Another Visit to the ER

Well it happened again.  Chest pain over several days leading up to a combination of chest pain, upset stomach, dizziness and a cold sweat- the combination all happening in church in Jacksonville.  It was sufficiently worrisome for me to check in to the Emergency Room at the Mayo Clinic .

Several EKGs, blood works, chest x-rays and an echo  cardiogram  stress test later the doctors found nothing wrong with my heart. 

So I spent about 24 hours in the ER.  I did receive good service while there.  I got right in with no wait.  All the Mayo people were friendly and competent. (they all loved living in Jacksonville, too).  I did experience chest pain once while there and within 2 minutes there were 5 people in the room to take care of me.

I was visited by the whole family while there.

The best I can figure is that I had a combination of an upset tummy from taking my pills on an empty stomach – sore chest muscles from moving around a big ladder when putting in Karen’s surveillance cameras and a flare-up of a chronic soreness in my rib cage.  Everything just came together to present me with 4 or 5 symptoms that could be a heart attack – and that all the advice out there says you should not ignore.

This is the 3rd or 4th time I’ve gone to the ER with Chest pain.  Each time my body does just enough different that I can’t discount the symptoms. At least this time I got a clean bill of health from the stress test.  It actually provides video of the heart muscles in action and should show any lack of blood flow to the heart.  I thought it was neat to see my heart beating.

Today, Thursday, I am still having periodic chest pain but it is easily identifiable as those sore ribs.  The pain is not accompanied by any other symptoms of dizziness or upset stomach.   So I think I’m OK.  But all those stories of men getting told they were OK and then suffering a heart attack  are out there to haunt me.

There’s nothing like the feeling of waking up at 3 AM with chest pain and wondering if it is significant or not. 

I don’t feel silly for getting things checked out and no one in the hospital made me feel that way.  I just didn’t like spending 24 hours in bed hooked up to an IV and blood pressure cuff. 

Hopefully I won’t have this issue again.