Qaddafi's Exciting ER Adventure
So I ended up in the ER yesterday, making it the worst first day of the new semester ever. Here’s how it went.
I’m during my last class of the day, Intermediate Algebra, and I suddenly start getting chest pains. Now, I’ve had these before, I have a swallowing disorder. (Basically, food gets lodged part way down, clogging stuff up and generally being quite painful.) A few years ago during summer, I had the chest pains all the time. Since then, I’ve had them 2 to 3 times a year.
At any rate, the standard chest pains are annoying and painful, but I’ve had them enough that they’re not that big of a deal. I get through the rest of my class and head back to my office. Literally, the moment I get back to my office, my chest pains suddenly get a lot worse, to the point where I couldn’t stand up straight and I starting having problems breathing.
I go to the Math Lab (it’s right next to my office and I figure, if I’m going to collapse, better do it where other people can see, just in case). Turns out to be a good thing. My breathing gets worse as the pain increases, and one of the Math Lab guys calls 911. The fire department show up with an ambulance, I get put on oxygen and they put me on a stretcher. I’m barely coherent, just enough to tell them to grab my wallet, where my insurance card is. (Yes, even in the throes of extreme pain, I’m worrying about how much it’s gonna cost.)
I get my first ambulance trip (although, since I took my glasses off, I couldn’t see much). I get put on an IV, get weird, metal things strapped to my chest, and we get to the hospital. At this point, my chest pains have decreased a bit, from a 10 on the pain scale down to an 8. There’s at least 4 nurses or doctors checking things and putting more things on me (more weird metal things, a blood pressure sleeve, some wires whose purpose I still can’t guess, etc) when I get to the ER room.
I’m there for about two and a half hours total. I get asked at least four times if I’m a student, to which I correct them (and as soon as I say I’m a math professor, they all tell me how bad they were at math; but that always happens). I’m told that my division head followed me to the hospital (she saw me as I was being wheeled out of the building), and she offers to go back to school and grab my cell phone, coat, and car. Which is way nice of her, and if anyone has a good of what I should get her as a thank you present, I’m open to suggestions. And, once I have my cell phone, I call my parents and assure them I’m not dead.
So, now that it’s all over, I’m been diagnosed my an inflammation of my esophagus (I’ll look up the name when I get home; I’m back at school right now), been given some huge pills, and been told not to do anything remotely strenuous. So, I guess that means no doing cartwheels to try and get my students to wake up :)
And that’s pretty much the end of it, except I have a doctor’s appointment this afternoon, so I’ll see if I learn anything new. And, on the up side, I have a great excuse to not exercise.
I’m during my last class of the day, Intermediate Algebra, and I suddenly start getting chest pains. Now, I’ve had these before, I have a swallowing disorder. (Basically, food gets lodged part way down, clogging stuff up and generally being quite painful.) A few years ago during summer, I had the chest pains all the time. Since then, I’ve had them 2 to 3 times a year.
At any rate, the standard chest pains are annoying and painful, but I’ve had them enough that they’re not that big of a deal. I get through the rest of my class and head back to my office. Literally, the moment I get back to my office, my chest pains suddenly get a lot worse, to the point where I couldn’t stand up straight and I starting having problems breathing.
I go to the Math Lab (it’s right next to my office and I figure, if I’m going to collapse, better do it where other people can see, just in case). Turns out to be a good thing. My breathing gets worse as the pain increases, and one of the Math Lab guys calls 911. The fire department show up with an ambulance, I get put on oxygen and they put me on a stretcher. I’m barely coherent, just enough to tell them to grab my wallet, where my insurance card is. (Yes, even in the throes of extreme pain, I’m worrying about how much it’s gonna cost.)
I get my first ambulance trip (although, since I took my glasses off, I couldn’t see much). I get put on an IV, get weird, metal things strapped to my chest, and we get to the hospital. At this point, my chest pains have decreased a bit, from a 10 on the pain scale down to an 8. There’s at least 4 nurses or doctors checking things and putting more things on me (more weird metal things, a blood pressure sleeve, some wires whose purpose I still can’t guess, etc) when I get to the ER room.
I’m there for about two and a half hours total. I get asked at least four times if I’m a student, to which I correct them (and as soon as I say I’m a math professor, they all tell me how bad they were at math; but that always happens). I’m told that my division head followed me to the hospital (she saw me as I was being wheeled out of the building), and she offers to go back to school and grab my cell phone, coat, and car. Which is way nice of her, and if anyone has a good of what I should get her as a thank you present, I’m open to suggestions. And, once I have my cell phone, I call my parents and assure them I’m not dead.
So, now that it’s all over, I’m been diagnosed my an inflammation of my esophagus (I’ll look up the name when I get home; I’m back at school right now), been given some huge pills, and been told not to do anything remotely strenuous. So, I guess that means no doing cartwheels to try and get my students to wake up :)
And that’s pretty much the end of it, except I have a doctor’s appointment this afternoon, so I’ll see if I learn anything new. And, on the up side, I have a great excuse to not exercise.