Thanksgiving Hospital Visit

[Mint]

So i had a bit of a close call last night that landed me in the hospital. I have a overnight job from 11pm-7am and usually sleep from 8am-4pm. Though i slept and woke a bit earlier on thanksgiving even so i woke around 11am. i had some muscle soreness in my right shoulder which are common due to a 10 year old injury to my collar bone. I flares up when i sleep on it weird or when i do things like bowl, i guess i am used to a bit of aches which feel like mild growing pains. So i thought nothing of it and had a hot bath to help sooth my muscles a bit and wake up, however the pain did not subside completely. A few hours later while i was giving my friends a few texts i was starting to notice the ache had gotten stronger and so i took a Tylenol and Advil.

However the pain progressed and moved a bit through my back but mostly to my front side and started to ache badly close to my rib cage. I still thought it may be just really bad heartburn or at worse a small ulcer. i took some Gaviscon and tried to weather it out to see if it would subside but it got worse. breathing was starting to get painful and so was movement or even just bending down or the motion of walking to the washroom. i was trying to find comfortable positions on the couch but soon i started to realize this was abnormal and not just the usual stuff so i started to worry it was an ulcer.

I would have never thought heart attack because i am not yet even 31 years old and such things come on sudden not gradually. However it was about 4pm and i was supposed to work last night at 11pm but i decided it would be best if i went to the hospital. the pain had gotten so bad that i could not even sit upright on a couch without pain but when i tried to lay down horizontally and take a short nap to wait it out the pain jumped up about 3 times in intensity. it was like a combination of feeling like something heavy was on my chest and it was piercing me painfully. That was when there was no doubt left in me and i got my clothes and made my way to the hospital. i got to new west station on my way to Royal Columbian when the movement of the bus and skytrain had agitated it so much that i could hardly breath and move. i had to get the skytrain personnel to cal me an ambulance.

So my lips started to turn a bit purple and i was going a bit pale and light headed and went from able to stand and wait without moving much to needing to sit down. the medics came and rushed me to emergency. my blood pressure and heart rate were up and down before finding some stability once i was sitting upright and stationary in a hospital bed but i was barely able to move my arms without pain and the fatigue making my heart race and increasing the pain. i still did not know exactly what it was wrong and it worried me that the medics did not either. six hours later i was leaving the hospital around 10pm.after a ton of blood work and ultrasound and a radioactive fluid CT scan to help detect blood clots and other possible causes. thankfully a lot of imminent dangers were ruled out but they were confused as it did not present sudden like a heart attack would. after some morphine helped alleviate some of the pain and allowed me to take more regular breaths without the sharp pain, i was able to relax and recover some stamina.

they do not know the exact cause but they stated what they could tell was that i had some fluid around my heart and a great deal of inflammation. they gave me some morphine tablets and told me to get Naproxen which is a strong anti inflammatory. beyond calling to make an appointment from a heart specialist who will conduct a much more detailed ultrasound in a few days, i am at home resting. i need to still go to work tonight but my job is not much more extraneous than sitting awake at home. i work hotel front desk so as long as i limit my bending down, picking up heavy stuff and my motion i will be fine. i just took out the garbage and recycling and the small exertion and changes in blood pressure and heart rate flare up the pain. i will be fine i just need to take things easy for a week. the big thing i noticed initially an while trying to lay completely flat for the CT scan was that the change and rush of blood was like stabbing pain. this made sleep last night difficult. i tried to prop up my body a bit but i still woke up in huge pain and required a morphine pill. i then grabbed a thick couch cushion and slept in a more bent angle and i was able to sleep well for a few hours more.

my friend who is a nurse was born with a heart issue and also has worked many late night jobs. he told me likely what is going on is that minor cold i had a week ago and haven't felt symptoms since is to blame. he explained the night job lowers the immunity and the con and the last few nights i was pulling some crazy hours days which did not help at all. no more all nighters. He explained what he thinks happened was that bacteria from the cold got into my blood stream which of course sent it straight to my heart which became slightly infected and inflamed. i was walking around for a week not thinking anything of any subtitle small pains as i am used to a few aches. seems it finally came to a head. i think why i hesitated so long to go to a hospital was because i am so used to aches that i never thought it was anything out of the ordinary. so better safe than sorry would perhaps be a better attitude in the future.

it shows me i am a bit more fragile than i would believe. i am just happy it does not seem to be anything like cancer or diabetes. so although the outcome was a bit drastic for a result from a cold as my friend implies, it was a best case scenario compared to horrible other causes. however i still need to go get that heart specialist to take a detailed look and make sure there is not something else causing it because the cold theory is just a likely cause that makes the most sense. it was very scary as was starting to fear something horrible may be wrong.  Though it seems for now to just be a close call but lets just hope there are no emergency 911 calls necessary. The scary thing is any infection could be to blame so lets hope it is not the result of something else going on.

[Nibi]

Oh my gosh! It's good to hear that you're okay and it wasn't an actual heart attack. <3 It's unfortunate that you don't know what the exact cause it yet, but I hope you found out soon, that's really scary.

It's kind of odd how it happened on thanksgiving though huh? Probably made you a lot more thankful for when you're in good health. Hope you get better soon! :hug:

[Mint]

Oh my gosh! It's good to hear that you're okay and it wasn't an actual heart attack. <3 It's unfortunate that you don't know what the exact cause it yet, but I hope you found out soon, that's really scary.

It's kind of odd how it happened on thanksgiving though huh? Probably made you a lot more thankful for when you're in good health. Hope you get better soon! :hug:

indeed. i hope nothing bad is found with when i see the specialist but what my friend said makes a lot of sense. i am just taking it easy and am taking a few extra naps to maintain stamina and not stress my heart too much. when i went to rainfurrest i was up about 18 hours, slept 3 then woke up and boarded a late train down to Seattle. from that point on i was awake for about 28 hours. no wonder my immune system was low and i got con crud. but i did have a few extra long days over the past few weeks which didn't help. goes to show the importance of regular and scheduled sleep times.

[Nibi]

indeed. i hope nothing bad is found with when i see the specialist but what my friend said makes a lot of sense. i am just taking it easy and am taking a few extra naps to maintain stamina and not stress my heart too much. when i went to rainfurrest i was up about 18 hours, slept 3 then woke up and boarded a late train down to Seattle. from that point on i was awake for about 28 hours. no wonder my immune system was low and i got con crud. but i did have a few extra long days over the past few weeks which didn't help. goes to show the importance of regular and scheduled sleep times.

I don't think anything bad will be found. You are still young after all. But yeah! You definitely got to take better care of yourself! D< Make sure to have a regular sleep schedule and not over exert yourself. Of course you already know that, but still!