07.01.07
ER
Last night I went to the ER for some pain in my chest and because my left arm had gone numb. It started around 5:30 and I eventually had gone to the hospital around 9:30. My friends Thomas and his girlfriend Julia were kind enough to go with me and wait around while the doctor looked at me.
I had never been to the emergency room before, so I was a bit worried. By the time we three had gotten there, the pain had really become unbearable and being unable to breath quite right was making me tired. So they had taken me back for an EKG. Turns out that was fine. Pretty much all of my vitals were ok, but they still wanted a doctor to look at me so they took me back to a bed where I lay there for six hours. During that time, I had to have a couple chest x-rays done and some blood drawn, as well as stint for a possible IV drip put in. I was honestly really scared that I was having some sort of heart problem, but I had balked at going sooner because I had had this problem before (in a much lesser degree of pain) and it turned out to be a spat of gas. I had thought that perhaps this might have been gas as well, but I did not want to take any chances with that. The doctor was really nice and made me feel as comfortable as the situation warranted.
Turns out that I did have a huge pocket of air (gas) in my intestines. (I figured as much.) Of course, I didn't find out until 3:00 AM where I had been passed out in the hospital bed for a good 2 hours before hand. I don't think I really had been any more worried about myself before last night. I'm just really glad it turned out to be that and not something very serious like actual heart disease.
Thomas, Julia and I were going to go to IHOP after I got released from the hospital, but as soon as I got into her van, I promptly got very tired and decided that it would be best if I just went back home and got some sleep. All in all, it was a very interesting experience. Definitely one I would not like to repeat anytime soon.
