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Where do I begin.  Things had been a bit hectic lately, and we had been so busy at work this time of year, and the days sometimes just seem never to end.

Friday morning I did an early shift, got home at 10am, was really tired and so just kinda bummed around and rested, I just really did not feel quite right, but was not sure what was wrong, so I just put it as being overtired from a long day, a long week at work.  By evening time, I did not want to do anything, did not want to talk to anyone, just lay there, felt so tired, but could not sleep, and it continued on through most of the night.

I woke up at 3am in the morning, I laid there for a little while, then about 3:30 I got up and played some slots on my laptop, and messed around on computer a little.  I then began to feel a slight ache on the left side of my chest, kinda on side of breast under arm mostly, it went slight over to my upper left arm, at first I did not think too much of it, as I had been having this off and on for at least two weeks now, and had just blown it off.  So again, told myself, just let it go.  It went away for a little while, then it came back about 5am, and this time it did not go away, it was constant, and it was beginning to concern me, about 7am I got up to make myself a cup of tea and had gotten a bit dizzy at the store, I then told myself, this is not right, so I went to the phone and I called Kaiser and talk to them, they asked me all kinds of questions about how breathing and etc, which I was breathing just fine, just the ache, not sharp pain, but the ache would not go away. While they had me on hold to talk to a doc, went over to turn off fan, and used left arm as other was holding phone, and after did, it ached a little more, so when she came back on I told her this.  They told me to have my older son to take me to the emergency room, so he did, while walking out to car, felt out of breath just a pinch, and on way to ER, I felt the ache a slight more, then eased up a little again.

We got to the ER, and they took me right in, and started undressing me, hooking me up to a blood pressure machine, putting an Iv line in, and went and got an EKG machine to do a test.  Wow, so much already I thought, till later, found that was nothing, within a minute they had me in a blue 7 room, and they were hooking me up to all kinds of machines, cords attached to my chest, blood pressure on my arms, oxygen to my nose,  IV’s put in. I asked them to allow my son to come in, and he did.

Within a couple minutes a doc came in with a nurse and he asked if ever had a EKG before, told him did not think so, then he said they had to treat this as a change since no record to check from before, then all of a sudden he was telling me he was giving me an aspirin, and two Tylenol as they were gonna give me Nitroglycerin and this could cause a headache and the aspirin would help. Wow, you talk about a headache so fast, and the pain was better but not gone, so he had her give me another one, and within a moment, my headache was so bad, don’t think I could of felt if arm had been cut off…lol, Then the other things began, medicine to try and keep my blood pressure from going too low as Nitro does this, then they gave me a shot in the stomach to make sure no blood clots would arise. Wow, could hardly breath from all they were doing.  The doc said he did not think a heart attack but maybe a mini warning sign of something going on, or gonna happen later date, so wanted to keep me in the hospital for a couple days, then another doc came in and was saying not sure what it was, soon another EKG was done, they said 2nd was better then the first, but thought Hell Ya, you got all of this crap hooked up to me and me a drugged up…lol,

The family all came to visit, love them for that, and they finally went home as look like I was just gonna sit in this small ER room forever. The nurses came in and gave me what called a Nitro patch, so it stays on your chest to help you, and really that was much better, cause the Nitro pill have to put under tongue and dissolve, and it tastes like crap…icky..

Finally about 8pm they took me to another section, ER yellow 7, and I stayed there, which was much better bed instead of hard gurney, and they had a TV could turn on instead of looking at walls and listening to all the nurses chatter for hours.  I was still hooked up to all kinds of things, and they were coming in about ever 4 hrs to give me Tylenol cause the headache just would not go away, and about every 6 hrs taking blood, gosh, never knew had so much in me…lol, and then the good ol shot in the stomach.  My daughter came by the next morning, I was off doing a treadmill stress test at time, and when I finished the cardiologist said that I had no blockage, so that was good new, but believe me I was exhausted, then back to my room. After about another hour, the doc came in and said they did not think it was a heart problem, maybe like a muscular skeleton problem, and me, thinking…what the hell is that? , I asked why they did so much crap to me then, kept me chained up, poked at, and etc. He was very nice and explained, that to be safe, they had to treat it as a possible heart problem until all of the tests came back, and I could understand that.

So my daughter came and brought me home, thank god, I wanted to come home so bad, even Sat eve, laying there alone, not able to sleep, listening to the nurses outside at the station buying on eBay, I was about to cry, I wanted to go home!

I stayed home for the next couple of days, just to rest, then today, was up getting ready to go to work at 10am, and did not feel the best, I was dressing and had a little trouble catching my breath, but continued onwards, as I got to work and was walking in, I was losing my breath fast, just felt weak, but time got to the office, they looked at me and said you look pale, cant breath good, go home, call doctor, so I did, and they almost sent me to ER again, but had a reg doc appointment at noon, so I went to it, and finally someone could explain what was going on…

She told me that if I had not already gone to the hospital and had all of the test, she would of sent me to ER also, but as went once, had all things done, and they said heart was fine, she told me she looked into it, and then she checked me, and turns out I have like an inflammation of the joint areas that connect the ribs to the breastbone, so when you move or do certain things, it pulls, and those joints don’t move like our arms and legs, so your tugging on them as they are a bit tender from the inflammation, so pain, and just happens to be in left side of chest area, and the breathing has to do with same, the ribs cant do what all they want when need to breath a little deeper from doing things, so lungs cant expand enough, so short of breath…

I was so happy for someone to finally tell me all this, and she said to take like 6 Advil a day to get rid of the inflammation, (which if hospital had told me this, would of already had 3 days worth in me), and in time would get better.  Also told her cant sleep well lately and felt drained, so she told me the Sleep pill hosp gave me, ( and it did not work tried it 2 nights in row) to go ahead tonight and take 2 of them and if that don’t work, then she gave me prescription for something stronger…

But the long and short of it, oh my gosh, it was such a scary ordeal, being hooked up to machine, Iv’s, oxygen, needles pushed into stomach every so oftern EKGs done a few times, and taking pills that give you a Hell of a headache, God I feel sorry for anyone who has to go through that, and really mine was nothing, compared to ones who actually have a full heart attack, I feel for them, I really do. I am grateful all the test showed my heart is fine and dandy, now I will work to keep it that way, cause I never want to go through that again..NEVER!!

God bless anyone who has ever had a heart attack and all that you went through during it, and blessing to all others, that you never have one…

Maybe needed to vent, not sure, but had to get this all out of my head, one less stress, one reason to keep hearty and healthy..