What a turn of events the last two days. I woke up at 3 am yesterday with a very uncomfortable pressure pain in my chest, especially when taking deep breaths, and also indigestion. I sat and contemplated what was going on for a few minutes and decided it might be something serious, so I called 911, grabbed my ‘to go’ bag, unlocked the door, put Joey in his crate and waited. I got a ride to Methodist Hospital ER in an ambulance where Ben met me and I spent the rest of the day getting poked and prodded and tested to figure out what was going on - symptoms were typical of blockage of arteries. I had chest X-ray, Covid, RSV, and Flu tests, EKG, Ultrasound of heart, and angiogram, and several doses of nitroglycerin. A heart attack and blockage of arteries have been ruled out but I’m still confused about the pain with deep breaths and that it dissipated with nitroglycerin.
I was admitted for observation and crashed once I hit the bed in spite of the person in the next bed who was loud, needy, and her tv and lights were on all night long but I was able to sleep through most of it. She is an impatient, demanding, sometimes rude, and grumpy lady.
The cardiologist visit this morning informed me that the pumping action of the muscle of the left side of the heart is weakened (can be age related) and an additional medication should help that. Follow-ups are scheduled a few weeks out with cardiologist and general practitioner. The next step is to investigate the esophagus and intestine because the pressure pain from those areas is similar to that of heart attacks. Deep breaths are still painful. What a day!
