Oh, what a night. *sigh*
Now that I've managed to scare the shit out of myself and quite a few of my friends and my parents, I figured I should share with the rest of you my wonderfun trip to the ER.
Oh, yes. I said the Emergency Room.
So, okay, here's the deal. I've been sick with a cold for a while, right? Everyone has the plague at work, and I suppose it was only a matter of time before I got it. So I had the usual slew of of symptoms: congestion everywhere, sneezing, tons of coughing, mucous, ears popping, feeling like I was tired all the time, headache. The works. I did not have a fever, and my only stomach upset was from coughing too much and throwing up from it (not fun at all.) So, I've been sick for maybe a week and a half. Missed a few days of work here and there, going home early, stuff like that. I did go see a clinic doctor (it was too late to see my Primary Care Doc, and I had to work open the next few days) and she said I had a virus, that it was in the bronchial tubes and not my lungs, and prescribed me a big pill that had prescription sudafed and mucinex combined, told me to take a lot of hot, steamy showers to break up the congestion, gargle salt water, and take an anti-inflammatory. So I was doing that since Tuesday. Yesterday rolled around, and I was closing at work. I kept feeling worse and worse as the day progressed, and only managed to take the decongestant pill by nearly crushing it, and decided against taking the Aleve because my throat felt so raw and closed up.
So I went to work, and it was hard to do anything. I was so tired trying to do everything, and was getting out of breath. And more out of breath. And then I was so out of breath that it was hard to talk and walk, and it was hurting to breathe. I called my mom, and a few other people, and finally decided to go to an Urgent Care place to see what was up. I told my manager, and had Trevor and Karen come get me, since I was really light headed and driving was a bad idea. Unfortunatly, the Urgent Care place closed at 8, and took their last patient at 7, which I learned when I called them at 7:05 to figure out exactly where they were. Suuuuuck. My last option was the ER, so off we went.
It was a long wait, and the ER I went to had these restaraunt-style pagers that they give you for waiting for every procedure while you were still in triage, and I went through three of them. I sent Karen and Trevor off to get dinner after I had been triaged and was waiting for an EKG. And EKG, you ask? Yeah, that's standard when you present with shortness of breath and pain in your chest. By the way, I was still pulling the lead points off of me when I woke today. They stick tons of the things on you! Also, since I was having trouble reading my book cause I was all woozy, I decided to entertain myself by texting my friends and letting them know I was bored and breathless in the ER waiting room.
Finally it was my turn, and I got shuffled into a bed back in the ER, all huffing and puffing and coughing like mad. They stuck an IV in me and drew blood, which didn't help my breathing, since I am TERRIFIED of needles. I damn near passed out, although I didn't jump. And they had to draw blood twice, since the first time it drew so slowly that the hemoglobin went too thick or something, which throws off all the counts. Then they gave me a chest x-ray. Sometime in there they gave me a squirt of this crazy cough syrup, and then, since I had presented with shortness of breath and chest pain (I pretty much had pulled a muscle coughing, but you know) they gave me a CT scan of my chest to make sure I hadn't thrown a clot or something. So, I've been sick, right? And I can't sleep for shit, right? So I've been watching a lot of tv... like House. Yeah. Don't watch House and then go to the ER, where they scare you with the words CT Scan. Not fun.
Then I had a 45 minute wait for the test results to come back, so I sat there on the bed and chatted with Karen and Trevor. As the time passed, I started to feel much better. My breathing eased, and all of the muscle-cramping and tingling of my body and the elephant stomping on my chest got better. I still felt heavy in my chest, but nothing like before. So the doctor came, and told me all my test came back great, and they concluded that I had a virus (sound familiar?) and that I was to get a prescription for the awesome cough syrup and go home and rest. So I pretty much had inflamed my tubes, and couldn't breathe, and the awesome cough med eased that a lot.
And why is the awesome cough syrup so awesome? Cause it had Codine in it. Yeaaaaaah. So we nabbed my Rx from a 24 hour pharmacy, went home, and I went to bed. Set my alarm for 10ish in the morning to take my meds. I think i managed to crawl out of bed at 10:30, took the Rx, and rolled back into bed again. Woke up about 3pm. So now I am just sitting here. I'm going to play a bit of Wow, maybe, although I am starting to get sleepy again. I'm off this weekend, so I'm pretty much sleeping for two days solid. Wee!
And that was my wonderfun trip to the ER. I really never want to do that again.
Oh, yes. I said the Emergency Room.
So, okay, here's the deal. I've been sick with a cold for a while, right? Everyone has the plague at work, and I suppose it was only a matter of time before I got it. So I had the usual slew of of symptoms: congestion everywhere, sneezing, tons of coughing, mucous, ears popping, feeling like I was tired all the time, headache. The works. I did not have a fever, and my only stomach upset was from coughing too much and throwing up from it (not fun at all.) So, I've been sick for maybe a week and a half. Missed a few days of work here and there, going home early, stuff like that. I did go see a clinic doctor (it was too late to see my Primary Care Doc, and I had to work open the next few days) and she said I had a virus, that it was in the bronchial tubes and not my lungs, and prescribed me a big pill that had prescription sudafed and mucinex combined, told me to take a lot of hot, steamy showers to break up the congestion, gargle salt water, and take an anti-inflammatory. So I was doing that since Tuesday. Yesterday rolled around, and I was closing at work. I kept feeling worse and worse as the day progressed, and only managed to take the decongestant pill by nearly crushing it, and decided against taking the Aleve because my throat felt so raw and closed up.
So I went to work, and it was hard to do anything. I was so tired trying to do everything, and was getting out of breath. And more out of breath. And then I was so out of breath that it was hard to talk and walk, and it was hurting to breathe. I called my mom, and a few other people, and finally decided to go to an Urgent Care place to see what was up. I told my manager, and had Trevor and Karen come get me, since I was really light headed and driving was a bad idea. Unfortunatly, the Urgent Care place closed at 8, and took their last patient at 7, which I learned when I called them at 7:05 to figure out exactly where they were. Suuuuuck. My last option was the ER, so off we went.
It was a long wait, and the ER I went to had these restaraunt-style pagers that they give you for waiting for every procedure while you were still in triage, and I went through three of them. I sent Karen and Trevor off to get dinner after I had been triaged and was waiting for an EKG. And EKG, you ask? Yeah, that's standard when you present with shortness of breath and pain in your chest. By the way, I was still pulling the lead points off of me when I woke today. They stick tons of the things on you! Also, since I was having trouble reading my book cause I was all woozy, I decided to entertain myself by texting my friends and letting them know I was bored and breathless in the ER waiting room.
Finally it was my turn, and I got shuffled into a bed back in the ER, all huffing and puffing and coughing like mad. They stuck an IV in me and drew blood, which didn't help my breathing, since I am TERRIFIED of needles. I damn near passed out, although I didn't jump. And they had to draw blood twice, since the first time it drew so slowly that the hemoglobin went too thick or something, which throws off all the counts. Then they gave me a chest x-ray. Sometime in there they gave me a squirt of this crazy cough syrup, and then, since I had presented with shortness of breath and chest pain (I pretty much had pulled a muscle coughing, but you know) they gave me a CT scan of my chest to make sure I hadn't thrown a clot or something. So, I've been sick, right? And I can't sleep for shit, right? So I've been watching a lot of tv... like House. Yeah. Don't watch House and then go to the ER, where they scare you with the words CT Scan. Not fun.
Then I had a 45 minute wait for the test results to come back, so I sat there on the bed and chatted with Karen and Trevor. As the time passed, I started to feel much better. My breathing eased, and all of the muscle-cramping and tingling of my body and the elephant stomping on my chest got better. I still felt heavy in my chest, but nothing like before. So the doctor came, and told me all my test came back great, and they concluded that I had a virus (sound familiar?) and that I was to get a prescription for the awesome cough syrup and go home and rest. So I pretty much had inflamed my tubes, and couldn't breathe, and the awesome cough med eased that a lot.
And why is the awesome cough syrup so awesome? Cause it had Codine in it. Yeaaaaaah. So we nabbed my Rx from a 24 hour pharmacy, went home, and I went to bed. Set my alarm for 10ish in the morning to take my meds. I think i managed to crawl out of bed at 10:30, took the Rx, and rolled back into bed again. Woke up about 3pm. So now I am just sitting here. I'm going to play a bit of Wow, maybe, although I am starting to get sleepy again. I'm off this weekend, so I'm pretty much sleeping for two days solid. Wee!
And that was my wonderfun trip to the ER. I really never want to do that again.