What a difference a day makes

I chose the title 'what a differencea day makes' for this blog because Thursday night I went to work at my building feeling fine (I work as a security guard in an office building alone) and the next morning I was in the hospital. Around 2:00 a.m. I was checking the floors when I got a stomach ache. At first I thought it was no big deal but then the pain got much worse. My stomach and chest was hurting and I began to get short of breath and started shaking uncontrollably. The pain was terrible. I called my supervisor to say I wanted to go home but I had to wait until he could find someone to relieve me. Eventually someone came so I called 911.

When I got to ER an EKG was taken and it was abnormal. The doctor said that I looked like someone who was about to have a heart attck. The only thing was I also had a severe pain in my upper abdoman/stomach area, which he said was atypical for heart attacks. Also I had no pain in my left arm. They gave me 3 nitro pills which helped the pain. Then it started hurting again so I got a shot of morphine, which REALLY helped. That's great stuff, btw. I was admitted to the cardiac unit of the hospital. I was released last Tuesday afternoon.

The doctors thought it was either my heart or my stomach. I had a complete heart workup done. They did an echocardiagram of my heart, which was amazing. I actually got to see my heart pumping on an imaging screen. I did a stress test where you have to run on a treadmill for as long as possible while pictures are taken of your heart. I was able to last 11:43 minutes on the treadmill, which I was told was really good. I had no chest pain after. They also put a scope into my stomach to take pictures and a tissue sample. They don't have the results of the biopsy yet.

The good news is the doctors concluded I had no heart problems. My abnormal EKG was due to the pain in my stomach. They think I had a gastritis attack, which is due to acid buildup in the stomach. That can cause severe pain. I'm on medicine to coat my stomach. I'm still waiting for the biopsy results because it's possible I had some kind of bacteria in the stomach which might have been the cause of the problem. At first they put me on a liquid/soft food diet. Lsst Saturday they tried me with solid foods and the pain started again. Now I'm back to eating regular food but I have to really watch what I eat. No more stuffed pizzas, burritos, or alcohol for a while.

One thing this episode reveals is the role stress can play in illness. All that acid buildup can be caused or exacerbated by anxiety. The anxiety that all of us on this site experience can not only lead to mental/emotional pain but will eventually affect us physically as well, especially as we get older. All those fears and anxieties will take their toll physically.

Sorry if I ran on too long. There was alot to write. I received great care from the nurses and other staff. My only complaints are that I feel like a pin cushion and there were no cable movie channels, lol. I also hate using those plastic pee bottles, yuck. One other thing, if you are ever hospitalized, be proactive in your care. For example, I was given a solid food tray by mistake a couple of times when I was supposed to be eating soft food. Rather than just eating the food, I called the nurse to verify what I was supposed to eat. When I was discharged I was given a list of prescriptions. I realizd it didn't have the med for my stomach. I called the nurse who in turn called the doctor. It turned out the doctor forgot to write a prescription for this. You really have to be alert for this sort of thing, with human imperfection being what it is.

Btw, that morphine is good stuff!