The Scariest Moment of My Life:
What happened last night. Deb and I were watching Extreme Makeover the Home Edition when I began having some pressure in the middle of my chest. It began to spread upward to my neck, jaw, teeth, ear and then under my left arm; all in a matter of two minutes or so.
I went to the bedroom to lie down and try to get it to lay off me. I thought it was reflux as this has happened before. I drank a bottle of water hoping it would help. It always has in the past. Well it made things worse.
It went away for a few minutes and came back worse. And again it went away and came back to stay longer. All the while I was thinking about my friend Hoo; who had a bad heart attack last year. I then asked Deb to take me to the ER. And she did.
They admitted me right away to CCU. They did the normal blood work for enzymes to see if I had had a heart attack. They did this four times about 3 hours apart. They put a nitroglyercin patch on my chest and that stopped the pain but not the pressure. That scared me that the pain responded to the nitro.
So I spent the night in CCU hooked up to monitors and sleeping comfortably in spite of being disturbed so many times. I was NPO so they could do a chemical stress test. I can't do a treadmill because of my legs so they had to inject a chemical which makes the heart beat fast and hard like exercise.
I had chest pain all through it and thought I would die of it when I reached the maxium beats per minute so they could do the echo with contrast. I looked up a few times, thought it was cool and looked away. That was the worst and most scariest pain ever.
Good news I did not have a heart attack and my heart is fine. The docs said it probably is gastro, reflux or gall bladder stuff. So I follow through with my doctor.
On the way to the hospital, I touched Deb's hand and asked her to tell my children how much I loved them.
__________________
I went to the bedroom to lie down and try to get it to lay off me. I thought it was reflux as this has happened before. I drank a bottle of water hoping it would help. It always has in the past. Well it made things worse.
It went away for a few minutes and came back worse. And again it went away and came back to stay longer. All the while I was thinking about my friend Hoo; who had a bad heart attack last year. I then asked Deb to take me to the ER. And she did.
They admitted me right away to CCU. They did the normal blood work for enzymes to see if I had had a heart attack. They did this four times about 3 hours apart. They put a nitroglyercin patch on my chest and that stopped the pain but not the pressure. That scared me that the pain responded to the nitro.
So I spent the night in CCU hooked up to monitors and sleeping comfortably in spite of being disturbed so many times. I was NPO so they could do a chemical stress test. I can't do a treadmill because of my legs so they had to inject a chemical which makes the heart beat fast and hard like exercise.
I had chest pain all through it and thought I would die of it when I reached the maxium beats per minute so they could do the echo with contrast. I looked up a few times, thought it was cool and looked away. That was the worst and most scariest pain ever.
Good news I did not have a heart attack and my heart is fine. The docs said it probably is gastro, reflux or gall bladder stuff. So I follow through with my doctor.
On the way to the hospital, I touched Deb's hand and asked her to tell my children how much I loved them.
__________________