Do NOT scare me like that!

[seawasp]

I got considerably less writing done today than planned.

I spent considerably more time in the ER than planned. (The latter number being "zero")

Kathy woke up today with pain in her shoulder/breast area. Ibuprofen didn't touch it, and it became tightness in the chest, difficulty at times breathing, and radiating to the back, difficult to lift the arm, etc. Many of you can figure out what THAT sounds like.

On the positive side, when you walk into an ER and say "Chest pain and difficulty breathing" it's AMAZING how fast people rush you through the usual "fill out this form, wait there, go through triage" circus.

Final outcome: apparently Kathy's developed a nasty indigestion/reflux and had somehow twisted/injured her shoulder sleeping. But that was not a fun few hours.

Comments

[shana.livejournal.com]

Arrgh!

{{{hugs}}}

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

Yike! I am glad things worked out as well as they did.

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

Oh, and for the record, you also get hurried through triage very quickly when the presenting complaint is "rapid onset of hives, hoarseness, and wheezing."

[shana.livejournal.com]

Copious bleeding seems to work, too. Or maybe it was just a slow day.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

Whoosh! Glad it came out okay.

[aardy.livejournal.com]

Another one that short-circuits triage is vomiting into a handy bucket right in front of the admitting desk after drinking Fierce Grape Gatorade, so one's lips and tongue are the perfect shade of anoxic blue when the nurses come running.

(On the other hand, sudden-onset lower back pain so bad I couldn't sit upright in a wheelchair simply netted me a 4 to 5 hour wait in the seating area, and getting to watch everyone else get seen first.)

[howardtayler.livejournal.com]

I'm glad things turned out okay.

It was just over nine years ago that I went into the hospital with the same basic symptoms and they kept me in intensive care for three days.

NOT FUN.

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

Unconsciousness got me bumped to the head of the line, though after they determined the reason behind the fainting spell (apparently, blood test + medical fast = nighty-night) they took their time getting rid of me.

-- Steve's just glad that this case turned out to be a lot more innocuous than it first seemed too.

[kayshapero]

Did the same thing once - turned out I'd just strained a pectoral muscle but I think I scared my poor husband out of a year's growth. You're right - I barely SAW the waiting room.

I am so glad to hear you are both OK.

[kayshapero]

On the other hand, I once sat there for over an hour with a broken arm. To be fair, they were bringing in people from a car wreck, at least one of whom had their head wrapped up in gauze. Made me a lot more patient than I would have been otherwise. (No, I wasn't in the wreck. I was playing pingpong and had a spiral fracture from a sudden encounter with a stone fireplace.)

[ziactrice.livejournal.com]

So glad she is okay. I have called not one, but TWO different older men out with heart attacks in PROGRESS at work by knowing that bad indigestion + profuse sweat and tired irritable = likely having heart attack RIGHT NOW. Neither one believed me at work, both drove themselves to the ER after work (and 4-5 hours more suffering). Both had had heart attacks. One was kept for 2 weeks, because he had to have an operation and a shunt installed.

Neither one ever said thank you, or so much as spoke to me again. That's gratitude in the Real World.

Me, I only go for stitches. 42 when I was five - split my scalp down to the skull turning cartwheels on concrete. 23 when I was 12, dragged under a merry-go-round, and 13 when I was 16 - went face-first off a swingset into gravel by courtesy of a caught belt-loop at a very bad second. My mother's comment on the way to the ER, "I thought you'd outgrown this by now." Thanks, mom!

Grin. Haven't been back since, though.

[the-blue-fenix.livejournal.com]

One, good call on going Right Then with those symptoms. Thousands don't.

Two, glad all is well.

I had a pulled muscle in the left pectoral area for a while, which at first I thought might be my heart too. But I also had a self-operating blood pressure cuff in the house, and when it showed normal BP I felt pretty safe at diagnosing myself.

The ABSOLUTE trump card for getting to the head of the ER line is "he was released from the hospital yesterday after a mild heart attack." My dad. One quadruple bypass later, he's fine.

[brownnicky.livejournal.com]

Glad it was nothing more serious- scary.

[fatbaldguy60.livejournal.com]

Whew! Somehow the relief when things turn out right never quite balances the OMGWTF of when you don't know.

[julesjones]

I am extremely glad to hear that this turned out all right.

[thette.livejournal.com]

That is because, to be honest, unless your back pain is coupled with loss of sphincter function or paralysis, it can wait a day and not get worse. It may not feel like it, but it's not an emergency.

scarey...

[bigbananaslug.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah. Them's the magic words in the ER...along with, OMIGOD I'm bleeding!

Sincerely glad everything came out fine, though.

[burger-eater.livejournal.com]

As soon as I saw that it was a woman with shoulder pain, I got very nervous, and I'm glad she's doing okay.