Greetings.
Bear with me on this one...
For about three weeks I have been experiencing "discomfort" rather than "pain" in the left side of my chest. Being a guy, and by default stupid when it comes to health, I decided that it was "just one if those things" and that it would eventually right itself.
It didn't...
Then, on Thursday gone, I decided that three weeks was more than enough time for it, whatever "it" was, to have gone, so I rang the GP and managed to get a morning appointment the next day.
Bouncing to the GP, I was seen, shockingly on time and, after explaining my problem to her, and her listening to my chest, she was adamant that I was not having an issue with my heart. However, to reassure me, she ordered blood tests and an ECG.
The nurse stabbed me and collected my blood and then hooked me up to the ECG machine. The did my reading, then did it again as something wasn't "right" and then beat a hasty retreat to show the GP the print out...
She came back and said that the GP would like to see me after the next patient and asked the nurse to collect more blood for cardiac enzymes... Big giant alarm bells rang in my head, but I was able to keep cool.
Half an hour later I entered a different GP's office who looked at me solemnly... After looking at the ECG result she revealed that it looks like I have had, in the recent past, a "mini heart attack"... x 1 million...
Inferior infarction she called it, the lower part of my heart was damaged... Obviously, my head was swimming with "what theeeeee?" and, well, more swears than humanly possible! I had to ring my parents to take me to hospital as I was immediately referred to the Chest Pain Assessment Unit - as I wasnt quite dying, an ambulance was overkill...
At the hospital, I was quickly shown to a bed, strapped up to a heart monitor, ECG retaken and compared, more bloods drawn, a chest x-ray, exam by a medic and I laid there for about 5 hours, waiting for the ward doc to do his rounds.
"You're not having a heart attack and you've not had one", said the doctor, matter of factly. My bloods came back fine, BP (a little high but fine), ECG normal, heart sounds normal, lungs normal, everything normal.
It appears that the pain was "just one of those things" and the abnormal reading on my initial two ECG's was probably down to a faulty ECG machine at the GP surgery... x 1 billion!
In about ten hours I went from Inferior Infarction to "nah, just kidding", not an experience I care to repeat any time soon, but everything turned out right in the end.
Anyhow, who's next with a story of medical mishap that turned out right in the end?
Bear with me on this one...
For about three weeks I have been experiencing "discomfort" rather than "pain" in the left side of my chest. Being a guy, and by default stupid when it comes to health, I decided that it was "just one if those things" and that it would eventually right itself.
It didn't...
Then, on Thursday gone, I decided that three weeks was more than enough time for it, whatever "it" was, to have gone, so I rang the GP and managed to get a morning appointment the next day.
Bouncing to the GP, I was seen, shockingly on time and, after explaining my problem to her, and her listening to my chest, she was adamant that I was not having an issue with my heart. However, to reassure me, she ordered blood tests and an ECG.
The nurse stabbed me and collected my blood and then hooked me up to the ECG machine. The did my reading, then did it again as something wasn't "right" and then beat a hasty retreat to show the GP the print out...
She came back and said that the GP would like to see me after the next patient and asked the nurse to collect more blood for cardiac enzymes... Big giant alarm bells rang in my head, but I was able to keep cool.
Half an hour later I entered a different GP's office who looked at me solemnly... After looking at the ECG result she revealed that it looks like I have had, in the recent past, a "mini heart attack"... x 1 million...
Inferior infarction she called it, the lower part of my heart was damaged... Obviously, my head was swimming with "what theeeeee?" and, well, more swears than humanly possible! I had to ring my parents to take me to hospital as I was immediately referred to the Chest Pain Assessment Unit - as I wasnt quite dying, an ambulance was overkill...
At the hospital, I was quickly shown to a bed, strapped up to a heart monitor, ECG retaken and compared, more bloods drawn, a chest x-ray, exam by a medic and I laid there for about 5 hours, waiting for the ward doc to do his rounds.
"You're not having a heart attack and you've not had one", said the doctor, matter of factly. My bloods came back fine, BP (a little high but fine), ECG normal, heart sounds normal, lungs normal, everything normal.
It appears that the pain was "just one of those things" and the abnormal reading on my initial two ECG's was probably down to a faulty ECG machine at the GP surgery... x 1 billion!
In about ten hours I went from Inferior Infarction to "nah, just kidding", not an experience I care to repeat any time soon, but everything turned out right in the end.
Anyhow, who's next with a story of medical mishap that turned out right in the end?