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I was sure I was having a mild heart attack, the symptoms seemed pretty clear. Pain and tightness in my chest, shooting up through the left side of my neck. I was sweating and agitated and couldn't sleep.
When you walk into the ER and say the words "chest pain" they don't waste any time, lemme tell you! When they took my vital signs at the front desk, my blood pressure was 192/125!!! I was ushered through pretty damned quickly. Before I knew it I was on a bed in "curtains" down in the ER, with various machines and needles hooked up to me. A spritz of nitroglycerine cleared up the chest pain pretty quickly, and also gave me a crushing headache. The blood pressure medicine was given as an IV push. Blood was drawn. More blood was drawn. They did a chest film with a portable xray.
They got me down to 154/75 pretty quickly. Then it all got very quiet. No doctors. No nurses. No lunch. Warehouse. For what seemed like hours. But that damned automated blood pressure cuff came on every fifteen minutes like clockwork. I had my laptop with me, so I pulled it out and played Spider Solitaire for what seemed like hours.
I briefly got access to a portable telephone (I don't have, or want, a celly...), and was able to call my employer and my dad.
Late yesterday evening my blood pressure started going up a bit, and my chest was hurting again, so they gave me another sublingual spritz of nitro, to which I had an allergic reaction. My nose was running, and my eyes felt like burning sandpaper. It hurt to keep them open, it hurt to close them, and it hurt worst of all to blink. And they wouldn't give me anything but saline eye drops, which hardly helped at all. Another (scheduled) IV push of BP meds got my BP back in line, and it was back to the warehouse routine.
Finally, just before about 10 PM, I got wheeled up to a proper hospital room. I couldn't wait to plug my laptop into the phone line, AND IT WORKED! As soon as I logged on, four or five AIM boxes popped up, and I found myself spread very, very thin trying to reassure a number of overly-concerned friends that I was sorta okay. Tried logging onto the boards, but my eyes were still fucking killing me and I just had to shut it down after only a few minutes.
Sleep -- I didn't get much of it. The hospital bed had a terrible mattress. I can't sleep on my back, but any other position was impossible because they all bothered my IV port in my arm. Then I was awakened before 5:00 AM when they came in to take my room-mate's vitals, and shortly after that they came to take some more blood from me. 'Bout the time I fell asleep again it was time to take my vitals. Then more sleep. Then they came to take me down for a stress test, which seemed like hours of tedium punctuated by moments of claustrophobia.
With the tests done, I was returned to my room, where I waited, and waited, and waited some more. After an hour, I got up and walked to the nurses station to say: "Uh, hey, like, I'm the guy in 637, I've been back for an hour, I'm starving, my eyes are killing me, I'm not hooked up to any of my equipment, I'm starving, and no one's told me anything." 'Bout half an hour later someone showed up with some food and eye drops, and someone else re-connected the gear. I tried surfing the boards again, but couldn't get into it 'cause my eyes still hurt.
After a few more hours of warehousing, a nice nurse came in and whispered that she shoudn't say anything, but she'd just heard I'd be checking out soon. I couldn't tell if I was getting the bum's rush out of there, or if it was good news, 'cause no one had told me anything about any of my test results. Finally, a couple of hours later, the doctor finally appeared, and very briefly told me I was checking out, then explained that my blood enzymes and chest xray were good, indicating that I had not had a heart attack, and no blockages could be found. BUT, my blood pressure and serum cholerterol were both way above the acceptable range. I was given a long list of prescriptions, a number to call tomorrow to make an appointment for an office visit, and unceremoniously sent on my way.
When you walk into the ER and say the words "chest pain" they don't waste any time, lemme tell you! When they took my vital signs at the front desk, my blood pressure was 192/125!!! I was ushered through pretty damned quickly. Before I knew it I was on a bed in "curtains" down in the ER, with various machines and needles hooked up to me. A spritz of nitroglycerine cleared up the chest pain pretty quickly, and also gave me a crushing headache. The blood pressure medicine was given as an IV push. Blood was drawn. More blood was drawn. They did a chest film with a portable xray.
They got me down to 154/75 pretty quickly. Then it all got very quiet. No doctors. No nurses. No lunch. Warehouse. For what seemed like hours. But that damned automated blood pressure cuff came on every fifteen minutes like clockwork. I had my laptop with me, so I pulled it out and played Spider Solitaire for what seemed like hours.
I briefly got access to a portable telephone (I don't have, or want, a celly...), and was able to call my employer and my dad.
Late yesterday evening my blood pressure started going up a bit, and my chest was hurting again, so they gave me another sublingual spritz of nitro, to which I had an allergic reaction. My nose was running, and my eyes felt like burning sandpaper. It hurt to keep them open, it hurt to close them, and it hurt worst of all to blink. And they wouldn't give me anything but saline eye drops, which hardly helped at all. Another (scheduled) IV push of BP meds got my BP back in line, and it was back to the warehouse routine.
Finally, just before about 10 PM, I got wheeled up to a proper hospital room. I couldn't wait to plug my laptop into the phone line, AND IT WORKED! As soon as I logged on, four or five AIM boxes popped up, and I found myself spread very, very thin trying to reassure a number of overly-concerned friends that I was sorta okay. Tried logging onto the boards, but my eyes were still fucking killing me and I just had to shut it down after only a few minutes.
Sleep -- I didn't get much of it. The hospital bed had a terrible mattress. I can't sleep on my back, but any other position was impossible because they all bothered my IV port in my arm. Then I was awakened before 5:00 AM when they came in to take my room-mate's vitals, and shortly after that they came to take some more blood from me. 'Bout the time I fell asleep again it was time to take my vitals. Then more sleep. Then they came to take me down for a stress test, which seemed like hours of tedium punctuated by moments of claustrophobia.
With the tests done, I was returned to my room, where I waited, and waited, and waited some more. After an hour, I got up and walked to the nurses station to say: "Uh, hey, like, I'm the guy in 637, I've been back for an hour, I'm starving, my eyes are killing me, I'm not hooked up to any of my equipment, I'm starving, and no one's told me anything." 'Bout half an hour later someone showed up with some food and eye drops, and someone else re-connected the gear. I tried surfing the boards again, but couldn't get into it 'cause my eyes still hurt.
After a few more hours of warehousing, a nice nurse came in and whispered that she shoudn't say anything, but she'd just heard I'd be checking out soon. I couldn't tell if I was getting the bum's rush out of there, or if it was good news, 'cause no one had told me anything about any of my test results. Finally, a couple of hours later, the doctor finally appeared, and very briefly told me I was checking out, then explained that my blood enzymes and chest xray were good, indicating that I had not had a heart attack, and no blockages could be found. BUT, my blood pressure and serum cholerterol were both way above the acceptable range. I was given a long list of prescriptions, a number to call tomorrow to make an appointment for an office visit, and unceremoniously sent on my way.
go!!!! 
