the ER: better safe than dead.
Didn’t want to take any chance that it might be something very serious, so we made the call and got dressed, and drove over to the hospital.
The drive over was excruciating and there was a lot of anxiety and stress along the way.
Not exactly Dr. Kubler-Ross’ “Anger, Denial, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance”, but there was a little bit of soul-searching and “what if?” thinking in that 20 minute car ride.
NOTE: No, I did not drive myself to the hospital. I was lucky enough to have someone available at 1:30 in the morning to drive me to the ER. BIG Thanks for the ride! And they know who they are! I’m also very grateful to have pretty good medical coverage. THANKS OBAMA!
So, the ER Waiting Room was not very busy on Sunday night. There were some other people waiting as I checked in, most noticeably a woman who interupted the guy checking me in because a catheter was stuck and she had to go!
Medical card, ID and method of payment please? My health insurance will cover most of the costs, but there was a big deductible/co-payment required and most likely another bill later. I was taken into a small exam room for an EKG and Blood Pressure/vital sign evaluation (with the door open, because there was only one tech on duty at ER Reception), given my ID wristband, and then I was returned to the Waiting Room.
I was then called by a nurse and led into the working area of the ER. There wasn’t a clean room, so she had me lay on a cart in the hall, and then she turned me over to another nurse and went on dinner break. The second nurse stuck an IV needle in my arm and drew blood for testing. The ER Doctor on duty came and evaluated me, asked me questions, got information from my computerized files and decided which tests to run.
2:15am (see the picture above) Emergency Room at the hospital, evaluated and laying on a gurney cart in the hallway waiting for the exam room to be cleaned. Waiting for test results. My EKG and vitals are ok, but I’m still having the chest pain. The second nurse left me laying on the gurney cart in the hall and when the first nurse came back from her dinner break, she apologized and finally moved me to a clean room about a half hour later
After a short rolling trip, I moved from the gurney cart to a bed in a private ER exam room. They put on the automatic Blood Pressure machine and vital signs monitor, put me on an IV drip, gave me some drugs and an oxygen feed while I waited for test results.
3:16am In a room now being monitored…
waiting for the shift change and X-rays. vital signs good
NOTE: Modern Medicine and Technology is amazing! No need to go to the X-ray room, the machine and the technician come right to you! The guy wheeled in a portable X-ray cart and took a chest shot without me having to get up and/or move.
Everything was fine. All my vital signs and both EKGs were normal, the X-ray and the tests didn’t show anything to worry about. I was able to post to facebook and called my ride and sent them home, knowing it would be hours while the enzyme test was run.
The Doctor on Duty came back and followed up and then I waited. Another Nurse Technician came in and took more blood and gave me some more drugs intravenously. The pain in my chest finally began to go away.
So I used my iPhone to keep busy, but reception was terrible.
So I just deleted a bunch of emails and then tried to rest.
I got a bed (that wasn’t plugged in) when they moved me to the private exam room. It was just really uncomfortable with the IV in one arm and the automatic BP cuff on the other. Also the vital sign monitor was clamped to my index finger and there was a cable attached and it was attached to a digital display (that would “ping” if and when my heart rate dropped). And every so often, the automatic BP cuff would inflate around my arm to the point of almost pain just to remind me that I was .
Don’t like hospitals and waiting sucks. Tried to sleep, but there was too much noise. Finally told them I just wanted to go home. I’m supposed to do a “stress test” but everything else was pretty normal. No explanation for the chest pain, so I’m going home because everything here got really busy after 7am
6+ hours and I just want to go home now. No news is good news I guess. They’re running more tests and I’m just getting annoyed with the machine that goes “ping”
That thing sucks! It was the worst part of the visit.
Everything was okay (with just a few exceptions) until the 7am shift and I was handling it really well. After the shift change, they got busy and had a critical patient in another room, so everything else (like the other patients) got lower priority for attention.
I went home because I wanted to and because it was getting too stressful at the ER. I wanted to rest but the heart monitor kept beeping, there was too much noise in the hall, and it was really uncomfortable laying on the gurney with the IV in one arm, the automatic blood pressure cuff on the other and the heart rate monitor taped to my index finger. Decided I can follow up later with the stress test.
They gave me the bill, took my credit card payment and also made me sign a “released against Doctor’s order” waiver. My ride came and picked me up and drove me home.
11:22am
Home again. Feeling okay. After 8 hours in the ER, the next day is a beautiful day!
Thanks again everyone! All the tests came back clean and we are feeling fine. We didn’t want to chance whatever it was that was causing the pain, so we made a trip to the ER to be safe. We are so lucky to be able to get good urgent care! Don’t mess around and get checked out if you’re having a health problem!
NOTE: The royal “we” as in Me (and my shadow)
THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU! Thanks to everyone for your concern, kind thoughts, good advice and words of wisdom! I am home and I feel okay. I had some chest pain at 1:30am this morning and had to go and get checked out (better to be safe). So 9 hours, 2 EKGs, a little medication and a chest x-ray later, we are a huge co-pay poorer and everything appears fine. My vital signs are excellent and nothing appears to be wrong. Big thanks to all the folks (Doctors, nurses, techs and staff) at the emergency room and special thanks goes out (to you know who you are) for getting me there and picking me up! So, all is well and we will be “takin’ easy for all you sinners” today.
THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU! Thanks Again! Came home and went to bed, woke up and had some food, feel fine with just a little residual pain and a slight headache. Was outside with the dogs for a little bit, but it’s too hot for humans (and pups) again today in the valley…. and it’s only Monday.
Glad to be alive.
Thinking of all my friends with serious health problems!
BE WELL! If you have a health problem, SEE A DOCTOR IMMEDIATELY!
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