<blog>
<twitter>
<ATOT feigns interest>
For a few days, I'd had a weird feeling in the general vicinity of my heart. Just a
very dull ache, barely quantifiable as pain. And a bit of pressure, like a very small and lightly-inflated balloon was stuck in my chest.
I finally called a doctor today, and they directed me to urgent care or the ER.
After the usual questions and "interview" from a doctor, I got an EKG, the chest X-rays, blood work, that fun stuff...and I've got no additional answers. I
don't have the results of the bloodwork yet though. I gave three vials of blood, got very light-headed and got close to throwing up on the friendly and pleasant nurse there, and was given in return a nice bag of grape Kool-Aid. Yeah, I'm a wuss with needles, especially when they stay in for awhile. (And dammit, it apparently leaves a bruise.)
Anyway, the doctor said I don't seem like an at-risk person. I'm 30, have no known family history of heart disease, at least that
I know of, which could possibly be a knowledge gap on my part, but no smoking, no drinking, no hookers
or blow. X-rays look fine, and nothing else that to says I'm about to croak and finally get to ride a Jesusaurus. And I feel otherwise normal, though I admittedly don't do much in the way of exercise.
So, I was sent home then...it just sucks not knowing any better now what's the deal than I did before. Ok, so the doctor said it doesn't seem like an impending heart attack. But what the heck
is this then? Grr. :\
Edit: Resting heart rate at urgent care was 80BPM. Walking up and down stairs here in the apartment for several minutes, it's about 112. Not exactly aerobic activity though. Chest feeling isn't changed much though.
Uhhh, blood pressure.... Systolic: 112mm Hg. Diastolic: 76mm Hg.
</improperly closed tags>
Update, July 15th: I ended up going to the ER last night, but everything still came up normal. The pain got a bit worse, and it expanded to include the region behind my sternum, as well as some lines of mild pain up my neck and along my left bicep.
I called the hospital, told them what was up. They told me very explicitly to hang up and dial 911. So I got to ride in an ambulance for the first time. They gave me a tiny nitroglycerin pill to see if that would help with the symptoms.
Sweet jesus god that
sucked. Under different circumstances, I would have assumed that I was very much on the path to a quick death. Once the nitro kicked in, my blood pressure
plummeted, my limbs went numb and were nearly useless, and I felt close to passing out while lying on the stretcher. The EMT commented that I must be extremely sensitive to it. The nitro did in fact help with the feeling of pressure and mild pain in my chest, though some of that was masked over by the general numbness and mental haziness.
Then at the hospital, they took at least 5 vials of blood - another blood pressure drop, though not as severe as the nitro tablet.
However, given the symptoms present, and the bloodwork, they also didn't see anything significantly wrong. The EKG showed that same
bundle branch block on the right side, which doesn't seem to be something that's cause for concern. Whatever it is, it evidently stands out like a 5' sore thumb, as it's just about the first thing anyone sees when they look at the readout. And my bloodwork is "stone-cold normal."
So, I've still got some kind of pressure/mild pain, but evidently there are no signs of any kind of heart issues, and anything else that would have turned up in a chest X-ray. They do want me to schedule a followup appointment for some ultrasound scans though.
And I got a prescription for some 600mg ibuprofen tablets.
Why exactly do they even prescribe an OTC drug like that? Can people not perform complex calculations such as 3 * 200?
I live to nef another day.