Trip to The ER

I know it's been awhile wince my last post.  Makes my goal of posting once a week seem futile.  My being MIA was not without good reason.  The reason which will be detailed out in this serious of three posts.

After Christmas, I got sick.  Caught some sort of cold and still haven't figured out from who.  Instead of getting better, I just got worse.  It got to the point where my mother had to drive me to the ER (I protested the whole way there, between gasps for air).

When we got to the ER a nurse checked my vitals.  My pulse was at 132 and O2 sats were 88%.  This was at rest.  So basically, I didn't have to spend hours in the waiting room waiting for help.  I was quickly taken into a room where they put an oxygen mask on me (set it to 4 liters) and gave me three albuterol treatments, back-to-back.

During this time they also did an EKG.  Second one I've had in my life, and the second one in three months.  The EKG showed that though my heart rate was extremely fast, my heart was still in good condition.

At some point my doctor came in (I had called when I was on the way to the ER).  I'm guessing I looked pretty bad because he told the ER doctor to have me sent to ICU.

Once I was somewhat stable (on oxygen and port accessed), I was sent from a private room in the ER to one of those rooms where there are several patients separated by curtains.  Then I had to play the waiting game.

At some point while waiting, I needed to use the restroom.  I told the nurse.  Since my heart rate was so high, the doctor left orders that I wasn't to get out of bed for anything.  So I had to use a bedpan.  I'm glad my mother was there to help me out because that was an extremely humiliating experience for me.  My bladder can hold quite a bit of fluid (over a liter) before I need to go.  The bedpan that was brought was apparently too small.  So in the end, my sheets needed to be changed, I needed a bath and a clean hospital gown.  Eventually, I was moved to a "private" room (it was a glass room in the same area of the ER).  It had its own toilet.  The nurse had decided it was less stressful to let me use the toilet than the bedpan.

I remained in the ER until about 3am (went in at 2pm).  Then I was sent to the ICU.