The Best Laid Plans of ………….

Just thinking…….

I had big plans for yesterday. First I had to be at the hospital for a stress test at 7. Then I planned to go to Curves and work out. After that, I was meeting the Hubs at Denny’s for their free Grand Slam breakfast. Then I had to go to the bank. It was voting day here, so I would vote on the way home. Then I was meeting friends for supper.

I was hungry when I left for the hospital. They had told me that I could have no caffeine after 7 am on Monday, and nothing at all on Tuesday. I like my coffee and some protein in the mornings, so I was a growly stomach little bear. At the hospital they hooked up all the wires and prepped me for the treadmill.

I got on it and thought, “Piece of cake!” I was just sailing along with it, and thinking that some upbeat music would sure help make it more enjoyable and keep the beat. The test was supposed to be 9 minutes long, but 3 minutes into it, the doctor stopped the treadmill and told me to get off.

I thought, “Wow! I must really be doing this right! They don’t even need to finish the test!” Ummmmm……. no. The doctor gave me four aspirin and told me to lay down. He said my blood pressure was spiking all over the place and that the EKG was going crazy. I thought, “That’s strange; I usually have such low blood pressure.” But I chewed the aspirin and lay down. Then he said, “Are you here alone? How did you get here?” I told him that I was here alone and that I drove myself there. He said he needed to get an ambulance then to transport me to a city hospital. Whoa Nelly!

What is going on? I thought I was passing the stress test, but it turns out that I flunked it big time. They wanted to get a hold of the Hubs, and he was at the hospital in 10 minutes. Luckily he only had one early morning class to teach. So off we went to the city hospital for an emergency cardiac catheterization.

The procedure itself was not bad, although they told me I was out of it most of the time. I was rather disappointed as I was looking forward to seeing the little wires thread up thru my arteries and heart. Rats…….

But after the procedure I started to hate the whole thing. I had to lay perfectly still for several hours. The nurse told me that if I moved my head, my trunk, my legs, my arms, that he would duct tape me to the bed. And they scared me by telling me that movement could cause the wound to bleed, not just bleed, but gush, and that I could bleed to death in 15 minutes. That scared me enough to be immobile.

They trickled at least 2 quart bags of fluids into me, and I couldn’t use the bathroom. That was the worst part of all; I was absolutely miserable. Then I started to itch. My nose itched, on the inside. My eyelid itched. The Hubs was trying to scratch it for me in the places that I indicated, but in reality, he made it itch more. My arms were useless, as one was tied down with a blood pressure cuff and the other was tied down with the IV. Nothing worse than having to go to the bathroom for 6 hours and itching, and not being able to do anything about it.

The Hubs even had to feed me. Yes, over 24 hours after my last bite, I got a chicken sandwich and chips. My stomach was growling so loud that passersby heard it. But I couldn’t lift my arms to feed myself. So picture me flat on my back with my nose and eyelid twitching and the Hubs trying to feed me, and crumbs falling out my mouth, and my bladder is about to explode………….

Finally they let me up and then later sent me home. The diagnosis? Clear. Yep. Not a bit of blockage or buildup. It’s good to know that I have clean-livng arteries, but it sure would have been good to find out in a different way.

So much for Denny’s………. And it was gonna be free. I don’t even want to know how much that chicken sandwich is going to cost me…………

To God be the glory……
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