THE TITLE IS: NO HEART ATTACK LEFT BEHIND

I mentioned that on the way back from Tampa on Monday Wave had to rush me to the emergency room when we got back into Melbourne. On the way back we were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic and I seriously, though I did not say this to keep from worrying Wave, thought I was going to die in the middle of traffic, in a car, and my most overwhelming thoughts were about how terrifying this would be for her to experience. I actually prayed that if I was going to die let me at least make it to the hospital. We got back to Melbourne around 12am. I was having really bad chest pains from when we left Tampa until we got into Melbourne. Over the past few weeks I have been having on and off again left arm and chest pains but these pains that happen on the way home in the car, these were continued and extreme.

We got to the E.R. and rushed in and was passed from one person to the other talking about how bad I was feeling and how much insurance I did not have. Wait, check and arm pains, doesn’t this usually signal emergency! We sat for about twenty minutes watching the news on the local fires and I tried to act like I was ok, I wasn’t, I was feeling terrible. When I was finally taken in they asked me to undress myself, took my blood, hooked me up to some monitoring machines, and grilled my scared ass about the scales of pain I was feeling (well, I would say a scale of being IN PAIN!) and they got angry whenever I wasn’t precise or didn’t answer quickly or gave one person a different level of pain than another. Sorry, I apologize, but I THOUGHT I WAS HAVING A HEART ATTACK!

This entry will be long and it may get ranty just to let you know. I would have written this the night I got out of the hospital but if I had it would have mostly contained a lot of FUCK YOU! And EAT MY HAIRY ASS comments and we just don’t need that do we.

After seeing nurse after nurse and doctor after doctor asking me the same questions over and over again (do these people talk to each other?) and all this time my blood pressure was sky high, this taking place for about two hours before they told me they would be keeping me for observation and admitting me. But every time I thought insurance will not matter and that they are taking this as serious as with anyone and considering my family history I do not know how they could not, they would show me by me over hearing or by actions that even though there were others there in the same state, for the same reason I was, I was different, I did not have a little card in my wallet that said I mattered, that I existed. Though I do have a Friends Of Doctor Who membership card from the 80’s in my wallet. Dam, I should have shown that.

Wave did not want to but I finally convinced her to go home and try and get some rest since they were admitting me. She left, I worried about her getting home having had no sleep, drove all the way home from Tampa, and with all the fires raging around the county. After Wave left they told me they would be getting me a room as soon as one was available and then I would be doing a day of stress tests to see how I would react to my body being stressed, they didn’t mention how my mind was being stressed being incased in this treatment of being ignored at a price cut attention scale. The ER was empty for the most part and quite expect for a few people with the same problems as myself.

An hour or so later they moved me not to a room, even though someone with a mild stomach ach and insurance I heard was moved to a room, someone who came in after me, I was moved to another room in the back of the E.R. where they took my blood again and did not look my way for hours. Though I was asked if I wanted something to eat and I told them I was hungry and thirsty having not eaten all the previous day because I did not feel well, even though I keep telling them I was having arm and chest pains still, I sat and listened to nurses take some kind of test on their computers, go get snacks, talk about how they did not understand why the doctors signed off on keeping me, go get breakfast, and all while I sat in my room terrified, thirsty, and hungry.

I told them I was hungry again but no breakfast ever came. They said sometimes they forget people being keep in the E.R. Ok, I understand, how ingracious of me to ask.

I heard them say I was going to do my first stress test at 3pm and then my last at 10pm and if it showed no heart damaged I was being, “D.C.’d out.” I tried to text Wave but could not get a hold of her because my phone did not get much of any sort of signal within the hospital. Again I mis-thought that they would do everything they could not make sure I was ok because I keep telling them, though it was not the same continued pain that I was having in the car on the ride home, I was still hurting.

At 11am they took me to the nuclear place where they injected me and took pictures. They keep me there I heard before leaving the E.R. so they didn’t have to get me a room, could inject me again soon, stress me, and then take more pictures, and get me, “D.C.’d.” out of their hair. Luckily for me their procedure after the treadmill run was to give you a small snack and drink. So for the first time since arriving at the hospital at midnight, even though I was told I could have food and drink if I wanted and I said I did, several times, I got half a cup of apple juice, and a small sandwich.

After all that they sent me back to the E.R. around 3 pm where Wave was waiting. We keep hearing over and over that they wanted to get me D.C.’d quick. I sat in the room unplugged still having pains in my chest from time to time until near 5pm with only having drank a half of cup of apple juice since getting into the hospital and a small turkey sandwich. I wanted to get out of there quick to get something to eat. They finally let me go after the bill person came by.

Here is the kicker folks. As the nurse was taking out my I.V. tube, which they never gave me an I.V. with, though the E.R. doctor did originally ask for one, the nurse did not inform me of a great reason the doctors did not think it was not a heart attack besides the fact that I wasn’t having one currently and they did not see any severe damage, she told me in her medical opinion that all of this was caused because I did not shit enough. Did I state that clearly enough? Based on nothing except for the fact that my stomach was rumbling, I wonder why, and that my stomach was tight, I wonder why, I was rushed to the E.R., I had chest and arm pains, I had been having these symptoms for a few days, and she thinks it is just BECAUSE I NEED TO SHIT MORE!

My chest still hurts sometimes, my arms hurts but have no fear, I just need to shit…..which by the way, I do plenty.

Did I leave anything out? Oh, just the fact that unless I’m actually on the floor somewhere dying I’m going to tell everyone there is no point taking me to the doctors, I have no insurance, just point me to the nearest W.C.

C.

THE TITLE IS: NO HEART ATTACK LEFT BEHIND