Sunday, October 10, 2010

ER Visit 10/9/10

I woke up on the morning in question feeling like crap. The night before I had been throwing up and not feeling great. I thought that I could have just gotten what Todd and Kayl had earlier in the week.
Todd was very nice to let me sleep in till 1:30. I love that man.
Around 4 pm was when everything started to go downhill. I started getting really painful chest pains. I down played them so Todd wouldn't freak out. I thought that I was having them cause I hadn't really moved all day. So, I decided that we should go to the Halloween Store. That was around 6 pm.
While at the store my left arm started to go numb and tingle. Then it would send a shooting pain up my arm. Then it went numb again. I once again down played the severity of my pain to Todd.
When we got home I noticed that breathing had become very very hard and painful. Again, being me, I down played it. I thought that I could just imagine it away. I knew we didn't have the money for the ER but that if I didn't get help and I was having a heart attack I would die.
Around 8 pm, I was in so much pain and Todd knew it. He said that he didn't care about the money, he just didn't want to lose me. So he rushed me to Orem Community Hospital.
Side Note: Orem Community is a very under rated ER. I usually go to Utah Valley and they are packed. I was the only one at the ER, it was nice.
I was put into a room really quick and was hooked up to an IV and an EKG thingy. When the doctor came in I told him all of my symptoms and that my ANA had been positive but that I hadn't been able to see the specialist to get the Lupus Panel done. He told me that my heart was fine but he didn't know why I was showing the symptoms of a heart attack.
I was wheeled to the X-Ray so they could look at my chest. After that was done they did a lot of blood tests that all came back clean.
They then gave me some pain killers that are supposedly 50 times stronger than Morphine. That's when something really strange happened. Out of nowhere my left ankle felt like someone had smashed it with a sledgehammer. The pain intensified so rapidly that they gave me more pain meds but they made it worse. They couldn't find the solution for it so they ignored it. The pain brought me to tears.
Finally, the doctor came in to talk to me about his findings. He said that I have a severe case of Carpal Tunnel and that's what caused my left arm to go numb. My chest pain is caused by Costochondritis, which is inflamed rib cartilage. He also said that I have Chronic Nausea, probably caused by my medications I take daily.
Thankfully, my family doctor, Dr. Pratte, was coming in later that night and he would be brought up to speed on my case so when I make my appointment to see him this week he will know what to look for.
I was finally sent home at 10:40 pm. It was a long, scary, and painful night. I have been sick for ten months and I'm was slowly getting worse but I seem to have picked up speed in getting worse area. Oh, well.