I'm Back -- Thanks, Everyone

Well. Alright then. Not at all the way I had things planned. Good grief!

Let's hit the rewind button, shall we?

Yesterday, the 23rd, was Master's birthday. We should have been celebrating, and in fact, that is what we were in the process of doing on Sunday afternoon when the evil chest pain monster landed on me... we were out shopping for new birthday duds for Himself.

So, before we launch off into the horrors of hospital emergency rooms and the evils of hospital food -- or the lack of same, could we just take a few minutes here to

CELEBRATE THE BIRTH OF A GOOD AND WONDERFUL MAN WHO LOVES AND CARES FOR T AND I AND A WHOLE BUNCH OF OTHER PEOPLE TOO -- THE WORLD WOULD BE A MUCH POORER PLACE WITHOUT YOU, SIR!!!

There. It surely wasn't the celebration that we would have wanted thanks to my little misadventure. Blech! He commented, as we sat there hour after hour in the emergency room bay, that it was a good thing He hadn't paddled me that morning and left me all marked up... The prospect of shopping for new clothes had deterred even His avowed spanking self from the usual routine... So, there hadn't been the almost guaranteed Sunday morning spanking, and surely no "birthday" spanking...


I was as close to "pristine" as I usually get for my little parade through the medical environs these last couple of days.

Ah well...

Shopping. I'd actually had a bit of a spell earlier in the morning, fixing scones for breakfast -- just a sudden sharp pain in the chest. It surprised me, but passed quickly and I didn't think much of it, although I did gasp and mention it to Him. Since I have no history of any heart problems, and really no predisposition to any sort of problem that would cause any of us to worry about me in that sense, we really didn't think much about it.

We ate breakfast and headed out to shop. Master is a whirlwind in a clothing store. It takes both T and I and an entire staff to keep up with Him as He flies from one thing to another grabbing and flinging as He goes. I was having pretty continual heaviness and pressure in my chest through the entire time, but wanted to not interrupt or disrupt the outing -- He does have such a good time. At one point I stepped outside for a few minutes, making some excuse, and feeling like I just needed to get into the air to breathe. I didn't stay out long and no one was the wiser. We did get through our shopping and back to the car and headed off.

Normally, when it is the three of us out together, I ride in the back seat. I think that the two of them were thinking about stopping somewhere for lunch, but I couldn't hear the conversation, or didn't hear it. I just wanted to lie down and take the pressure off. I really felt like if I could get flat, things would feel better. I wasn't thinking too clearly, and I didn't consider what I would say about WHY I was reclining in the back seat. The minute I went down, T said something about "what was wrong with sue," and Master began to question me about it. He wondered if I had a headache at first. I knew that if I told Him my chest was hurting, we would be off to the races and the whole day would be ruined, but I couldn't think of any other answer and didn't want to lie to Him either.

I tried to make it sound non-consequential -- like it was "no big deal." Just a little tightness and pain... Yeah. Right. No matter what I said, the die was cast, and we WERE headed for the hospital from that point on. He was unshakeable and absolutely immoveable.

We got to the emergency room and He never left my side. We got through triage and registration and all the other stuff. They did pry me away to take me for an EKG and blood work and an X-ray (swearing that there was no space for anyone but me), but the minute I reappeared, He was right there, holding onto me and making sure I didn't take a single step unsupported. Poor T was battling a migraine, and neither of them had had anything to eat for far longer than is good for them. They just kept shaking their heads in disbelief -- I'm the HEALTHY one! It just isn't right!

Eventually, they got me into a bay back in emergency and continued to mess around with me. We sent T home to rest, since there was very little that anyone could do, and she was feeling just miserable with her headache. Master began to predict that they WOULD likely admit me, and as it turned out, He was correct. Somewhere late in the evening, around 7:30 or 8:00 they made the decision to keep me for tests and observations, and moved me to another "bay" in the emergency department since the hospital was "over capacity." We called T and gave her the news and she brought sandwiches and soup and a small cooler of drinks, since both of us were starving by that time.

They continued to monitor me and began to treat me with Nitro-glycerine. That did stop the pains very quickly, but soon caused terrible headaches -- so they gave me morphine for that pain... which caused me to drop into fitful and restless sleep -- still on the same gurney I'd been on all night. He stayed with me in the emergency room until sometime after 1:00 in the morning, and then, exhausted, finally left to go home and get a bit of sleep.

At about 2:30 in the morning a big burley fellow named Al, came and moved me to another emergency ward room -- this one had an actual bed and things were a little quieter. I crawled off the gurney, and fell back to sleep. More morphine assured I wasn't going to be dancing any jigs. They stopped the Nitro at some point because the bottom dropped out of my blood pressure readings. I'm normally a pretty low pressure gal anyway and with the nitro and morphine, I was coming up with readings like 77/47... I wasn't sad to see the stuff gone. It was making me feel yucky.

Early yesterday, I did a stress test. No chest pains at all. A few more during the day, but far fewer than on Sunday. I slept a lot. Had to beg for food. They finally moved me from ER to the telemetry floor at 2:30 in the afternoon. At 3:30 I got a snack, and at 5:30 I got a dinner tray --- my first official hospital food in 24 hours.

At 6:30 I saw the first doctor. Head of cardiology. He told me that everything looked pretty normal; some minor changes in the EKG during the stress test, but that they often see these in the female population of "a certain age." :-p Anyway. His thinking is that this is possibly an esophageal issue and not a heart issue. Apparently they present with the same symptoms. I will have to follow up in a couple of weeks, and we'll see where we go with all of this.

So. I'm pretty well. Considering. So glad to be home. Glad this turned out to be only scary and really not significant. Woke up in His arms this morning. Had a bit of a romp before sending Him on His way... All good. Today there have been a couple of twinges of whatever, but way more mild than on Sunday. I'll be back in the classroom tomorrow, and life will go on.

Thank you all for all the good words and good thoughts and good energies. As T says, you are the best!

Hugs, swan