Dubious Achievements

On the morning of Friday, January 30, I walked down to my doctor's office to get some fasting blood work done. As I walked, I felt a bit gassy and had some acid reflux going on, but that isn't particularly unusual for me first thing in the morning before breakfast. After finishing that, I was watching a bit of TV while eating breakfast and then dozed off for a minute. When I woke up, I got up to put away my dishes and was immediately dizzy. I get that sort of head rush dizziness after standing regularly, but this was something different.

Level 10 Dizziness Unlocked

Unlike my normal this didn't go away after 5 to 10 seconds, but lingered. I stumbled my way to the kitchen, managed to put away the dishes and then went upstairs to the bathroom thinking it was some sort of gastrointestinal distress. By that time I had developed cold sweats as well. As I sat, based on family and personal medical history, I googled heart attack symptoms. I didn't have the most classic of the symptoms (chest pain) but there was enough there that I was concerned. After finishing up in the bathroom, I went to my room and laid down for a minute before deciding that this was more than some stomach virus and I should get to the hospital.

A quick call to 911 later and an ambulance was on the way. I unlocked the front door, sat in the front entrance, left a pathetic message for my mom, and waited. Eventually sitting on the bench in my front entrance was uncomfortable so I sat on the floor. The ambulance finally arrived, breakfast came back out, and they took me off to the General.

Ambulance Ride Unlocked

The ride was short, but along the way they inserted an IV (on the first try), gave me some anti-nausea medicine, and did and electrocaridogram. It sounded like there was something unusual, but not concerning on the ECG. Once I arrived, I was on the gurney in the hallway for a few minutes before I eventually got a room. They took my vitals, did another ECG, and hooked me up to monitoring. My mom arrived and we waited.

I slowly started to feel better. The dizziness persisted for hours but was abating. Eventually, the ER doctor saw me, talked to me about what happened, had me do a weird maneuver with my head to look for inner ear issues, and ordered blood work. The phlebotomist arrived and was surprised to discover that I had the same birthday as she did.

Birthday Twins Unlocked

Unfortunately, she either dropped a vial into the sharps disposal or failed to draw a vial, so she had to poke me twice, but that's not a big deal. She said I'd be fine because September babies are tough. A little while later, they moved me to the chairs instead of a room. At that point, it seemed likely that I would be discharged soon and get to go home.

After sitting in the chair for a while, trying and failing to get a bit of rest, I wandered off the the patient bathroom. On my way back, I ran into the ER doctor. One of my cardiac enzymes was high, so they were moving me back to a room, putting me back on the monitors, and running repeat blood work. If the enzyme went up further, they'd be admiting me to the cardiac surveillance unit.

Existential Dread Unlocked

There was another couple of hours of waiting until they could run the repeat tests. I got the same phlebotomist and she was so sweet. She even bought my mom coffee, a sandwich, and a cookie. After the test results came back, they gave me some medication to take and sent me up to the CSU. There, they shaved a bunch of my chest, arm, and leg hair to hook me up to monitors and get me ready for a possible angiogram the next day. They also took out the IV that the paramedic put in and inserted one in the other arm because they needed to free the right arm for the angiogram. I got settled and sent my mom home while I finished the half of the sandwich she didn't eat and had some blue jello that the hospital provided.

Shortly after I finished eating, the nurse came to check on me and then there were three nurses checking on me and then they were asking me how I felt and if I felt like I did in the morning and if I was experiencing any shortness of breath or any chest pain or a racing heart and I wasn't, at least not until they started asking me all these questions and were looking a bit nervous. They consulted with the doctor and gave me more of one of the drugs (a beta blocker), put me on supplemental oxygen, and gave me magnesium via IV and told me that if that didn't help that they might have to move me to the critical care unit where they could give other drugs that they couldn't in this ward. That certainly didn't help calm me down. The idea of ending up in the CCU was terrifying to me.

Existential Terror Unlocked

Between the noise of the IV pump, the worry, the uncomfortable hospital bed, the monitoring leads, and the various alarms, I didn't get a lot of sleep that night. I think I finally gave up around 4 am at which point I waved at the nurse and she took my vitals. They didn't end up sending me to CCU and I didn't have any more strange heart rhythms.

Saturday was mostly about waiting. My mom, brother, sister, and some friends visited. I got a chest x-ray and an echo cardiogram and, eventually, it was my turn for an angiogram. I got to chew some aspirin before hand (which is surprisingly tasty) and also got diazapam which made me very sleepy. I dozed off for a bit while I waited for them to take me. Eventually they rolled me down to the procedure room where I shuffled over to the actual procedure bed. They prepped my right arm and my groin with antiseptic and drapes, put oxygen on me, and gave me fentanyl and something else and the next thing I remember I was back on the ward.

They were able to go through an artery in my arm to do the procedure (that's preferable to going through a vessel in the groin) so I had a pressure bandage on my right wrist. It looked like a clear plastic box with a tube coming out of it and strapped in place with a white strap that reminded me of Velcro. The wound that it was covering was actually very small, just a couple of millimeters. For the next couple of hours, I was hooked up to monitoring and every 15 minutes they'd reduce the pressure on the bandage. While that was going on the phlebotomist came in and, as one arm was being used for monitoring and the other had a pressure bandage on it, had to draw blood from my foot instead - my new least favorite place for a blood draw.

Foot Needle Unlocked

After a couple of hours, the pressure bandage was removed and replaced with a normal dressing and I got to eat. The hospital food wasn't as bad as I remember it. Mind you, most of my previous visits involved not eating at all, so that's not a high benchmark.

The night passed uneventfully and the next morning I talked to the cardiologist. While I already knew, that was the first time that anyone said the words.

Heart Attack Unlocked

I had a heart attack. It appears to have been a relatively minor one. They put in one stent and the angiogram didn't show many other concerns. The echo cardiogram also didn't show any heart damage. After chatting with me, the cardiologist wrote up the discharge orders and just before he was going to let me go, he changed his mind and decided I should stay for one more night to make sure the strange heart rhythms didn't reappear with more activity. Because the heart monitors only work on the ward, I couldn't go very far, but I was able to get some steps in.

Nothing showed up over night, so I got to go home. Surprisingly, the nurse doing my discharge also had the same birthday as me.

Birthday Triplets Unlocked

Discharge instructions were mostly around medication and wound care. I was also told not to drive for two weeks and to take one month off work. I should also follow up with my family doctor after about a month and with my cardiologist in three months.

Three weeks on, I'm feeling okay. I tire out a bit more quickly although it's better than it was when I first got home. I've gone on plenty of walks, done some baking, visited my farmers' market friends, and did a tiny bit of work one morning. (Well, I've also read work email as well, but I've mostly avoided anything else.) I haven't really missed work and I think it's going to be hard to go back. My doctor recommends that I work 3 days a week and only 4 hours a day for the first three weeks, so it will be a gradual transition back, so I'll see how it goes.

Really, that's about all I can say about anything coming up. I'll see how it goes. I'll just hope for no more emergency room visits or bad news from doctors.