Omaha's heart
Early Tuesday morning, I woke out of a deep sleep to a pain in my chest. The first thought that came to my mind was that I had spent too much time with my shower massager the night before and pulled a muscle. I tried to ignore it, but it wouldn't go away, no matter what position I lay in. Finally, I got out of bed and downed some ibuprofen and tried to go back to sleep.
But the pain wouldn't go away...it just stayed there, annoying me, then worrying me. I finally sat up in bed and grabbed my iPad and started surfing. You know for what...for what anyone would have surfed for. Heart attack symptoms. I looked at them all for a bit, then finally thought "I'm going to feel really stupid, but I'll call the nurse's hotline anyway just in case." While I was waiting for the nurse, I started to feel dizzy, then nauseated. That was enough for me.
elfs , who was already awakened by my talking on the nurse's line, leapt out of bed and dragged on some clothes. I told the nurse when she came on the details, and she agreed that the hospital was the place to go. She was interested in transferring me to 911 right there, but I told her that I had a ride and we were 5 minutes away from the nearest hospital. I'm afraid that I told our housemate, lisakit , who was walking up the stairs to see what was going on at the time, "I think I'm having a heart attack, we're going to the hospital, see ya." Poor girl!
The ER staff was great. They did the required EKG, gave me nitroglycerin tablets, hooked me up to every contraption that pings, and determined that other than my chest pain, they couldn't find anything wrong. I was convinced that it was just a muscle pull at that time, but the doctor wanted to do a chest x-ray and blood work just to be sure.
Time passed, nothing happened. It was almost 5 am, and I wanted to get some sleep before the kids had to get up. I was ready to just skip the blood work and x-ray and go home. Just then, the nurse to do the blood work arrived. I mentioned how I really didn't see that this was necessary. I gave me a brief talk about why the blood work could show something even if the EKG didn't, and at the same time the guy with the x-ray showed up. I decided to go for it. I found out later that he almost didn't even talk to me about it...I was so stoic and laid back about the whole thing, and there was absolutely nothing in my history to account for a heart attack, that he was ready to just say, "yeah, if you don't want it, no problem" and walk out.
Good thing he didn't, cause the blood work showed I had a "myocardial event". And what the hell is a "myocardial event"? It seems to be a catch-all phrase for "your heart did something weird but we can't pin it down." In the end, even the cardiologist couldn't tell me what happened, whether I had a minor heart attack or not. But he wanted to do an angiogram to see what my heart and vessels were like. So they admitted me and I spent most of the next day in the hospital being probed, eating bland food, and sleeping.
They still don't know what happened. But I know I have wonderfully clear blood vessels. I also have the coolest looking heart on a live monitor.
Basically, in an angiogram, they stick a catheter up a blood vessel in your groin area (I'll take a break now as everyone winces, and every man grabs that most precious of packages). They must have really loved me, because I didn't move a muscle, even when they stuck me, and was fascinated by the monitor. I guess that's what they get for doing an angiogram on a needle slut.
Now I get to take three different kinds of medication on top of the meds I already take. Joy. The prevailing theory of what happened is that the nasty cold I had all week, that was so debilitating that I got exhausted just reading my email, may have actually caused some damage to my heart. I'm not sure if it is permanent, though. I've got a followup coming in about a week to find out.
And, yes, I was supposed to rest today. All I did was laundry. And I had a meeting tonight. It wasn't much. Most of my time was spent in bed playing games, writing notes, and writing reviews.
But the pain wouldn't go away...it just stayed there, annoying me, then worrying me. I finally sat up in bed and grabbed my iPad and started surfing. You know for what...for what anyone would have surfed for. Heart attack symptoms. I looked at them all for a bit, then finally thought "I'm going to feel really stupid, but I'll call the nurse's hotline anyway just in case." While I was waiting for the nurse, I started to feel dizzy, then nauseated. That was enough for me.
elfs , who was already awakened by my talking on the nurse's line, leapt out of bed and dragged on some clothes. I told the nurse when she came on the details, and she agreed that the hospital was the place to go. She was interested in transferring me to 911 right there, but I told her that I had a ride and we were 5 minutes away from the nearest hospital. I'm afraid that I told our housemate, lisakit , who was walking up the stairs to see what was going on at the time, "I think I'm having a heart attack, we're going to the hospital, see ya." Poor girl!
The ER staff was great. They did the required EKG, gave me nitroglycerin tablets, hooked me up to every contraption that pings, and determined that other than my chest pain, they couldn't find anything wrong. I was convinced that it was just a muscle pull at that time, but the doctor wanted to do a chest x-ray and blood work just to be sure.
Time passed, nothing happened. It was almost 5 am, and I wanted to get some sleep before the kids had to get up. I was ready to just skip the blood work and x-ray and go home. Just then, the nurse to do the blood work arrived. I mentioned how I really didn't see that this was necessary. I gave me a brief talk about why the blood work could show something even if the EKG didn't, and at the same time the guy with the x-ray showed up. I decided to go for it. I found out later that he almost didn't even talk to me about it...I was so stoic and laid back about the whole thing, and there was absolutely nothing in my history to account for a heart attack, that he was ready to just say, "yeah, if you don't want it, no problem" and walk out.
Good thing he didn't, cause the blood work showed I had a "myocardial event". And what the hell is a "myocardial event"? It seems to be a catch-all phrase for "your heart did something weird but we can't pin it down." In the end, even the cardiologist couldn't tell me what happened, whether I had a minor heart attack or not. But he wanted to do an angiogram to see what my heart and vessels were like. So they admitted me and I spent most of the next day in the hospital being probed, eating bland food, and sleeping.
They still don't know what happened. But I know I have wonderfully clear blood vessels. I also have the coolest looking heart on a live monitor.
Basically, in an angiogram, they stick a catheter up a blood vessel in your groin area (I'll take a break now as everyone winces, and every man grabs that most precious of packages). They must have really loved me, because I didn't move a muscle, even when they stuck me, and was fascinated by the monitor. I guess that's what they get for doing an angiogram on a needle slut.
Now I get to take three different kinds of medication on top of the meds I already take. Joy. The prevailing theory of what happened is that the nasty cold I had all week, that was so debilitating that I got exhausted just reading my email, may have actually caused some damage to my heart. I'm not sure if it is permanent, though. I've got a followup coming in about a week to find out.
And, yes, I was supposed to rest today. All I did was laundry. And I had a meeting tonight. It wasn't much. Most of my time was spent in bed playing games, writing notes, and writing reviews.