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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsMy terrible horrible no-good very bad weekend
began Thursday morning
I was going to a more-or-less routine mnorning doctor visit and then I planned to grade exams all day
Doc: How are you feeling?
Me: Well, not so great: my feet are swollen, and I'm tired and I'm having trouble breathing
Doc: Here: wear these wires a minute
Doc: Hmm. I'm calling EMS
Me: Look. I'm planning to go on vacation after I finish grading my exams. Could we call EMS when I get back in two weeks?
Doc: Um, no
Me: Look. I've really got a lot to do today. Could we call EMS after I run just a few errands?
Doc: Um, no
Three docs (standing around me in a circle): We think you're having a heart-attack. We'll do our best but can't make promises: you could die. Which hospital would you like to go to?
Me: Maybe the one three or four blocks down the road?
EMS: Off we go!
Surgeon: We're going to have you wear this lovely hospital gown.
Surgeon: Holy shit! A completely blocked coronary artery! What size stent?
Friendly ICU staff: Hi! Welcome to ICU! What's your name? What's your date of birth? Do you know where you are? Do you know why you're here?
Me (able to tell them everything because I've been conscious the whole time)
Friendly ICU staff: Well, now you get to lie flat on your back for three days without lifting your arms or bending your legs!
SarasotaDem
(217 posts)I had to go through the same
struggle4progress
(118,290 posts)struggle4progress
(118,290 posts)Friendly ICU staff: We need a blood sample
Me: OK
Friendly ICU staff: Here take these pills
Me: OK
Friendly ICU staff: We need flush this port with saline
Me: OK
Friendly ICU staff: Somebody or other ordered this magnesium drip
Me: OK
Friendly ICU staff: We need a blood sample
Me: OK
Friendly ICU staff: We need flush this port with saline
Me: OK
Friendly ICU staff: Here take these pills
Me: OK
Friendly ICU staff: We need a blood sample
Me: I think you're just stockpiling my blood
Friendly ICU staff: Yup. That's what we do here
Friendly ICU staff: Here take these pills
Me: OK
Midnight Writer
(21,768 posts)I would think the best thing for a convalescing patient is peaceful rest.
Demovictory9
(32,457 posts)Midnightwalk
(3,131 posts)They never really stopped believing in blood letting and leeches but thats embarrassing. So they hide it by pretending its for blood tests.
Just a theory.
Glad youre doing ok. Get better.
struggle4progress
(118,290 posts)LakeArenal
(28,819 posts)Phoenix61
(17,006 posts)If youre going to have a heart attack the place to do it is in the doctors office or the hospital. Hope you have fully recovered.
struggle4progress
(118,290 posts)SWBTATTReg
(22,130 posts)struggle4progress
(118,290 posts)Lars39
(26,109 posts)Get better asap! Your vacation will be all the sweeter now.
MyOwnPeace
(16,927 posts)get those exams graded!!
But seriously, hope all's going well - glad you were at the right place at the right time!
PS: Your story is much more dramatic than Alexander's!
cate94
(2,811 posts)Scary weekend.
bullimiami
(13,095 posts)struggle4progress
(118,290 posts)Our medical frontliners are a blessing
orleans
(34,053 posts)struggle4progress
(118,290 posts)not to depress coronary nerve/muscle function further, to avoid change of further inadequate-oxygen-related damage to heart and/or other critical tissue
(1a) let's crank up the O2
(1b) let hope to get everything as close to normal again ASAP
(2) The less they give you in terms of unnecessary drugs, the less there is to undo later and the less there is that can go wrong
(3) They can do this as a minimally invasive procedure -- so take advantage of that!
bullimiami
(13,095 posts)All in no time flat.
Amazing.
struggle4progress
(118,290 posts)coronary arteries: this time, I think it was all done by exterior scans (CAT? ultrasound?) while they slid the stent into place up through the circulatory system
It really is frickin "Gollee! Mr Wizard!" stuff
orleans
(34,053 posts)bullimiami
(13,095 posts)No need to put you under.
Hassin Bin Sober
(26,330 posts)I know a few people whose first sign of heart disease was a coffin.
struggle4progress
(118,290 posts)Scrivener7
(50,950 posts)Take care of yourself.
dawg day
(7,947 posts)Can you resume the vacation?
struggle4progress
(118,290 posts)Demovictory9
(32,457 posts)struggle4progress
(118,290 posts)KT2000
(20,581 posts)amazing how it all worked out - good dr. too.
struggle4progress
(118,290 posts)MLAA
(17,296 posts)Husband had heart surgery two years ago.
This is the best book I found it is a must read. If you are interested direct message me and I will send you a copy.
https://www.amazon.com/Prevent-Reverse-Heart-Disease-Nutrition-Based/dp/1583333002
struggle4progress
(118,290 posts)Niagara
(7,620 posts)aware of the problem.
Take it easy and get well soon!
struggle4progress
(118,290 posts)Solly Mack
(90,769 posts)Hope all is well!
TygrBright
(20,760 posts)struggle4progress
(118,290 posts)The wind scatters the leaves on the ground
but the live timber burgeons with leaves again
in the season of spring returning
So one generation of men will grow while another dies
Homer (translated by Richard Lattimore)
Pepsidog
(6,254 posts)ancianita
(36,060 posts)So there's that, right?
GoneOffShore
(17,340 posts)struggle4progress
(118,290 posts)Much later: there's quiet conversation about a patient coding
Later still (perhaps the next night): somebody is gently stroking the hair on my forearm
Hekate
(90,708 posts)He was offloading things from his truck into his garage and had a sharp persistent pain around the back of his shoulder thought hed strained a muscle, and went to his nearest doc in a box. Next thing he knew he was in an ambulance on his way to have 2 or 3 stents put in his heart. Scared the crap out of him hes got 3 kids he and his wife are still raising.
So follow the doctors orders, and get well and stay well.
LittleGirl
(8,287 posts)Some had been there so long, his heart grew around them. They were old school design so faulty. He got his first at age 32. The youngest guy in CCU.
He passed away 2 years ago at age 57.
The new ones are better. Rest up. Youll be fine!
struggle4progress
(118,290 posts)of former days have been replaced by the better tools of today
I'm really sorry about your brother
LittleGirl
(8,287 posts)Skittles
(153,164 posts)I guess if I was having trouble breathing I would not consider it a routine visit?
get well!
struggle4progress
(118,290 posts)but when I walked in I thought I was having an unrelated asthma attack
burrowowl
(17,641 posts)Karadeniz
(22,526 posts)Imallin4Joe
(758 posts)Fla Dem
(23,677 posts)This was an already planned Dr. visit. From what you related, not sure you would have picked up the phone and called your doctor or gone to the ER. Had you not been in the Doc's office already, you could have had the attack at home and who knows how it would have turn out.
Somebody's watching over you for sure. Glad it turned out OK.
Maine Abu El Banat
(3,479 posts)You had a great weekend, your life was saved. Take care.
struggle4progress
(118,290 posts)but I'll overlook it this one time on account of that she saved my life
NJCher
(35,677 posts)going to the routine doctor's visit to have your heart attack. Wow.
yardwork
(61,622 posts)struggle4progress
(118,290 posts)though I can't presently remember if we've ever actually met in person
Response to struggle4progress (Original post)
yardwork This message was self-deleted by its author.
Grins
(7,217 posts)The correct answer: The one(s) that will take your insurance.
Because if they dont...!!!
- Do you know what hospitals in your area accept your insurance?
- On vacation in another state - know the hospitals near your hotel that will accept your insurance?
In my case I know of 2 good local hospitals that will.
On travel? Nope! Not a one. Because you never think about it....
struggle4progress
(118,290 posts)would take my insurance: one was about three minutes away, and one about six minutes away, so there wasn't much of a choice except, well, what's fastest to get to?
onecaliberal
(32,861 posts)JudyM
(29,250 posts)So glad youre ok...
A family member had a minor car accident, saw a doc for the related headaches, and they found a brain tumor. If she hadnt had the minor accident she very likely wouldve died from the brain tumor.
Fortune steps in sometimes. Timing is everything.
struggle4progress
(118,290 posts)struggle4progress
(118,290 posts)Well, sort of
They're taking out the pump around 9:30P
Four hours after they take out the pump, they're going to let me roll over on my side
Maybe sometime Sunday they'll actually let me out of bed
struggle4progress
(118,290 posts)I google my condition on the web: it seems there's about a 90 minute window between 911 call and appearing in the newspaper with "massive heart attack" beside your name
struggle4progress
(118,290 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)You are lucky that you were in a doctor's office while this was occurring and close to a hospital. I am so sorry for your ordeal. How are you feeling now?
I wish you a solid recovery and I hope you have a lot of support around you. Take care of yourself and please check in to let us know how you are doing. Wishing you all the best!
struggle4progress
(118,290 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)I am glad they caught you in time and I hope you and your doctors can turn this around. It is possible. I wish you a long and healthy life. Please take care of yourself and follow doctor's orders. We would miss you very much if you weren't here.
struggle4progress
(118,290 posts)once had as its masthead many many years ago: to plow to pray and to plant is to prophesy
I have had the good fortune to spend this last weekend surrounded by people who in some sense practiced "Love your neighbor as yourself" with a cold-eyed professional realism: doctors, nurses, case workers, janitors, food prep folk -- a nice seamless team
I learned so much from them, even as I teased and heckled them for watching over me like hawks 24/7
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)I wish you all the best and may you be blessed with good health going forward!
TexasBushwhacker
(20,192 posts)Stephen Colbert just lets him go ...
struggle4progress
(118,290 posts)Them: You could die
Me: OK. Life isn't permanent. Just do your best
Rhiannon12866
(205,467 posts)What a scary time for you - but a lucky one, too! So glad to hear you had a checkup when you did and they caught this when they did - and that you're back with us again! Please take care of yourself, okay?