February 18, 2008
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My health
I thought I was having a heart attack.
February 8th, I was going to visit Mom in the hospital. Before I left home, I thought I felt a twinge of indigestion. Later, I lay down with Dylan to read him a bedtime story and the pain got a lot worse, then kept increasing.
Bev concurred that she should take me to the hospital, but we never made it that far. About a mile from home we decided it was more prudent to detour directly to the ambulance building instead of heading to the ER.
By then the pain was nigh unbearable. I don’t think I’ve never felt that level of excruciation for that long a time. I was sweating, nauseated, my chest was killing me and all I kept thinking (praying?) was, “Lord, I can’t be having a heart attack!”
I found out that when you ride an ambulance into the hospital ER with wild chest pains, you get a lot of attention! One nurse told me that she thought I was about to go into cardiac arrest. Another told me she was sure they were going to transfer me to a heart hospital.
It turns out that I have pericarditis, an inflammation of the lining around the heart. It’s not really dangerous, but it hurts like crazy! There are several causes, but basically they treat the inflammation and the cause goes away on its own. It’s not heart damage.
Sounds good, except that it flared up six days later. Although the fear of a heart attack wasn’t there, the pain was back in all its glory! The kept me in the hospital for two days this time and put me on a steroid to treat the inflammation this time. Throughout this whole time, Mom was in the hospital and we were trying to coordinate her care with my large group of siblings.
One other weird side effect has been hiccups – lots of hiccups! That doesn’t seem like a big deal, but when the area around your heart is already inflamed, hiccups can be kind of painful. Lord willing, this will be gone with no further relapses.
Edit: I should also mention that my wonderful wife never complained that she had to spend Valentine’s day cuddling with me in a hospital bed instead of going to a fancy restaurant. Isn’t she the best?!
Comments (6)
I would say poor you, but Bev must have been scared to death.
And pericardtis is not as harmless as you make it sound. Something caused it, that something is never a good thing ok usually not life threating, but far from a sign of perfect health. You take care of yourself, and do what your doctor says you should do.
@trunthepaige -
Yes, ma’am. I’ll try to be careful!
Not careful so much as obedient. Do what your doctor tells you.
Yes, exactly what trunthepaige said!
Oh and a sure fire way of stopping hiccups, unless there is something else behind it … is a spoonful of sugar. It doesnt just help the medicine go down … it stops the dreaded hiccups as well.
God bless you!
aw. i’ll be prayin for you and your family. take care of yourself.
Ouch!! I understand how hard it is to have pain that you can barely take. It’s like you know God never gives you more than you can handle but you feel like you are riding on that very thin line!
John and I will definitely say a prayer for you.
It’s REALLY GREAT that you have Mrs. V there to help comfort you!