(no subject)
For those of you who did not know, I was just released from the hospital this past Tuesday. From the cardiac floor - one of the sections considered high-risk. This means I almost died. Wee.
So this is the story. On Wednesday/Thursday (10/27 and 28) I started to ache. The center of my chest hurt, and it was tough to take a deep breath. I dealt with it, but ended up calling out from work that Friday. I was stressed and felt like crap and just didn't want to go. That Saturday we had to get our ferret Elvis put to sleep. It was a very tough day for Jeff and I. I miss the little man like crazy. So I'd been crying a LOT and my chest pain had only gotten worse.
Sunday we went to the Pennsylvania renaissance festival and tried to put our worries aside for a little while. We both dressed up, and I ended up buying a corset. The funny thing is that this helped my chest pain - I couldn't take a deep breath with the corset on, and so it didn't hurt. That night I was okay.
I called out from work again that Monday, and ended up going to Patient First, a walk-in clinic. I got an EKG (checks how your heart is beating), an x-ray, and a blood test. I was terrified of needles and getting my blood drawn, so I cried and asked the nurse not to do it. Instead she gave me a finger stick and got blood that way. I was diagnosed with Costochondritis (inflammation of the cartilage around the sternum) and sent home. The doc said that if it got worse, I should go to the ER.
I worked the rest of that week, in pain. It seemed to move from the center of my chest to the lower part of my right lung. I was scared to go to the ER; I didn't want to call out of work again and I didn't want my blood taken. I did request off work the next Monday and Tuesday, just to give myself time to rest.
Early Friday morning, around 4:30 AM, I had a horrible pain in my chest. I couldn't get back to sleep for an hour and was coughing and miserable. After work, I had the same thing.. only much worse. I was in so much pain I was almost screaming. I decided it was time to go to the ER. I asked Jeff to feed the ferrets and we were off.
By the time I got there it didn't hurt any more, and I just wanted to go home. But Jeff insisted that we stay. So I went through the same tests - EKG and x-ray. Then it was time to get my blood drawn. I freaked out. The nurse was not amused, though she got a lot nicer when I started bawling like a baby. Jeff wasn't allowed back in the room with me so I was extra terrified. It took a long time, and two needle sticks, but she finally got the blood. I didn't pass out, but I cried a whole lot and it was not fun. The nurse loved me though, said I was the funniest patient so far, and offered to take my blood next time, if there was a next time.
Jeff and I sat around for awhile, and I filled out paper work, and then was called back to an ER room. There I had to get completely undressed and put on a gown. It made me even more scared because no one had told me what was going on yet. I had to pee in a cup which ended up being hilarious. I had peed not long before so there wasn't much there, and the nurse noted this. She was a tiny Asian woman.. and in her accent, said, "Oooh you have tiny pee pee!" It was awesome. She ended up putting an IV in me despite my protests. She said it would be better to have one just in case, and she was right.
So the doctor came in, and said that I was going to be sent for a CT scan. This would check for blood clots and such. For some reason I was pretty optimistic about this - there was no way I could really be that sick. It was not fun - I was set out in the hallway while they did a scan of another man's head. He threw up, a lot, from the contrast that he was injected with. So I got to sit in the freezing cold hallway, listening to him throw up. After that I got my injection of contrast. I was given a long list of side effect but had almost none of them - except feeling very warm, especially in the crotch and feet.
I was rolled back to my room and sat around awhile before the doctor came. And told me I had a blood clot in my lung - a pulmonary embolism. After freaking the fuck out for a bit there, they gave me drugs. I got fluids and some pain meds right through my IV and that was fantastic. They hit me almost immediately and I almost passed out. Around 4:30 in the morning, they moved me to my room on the cardiac floor. There I had a heart monitor attached to my chest, put in a special gown that could hold the monitor, and told all the things I couldn't keep with me. No cell, nothing expensive since anyone could steal it, etc. No showers, AND I couldn't even pee on my own. I had to alert a nurse any time I had to pee, so they could wait in my room to make sure I didn't collapse or something. Then they gave me a bedside potty. That was humiliating.
Okay so I've gotten tired of writing. So this is part one. I'll write more later.
So this is the story. On Wednesday/Thursday (10/27 and 28) I started to ache. The center of my chest hurt, and it was tough to take a deep breath. I dealt with it, but ended up calling out from work that Friday. I was stressed and felt like crap and just didn't want to go. That Saturday we had to get our ferret Elvis put to sleep. It was a very tough day for Jeff and I. I miss the little man like crazy. So I'd been crying a LOT and my chest pain had only gotten worse.
Sunday we went to the Pennsylvania renaissance festival and tried to put our worries aside for a little while. We both dressed up, and I ended up buying a corset. The funny thing is that this helped my chest pain - I couldn't take a deep breath with the corset on, and so it didn't hurt. That night I was okay.
I called out from work again that Monday, and ended up going to Patient First, a walk-in clinic. I got an EKG (checks how your heart is beating), an x-ray, and a blood test. I was terrified of needles and getting my blood drawn, so I cried and asked the nurse not to do it. Instead she gave me a finger stick and got blood that way. I was diagnosed with Costochondritis (inflammation of the cartilage around the sternum) and sent home. The doc said that if it got worse, I should go to the ER.
I worked the rest of that week, in pain. It seemed to move from the center of my chest to the lower part of my right lung. I was scared to go to the ER; I didn't want to call out of work again and I didn't want my blood taken. I did request off work the next Monday and Tuesday, just to give myself time to rest.
Early Friday morning, around 4:30 AM, I had a horrible pain in my chest. I couldn't get back to sleep for an hour and was coughing and miserable. After work, I had the same thing.. only much worse. I was in so much pain I was almost screaming. I decided it was time to go to the ER. I asked Jeff to feed the ferrets and we were off.
By the time I got there it didn't hurt any more, and I just wanted to go home. But Jeff insisted that we stay. So I went through the same tests - EKG and x-ray. Then it was time to get my blood drawn. I freaked out. The nurse was not amused, though she got a lot nicer when I started bawling like a baby. Jeff wasn't allowed back in the room with me so I was extra terrified. It took a long time, and two needle sticks, but she finally got the blood. I didn't pass out, but I cried a whole lot and it was not fun. The nurse loved me though, said I was the funniest patient so far, and offered to take my blood next time, if there was a next time.
Jeff and I sat around for awhile, and I filled out paper work, and then was called back to an ER room. There I had to get completely undressed and put on a gown. It made me even more scared because no one had told me what was going on yet. I had to pee in a cup which ended up being hilarious. I had peed not long before so there wasn't much there, and the nurse noted this. She was a tiny Asian woman.. and in her accent, said, "Oooh you have tiny pee pee!" It was awesome. She ended up putting an IV in me despite my protests. She said it would be better to have one just in case, and she was right.
So the doctor came in, and said that I was going to be sent for a CT scan. This would check for blood clots and such. For some reason I was pretty optimistic about this - there was no way I could really be that sick. It was not fun - I was set out in the hallway while they did a scan of another man's head. He threw up, a lot, from the contrast that he was injected with. So I got to sit in the freezing cold hallway, listening to him throw up. After that I got my injection of contrast. I was given a long list of side effect but had almost none of them - except feeling very warm, especially in the crotch and feet.
I was rolled back to my room and sat around awhile before the doctor came. And told me I had a blood clot in my lung - a pulmonary embolism. After freaking the fuck out for a bit there, they gave me drugs. I got fluids and some pain meds right through my IV and that was fantastic. They hit me almost immediately and I almost passed out. Around 4:30 in the morning, they moved me to my room on the cardiac floor. There I had a heart monitor attached to my chest, put in a special gown that could hold the monitor, and told all the things I couldn't keep with me. No cell, nothing expensive since anyone could steal it, etc. No showers, AND I couldn't even pee on my own. I had to alert a nurse any time I had to pee, so they could wait in my room to make sure I didn't collapse or something. Then they gave me a bedside potty. That was humiliating.
Okay so I've gotten tired of writing. So this is part one. I'll write more later.