I woke up Thursday morning with my eyes matted shut. After putting in my Restasis eye drops they still felt horrible so I looked into the mirror and the whites were all red - like I was hung over ! Gez I missed the fun... I was lethargic and it took me forever to drag my sorry butt around to get ready for our little 3.5 hour trip to our son's home in St. Paul. While taking my shower I couldn't hold my arms above my head so I bent over to wash my hair. This way my arms didn't have to be raised. I also had to steady myself in the shower by leaning on it. I was dizzy.
We didn't leave until 2 pm. So much for beating the rush hour traffic up there. I continually drank my hydration water, 3 quarts total that day, not counting at least that much in plain water. I also had a banana on the way up there. I took 2 Loperamide as well as 2 more before the fruit smoothie made with another banana for supper. They had brats and beer. Supper for me was late as I didn't feel well at all. I kept feel worse as the day went on.....until I told them "I think I might be having a heart attack" I looked up my symptoms and had about all but the sweating one. My chest hurt, shoulders, back headache, dizzy, nausea and so forth....My husband and son took me to the hospital and my daughter in law stayed home with the baby. My son gave my husband directions and we got lost. (I could have died! Insert laughter, this is the story of my life.) My son the big shot engineer with 2 degrees who has lived there 10 years has to call his wife and ask for directions. I get on my smart phone and look it up and hand it to him and say would this help?, he said "yes", lol. It is funny now.
I found out you get in quick when you have a heart attack, no insurance cards, no medication listings, nothing. My name, local number, my peoples names and what meds am I allergic to was all that was required. My EKG was fine. Then things slowed down. They took blood, hooked me up to blood pressure and the finger cuffs and the doctor came in. I told him I didn't have a colon and how bad I'd felt all day. Then I found out that if your shoulders hurt when someone, like a doctor, touches them that means you are NOT having a heart attack. Good news, I hope Medicare pays this ER bill, is what I thought. I'm on Medicare as I'm disabled and the reason is another rant.
He ordered a bag of saline solution and I wasn't going to argue with that. My legs were looking like alligator skin. By the end of that bag of solution my headache was gone and my legs were looking good.
My blood work came back that my electrolytes were normal? After further investigation I found that my salt was just 1 point into normal and my potassium was the same 1 point. I had my second banana for the day in my late supper smoothie. So I figure that my body was dehydrated when I thought I was having the heart attack and hadn't quite metabolized food yet. The doctor understood why I'd come in. He said I was slightly lower than normal Albium reading pointed to malnutrition but that wasn't surprising as I didn't have a colon. I compared it to my lab work last year at Mayo and I wasn't low then. So I will see what it means at my appointment next month as these labs will be sent there. I don't look and my scale proves I'm no where near malnourished.
I told the doctor I didn't have my colon BUT I didn't tell him I had a j-pouch or an ostomy either. When he examined me I realized later he just listened to my abdomen on the left side! I guess he didn't want to run into a bag, lol.
I'd listened to Rosie O'Donnell talk about her heart attack on a TV show and she waited too long to go in and is lucky to be alive. She said if you think you are having one to go in and I still would do it over again. It was scary and I'm no spring chicken at 58.
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