Emergency Room

So, yesterday was pretty interesting to say the least. Mentioned in my earlier post, I said that I was having weird heart palpitations all day. Well they got pretty bad during my shift so I bounced over to the clinic where the doctor took endless amounts of notes and a few tests and then said I should go to emergency to get a cardiogram. What?

I have had heart palpitations in the past before but they were much 'harder' feeling and only lasted in twenty minutes spurts, give or take. Back then it was chalked up to stress and anxiety and eventually went away after a little while. So having this super light fluttery feeling in my chest for a few days was bizarre. Being sent to emergency for heart palpitations seemed a little extreme to me but the doctor was firm that this was the best course of action which scared me a little. I asked what they will do and he went over the ECG procedure and when I questioned about if I needed any blood work or needles he said that that would be a little much and probably not. Ok, I can live with that. 

Luckily I have a super stellar mom and she drove me to emergency because at this point I was really worried about what was going on with my heart. I’ve never been to emergency before so I was glad that she was there. Checking in and waiting is the worst of it, I found, that and sitting next to people with who knows what ailing them. I chose to sit next to a dude with a broken leg. You can’t catch broken leg-it is. Seemed safe.

After a while I get called in for my ECG. Jump to two nurses putting stickers all over my chest (hindsight would have made me change out of my work clothes before coming so I wasn’t so damn gross but hey what can you do?) I apologized for the condition of my bra and they laughed which lightened the mood. The ECG machine wasn’t working so I was left in the room with stickers all over me for another half an hour before another machine was brought and they took the tests. I asked if I was done and the ladies said the next nurse will come in and take blood.

No, no, no, no, no

Prompt the freak out.
I have been battling a needle phobia since around the age of 6. When I was really young I had a strange blood virus and needed ridiculous amounts of blood drawn, IV’s inserted and all sorts of horrible stuff. I never really got over it as I grew up. I had been to therapy and counseling for it but nothing really helped. It was much easier to push to the side than deal with at the time. I went from grade 8 on with no needles, no bloodwork, no vaccinations, no dental work, nothing! It was so easy to avoid it than get my anxiety ramped up and fall to pieces over something so simple. I would plot escape routes and think about punching doctors if they came at me with needles. Since march I am proud to say that I have had one vaccination and 7 dental needles but I wasn’t ready for this.

The nurse came in and I explained. Quick jabs I managed earlier this year but blood drawing was a longer process. The needle is there much longer. She was surprisingly super kind and explained that she would use the tiniest needle they had. I thought she was going to be like “Suck it up, sista, everyone has to do it so grow some ovaries!”

I admit, I did shed a tear or two while the blood was being drawn but it was out of fear/anxiety rather than pain. It felt like forever but it was done and the nurses all congratulated me. Hooray. I survived. I felt pretty proud of myself. It wasn’t as bad as I thought but needle-hating me would rather not do that again. 

Then began the waiting. After an hour they sent me back out to the waiting room to wait some more.

             Waiting

                      Waiting

                               Waiting

Hours later I was brought up back to the acute care beds. I had to get into one of those gorgeous blue hospital gowns. I must have looked like a stunner. Ha!

Cue the fluid tests, chest x-rays followed by vitals and breathing tests. Thank you nurses for announcing to the whole ward that results came back negative for pregnancy before my x-ray. Joy.

After all the tests the doctor came around and we chatted for a bit. All my test results came back clean and healthy apart from when they monitored my erratic heartbeat. To cut this very long post short, he has no idea if it was the steroid anti-inflammatory meds that caused the palpitations or a combo of other stress related things coupled with all my dental pain. So, it could be a lovely mix of needle anxiety, pain and meds at this point but all my test results came up clean and fine so who knows. Nearly 7 hours later I was really done with being at the hospital but I’m glad that I’m not dying yet!

I'll be taking the next couple days nice and easy and try to minimize my anxiety (Though it's hard when you feel like your heart is about to burst out of your chest at any moment). Today I am still having chest flutters but I don’t think they are as severe as yesterday. That’s good right?