A Celtic Blessing

May the road rise to meet you,
may the wind be always at your back,
may the sun shine warm upon your face,
may the rains fall soft upon your fields.
Until we meet again,
may God hold you in the hollow of his hand.

Friday, 10 October 2008

The heart of the matter

How did a simple trip to the doctor turn out like it did?

I have been having chest pains off and on for about 3 weeks. While I was away, I had one night that was really bad, so rang the doctor to get an appointment. I had the appoinyment on Wednesday morning, just after finishing the night shift.He examined me, and sent me back to the hospital for a chest Xray and an ECG, as well as blood tests. He also gave me a couple of squirts from a spray he carries to see if it would ease my chest.

So back to the hospital I went. Half way there, the pains in my chest got really bad, so I just put my foot down to get there as soon as possible. When I got there it has eased slightly, so I went for the Xray first. Then I went for the ECG.

I was still having pains in my chest after the spray. I told them that my chest was hurting, so guess what? Thwey gave me a couple more sqirts from the same spray! And guess what happened half was through the ECG? Yes - the pains came back and then all hell broke loose! They were giving me oxygen, taking blood, and goodness knows what, and I was panicking which was making everything worse! Then they started takiung me down to A&E, but half way there, someone came and told the porter that A&E would not take me, and I was wheeled back to the ECG room! Then finally, I was taken to the Coronary Care Unit, where I was left hooked up for 4 hours while they made sure.

Finally, at about 2, I was wheeled down to a ward for overnight observation. The tests all came back negative, and I had 2 different explanations of what might cause the pain. One was that it was an infection of the muscles around my heart, the other was that it was a muscular-skeletal problem. In was put in a medical and elderly ward - and the guy ion the enxt bed seemed tro spend all his time raving about how terrible the goveernment was and how badly the hospital was run. I found out it eventually that it was because they would not do his washing for him!

Finally on Thursday morning, a consultant saw me. He thinks I have a gastric problem, and I am on medication for a month to see if that works. I finally got out at 1 on Thursday. I was still wearing the uniform that I had sone the night shift in - it looked like it had been slept in (because it had been). I worked out that between Monday morning and Thursday afternoon I had had about 12 hours sleep. As a result, I was worn out, and was given a lift home.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Oh my Nik! Please let us know how things work out with that medication.