April 1 Going to the Hospital

(journaled on April 1, pasted in here once the blog was began)
Bed 1, Room 228, Floor 2, Goshen General Hospital
What am I doing HERE??

Monday evening after putting the kids to bed, I was sitting at the bar in the kitchen talking to Tim about cattle and such. Suddenly, a sharp pain jabbed my heart area and I couldn’t catch my breath. I took 3 small breaths and stood up to stretch out, but it didn’t subside. My head began to feel woozy, so I began to walk to my room to lie down. I remember passing the end of the table, but apparently blacked out at that point.

Tim was watching from the kitchen and saw my steps falter. He said I fell in quite a heap lying backwards over the toy basket in the hallway. My eyes were wide open but glassed over. He moved me to a lying position on the carpet and was lightly smacking my cheeks before I heard his voice calling me and woke up. He estimates this as about 10 seconds….a very scary seconds, of course!

I’ve had similar (MUCH milder) pains like this in the past (3 or more years ago) that had been diagnosed as pleurisy, something my maternal grandfather had occasionally. Initially, I thought this was the same thing, because the pain was similar, only 4 times stronger. In the past, by taking about 3 small breaths the pain would subside allowing me to breathe deeply and all would be over. In the initial moments on Monday, Tim was quite alarmed when I grabbed my chest, but I had raised my finger and mouthed, “I’m fine, just a minute.” Of course, I never expected to pass out, because that had never happened before from these pains. I haven’t even had any of these pains in 3 years or so. This was a complete surprise.

Upon awakening to Tim’s urgent calls, I felt TOTALLY FINE. No pain. No drowsiness. Fine. Not wonderful though. I was an emotional wreck. What had just happened? Why? Oh, my poor husband!!! Because I had already removed my contacts, brushed teeth and all for the night, I went straight to bed. I laid there hating the situation and the freakish nature of the whole episode. Questions upon questions bombarded my thoughts. Would I have awakened without Tim’s help? Can I be trusted alone with my kids? Was that really the same pains I’ve felt before? Why so much more intense?

We phoned Nurse-on-Call to get advice on what we should do. Dr Barkow, who was on call, was paged. He advised that if we were absolutely SURE that I felt fine AND there was nothing abnormal happening, then we could wait through the night and get an appointment with Dr Haimes, my doctor, on Tuesday. Because we were not in immediate danger, this seemed to be the best way to get needed rest and minimize the disruption to the family’s morning routines. In hindsight, skipping the ER experience likely saved us an unneeded CT scan and the better rest at home allowed us to be more alert as we submitted to the various medical tests needed the next day.

Dr Haimes, my family doctor, had an EKG taken right away that showed an abnormality in the blood flow through my heart. Upon listening to my history of passing out episodes and discussing the blood flow concerns, she recommended testing. She gave us the option of either being admitted into the hospital for the night or ordering everything outpatient to be taken over the course of the next couple weeks. We chose the “answers asap” route and were shortly on our way to registration.

A nurse, Debbie, greeted me with a whole list of tests that had been ordered. A “tellie” that I’m wearing constantly for monitoring my heart rate, blood work, x-rays, ultrasound of my neck veins, and echo cardiogram (ultrasound of the heart), kept me busy till into the evening. At this point, Dr Schmucker, a cardiologist, has been in to see me within an hour of my arrival. Upon listening to my heart, he surmised it as Mitral Valve Prolapse. Yes, this is the same thing Emily has learned to manage for several years. He is waiting for the test results to see what that confirms as it doesn't explain everything.