How do you ruin an evening out with friends? How about chest pains and a trip to the hospital in the back of an ambulance.
Having never had a heart attack before I didn't know what to think when I was at the local arena last Thursday night with friends watching some other friends playing girls ball hockey when all of a sudden the most terrifying feeling I've ever had hit me.
Without going into all of the details, the pain in my chest was bad enough that I asked my buddy Dave Maybee to get help and my other friend Dan Jess grabbed his cell phone and called 911.
I managed to make it outside to get some fresh air and sat down on the cold pavement. The first to arrive were two fire trucks and a couple of firefighters I knew who gave me some oxygen. Of course the pain had subsided by this point but I was shaking from either nerves or the cold. Dave grabbed my cell phone and called my parents who were at the Lions Hall for Bingo and told them to meet me at the hospital.
The ambulance arrived and they assessed me and got me into the ambulance. They hooked me up to heart monitors and more I'm sure and asked me all kinds of questions. I'll be damned if I can remember any of them now. The trip to the hospital was swift and when the doors opened, ma and pa were standing there waiting to see me.
One thing I will say...if you have to go to the hospital, in an ambulance is the only way to go. There was no sitting in the waiting room with the masses for 5 hours hoping they'd call your name next. Instead I was ushered into the ER through a private entrance and right into the awaiting bed.
The nurses removed most of the sticky connections on my body provided by the ambulance and then attached their own hair ripping connectors and hooked me up to plenty of things that go "beep". The blood pressure cup was wrapped around my arm, copious amounts of blood was removed from my left arm and then I was left alone for 20 minutes until the doctor showed up.
The Doc was a nice enough guy and he asked me the same questions I'd already been asked several times. The tests all came back negative for a heart attack which was comforting news but the pain did come back a few more times and to this day (even as I'm typing this) I'm still getting some discomfort. The chest x-rays also came back negative except to say that I do have a heart.
After about 2 hours I was released and hitched a ride home with mom and dad.
So what is wrong with me? What caused and continues to cause the problem? It could acid reflux or some kind of spasm but I'm no doctor. I have to go to my family doctor to see if we can figure it out. I only wish I could take an ambulance to my doctor. Maybe I could get in to see him quicker instead of 8 days after this all started.
