health

Hello all.  This has been a pretty lousy weekend, so far.  It started yesterday.

Actually yesterday started out pretty good.  It was unseasonably cool yesterday.  I made a run to the CB Recycling center to dump a load of tree branches that I’d picked up at church, then to Home Depot, Best Buy and Bed, Bath and Beyond.  As I was driving home, I became aware that I was experiencing some discomfort.

Now, time for an aside.  Beginning back in 1999, I’ve had a bunch of experiences where I’ve experienced chest pains.  I’ve gone to the ER a few times, spent the night in the hospital on one or two occasions.  Generally speaking the end result is, nothing was wrong, at least with regards my heart.  I spent several years seeing an electro-cardiologist.  And there IS a slight issue with my heart, but nothing that was considered threatening.  About every two years or so, I end up in the ER, and each time, nothing.

So, when I experience discomfort like I did yesterday afternoon, I tend not to react very quickly to it.  I got home, spent some time doing odds and ends.  Then I cleaned out the refrigerator.  By the time I was done, my chest was really beginning to hurt.  “Some discomfort” no longer described what I was feeling.  So I went upstairs and lay down.  That was a bad idea.  As soon as I was prone, I really, really began to hurt.  I spent about 10 minutes in bed, but during that time, my jaw began to ache, my left shoulder began to hurt.  My left hand began to lose sensation… not numbness, just less sensitive.  And the fingers tingled slightly.

So, I called Scott, told him I was going to the ER.  Then got dressed and drove up to Jennie Edmundson, our local hospital.  The staff there responded very quickly.  They did x-rays and drew blood.  Finally they gave me a breathing treatment with Albuterol and then a nitro glycerin tablet.  Scott arrived about an hour after I did.

This time, the pains were different.  And they were far, far worse than I’ve ever experienced before.  Through most of the time I was there, I felt like my heart was in a vice.  I estimated my pain level at between 7 & 8, sometimes receding to a 6.  But, periodically throughout, I’d also get sharp jabbing pains in my chest that approached a 9… some of the worst pain I’ve experienced.  We did finally begin to notice that the pain was worse when I was prone or near prone, and receded when I sat up.  During these jabbing pains, I’d either not be able to breathe at all, or only in short ragged gasps.

After about 3 and a half hours they sent me home.  And once again, no real diagnosis.  The discharge papers say: “Musculo-Skeletal Pain” and “Chest Pain (Non Specific)”.  They did give me a codeine/tylenol medication, and a prescription for more of them.  Scott had to drive me home, then walk back to the hospital to get the truck.

The rest of the evening I sat in front of the TV, dosing off now and then, thanks to the codeine.  At 10 we went to bed, and I took another codeine to help sleep.  During all this time, the pain really had not receded very much, though the “vice-like” pain was now in the 6 – 7 range.  At 3 I woke up, fighting for breath, and in extreme pain.  So I got up, took another codeine, then slept on the recliner so I could be sitting up a little.  Sleep from here on was fitful.  I spent some time awake on the computer, and some just resting.  I dozed fitfully.

When Scott got up at 8, I was just coming to from a nap.  Pain this morning was bad.  I’ve been experiencing cold sweats, and a little nausea.  But now, as the afternoon progresses, the pain is almost completely gone.  I think now I’m just coping with the after effects of the narcotics.  I took the last codeine at about 8 a.m.  At 11 I took Advil.  So, I’m hoping I’m on the mend now.

These “episodes” have never lasted this long before, been this painful, or been accompanied by such a range of symptoms.  And we still don’t have any real idea what is happening!