My apologies for no posting yesterday but I had an excellent reason.
I woke up yesterday morning not feeling the best. I took the dog for his walk and then went for my walk but I was very short of breath and shaky so I came back to the RV and asked Gordon to look for a hospital nearby. We wound up at Bethesda Warren Emergency here in Lebanon at around 8:30 a.m. They were great people. I had five people working with me at once. At one point they gave me a morphine cocktail which made me really high and very sleepy so I slept most of the day.
They took me in right away, took all kinds of blood tests, EKG but they didn’t have a CT scan machine (they are moving in two weeks and will have it then) so they sent me to their hospital in Cincinnati, Bethesda North by ambulance. This was also my first ambulance ride. I went into Emergency at around 1:00 p.m. at Bethesda North, got my CT scan and thought I would be released. In fact one of the clinicians had said that since my CT scan was normal that I would be released. Then the doctor came by and said that my insurance had approved my overnight stay for observation and a stress test in the morning. They finally fed me. I hadn’t eaten all day, not even breakfast. They brought me some really tasty chicken noodle soup!
This was my first time staying overnight in a hospital. Imagine. 57 years old and never been in the hospital for anything serious. I consider myself to be extremely lucky!
Good things about staying in a hospital:
- They wait on you hand and foot
- They have really good cable TV
- They have an adjustable bed
Bad things about staying in a hospital:
- They take too much blood
- They wake you up to take more blood
- They wake you up to take blood pressure
- They starve you until your tests are finished
This morning they told me that my stress test would be at 10:30 a.m. and that I couldn’t eat until after the test so by the time the stress test was done and the heart photos done (this was done by nuclear medicine) and I got back to my room it was well after noon so I got lunch. Then about 2:00 p.m. I had to go back down for more heart photos, then back to my room to wait for results. About 5:15 p.m. the day nurse, Beth (really nice girl and really young) came in and told me that my stress test and photos were completely normal and that she had a call into the cardiologist for instructions but she felt that I would be going home today. The cardiologist came and talked to me, said all my tests were completely normal, he had no idea what the problem was and to increase my Nexium (I have GERD) to twice per day. For those of you that don’t know GERD is Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease. There is a possibility (probability in my opinion) that this is what has been causing my breathing difficulties and shortness of breath. I got released about 6:00 p.m. I have to say their food was pretty good when I finally got to eat but maybe it was because I was starving! I've never told the same story over and over and given out my birth date more often.
So, now I’m home, it’s hot, about 83F at 7:30 p.m! There’s talk of a thunderstorm tonight but it’s supposed to be a really nice day tomorrow.
Needless to say, we didn’t see Carol yesterday but plans are to go to her place for dinner tomorrow night. Unfortunately Lillian has a bit of a fever and Ian and Tracy have plans this weekend so we probably won’t see them until we’re in Columbus next week.
Sorry, no photos today.
Oh my gosh! I hope you're feeling ok now, Sandra. That's quite a scary thing, and when travelling you never know what you'll get in a hospital, but that's great to hear they were so good to you.
ReplyDelete57 years is a pretty good record for not staying overnight in a hospital. I have a 30 year-streak and counting.... :)