Within minutes at Urgent Care, we realized it wasn’t urgenty enough, so we zipped down the road to the Emergency Room.
The secret to fast service? Chest pains and a Smurf-like complexion.
My oxygen level was 76, my chest had a tire on it, the portable chest X-ray showed my lungs were full of fluid. The moment the nurse flung back the curtain and said “Yep, you’re getting admitted”, I relaxed, gave in to the situation and absolutely luxuriated in the oxygen.
The days that followed were a mess of medications, IVs, blood thinners, heart monitors, scans, machines, a lot of 3M products, and many many faces behind medical masks. I had to tell the story of my symptoms and answer how are you feeling so often that I currently cringe when anyone, very well meaningly, asks how I am.
Triponin is a protein the heart excretes when it’s damaged. A normal level is zero. At admission, mine was 6. Three of the days in the hospital were just waiting for that to go down. It did, and was almost normal by discharge.
I’m still absorbing everything that happened. I’m honestly confused and a bit traumatized. It’s a struggle to find any humor in this part of the hospital saga, so this post is rather unsatisfying. But, my situation is also unsatisfying, at least until I get new plans from my doctors.
And also a do-over for Thanksgiving with my family.