Emergency Room Visit

Well, I had an emergency room visit last week. There were a few amusing things about it, so I wanted to write down the story.

I had a nasty cold over Christmas. Toward the end, it kind of settled in my chest, but seemed to go away.

Then, last week, I started having trouble breathing. I couldn't seem to catch my breath and I had like a lump in my chest. I had Mom come down to watch the kids and I went over to Urgent Care.

The doctor at Urgent Care told me my symptoms were too concerning to him and he didn't have anything there to try to figure out what was wrong. Apparently chest pain and trouble breathing will get you sent to the emergency room quickly. He wanted to call an ambulance, but I just drove myself over there.

There was NO parking at the hospital. I had to park like 3 blocks away. It took me forever to walk to the ER since I was having trouble breathing.

I was behind 5 people in line. All 5 people were told to go sit in the waiting room. My symptoms of chest pain and trouble breathing got me admitted quickly and I had no wait.

I told the doctor of my virus, but they wanted to rule out big problems first. They were mostly concerned about a blood clot in my lungs.

As I'm lying there, Jeremy shows up. He'd left work so he was in uniform. I started to get strange looks and weird glances from hospital people walking by.

Apparently, whenever a cop is in the hospital with a patient, it means the patient is either under arrest or mentally ill. So on this day, people were not seeing what was really happening! It was pretty amusing to me. They may have thought I was a criminal!

After an X-Ray, blood tests, and even a CT scan of my chest, it turns out I just have some inflammation in my lungs from that dumb virus. No blood clot or lung cancer or pneumonia. I was prescribed some strong anti-inflammatory pills and released.  I was there over 4 hours (each test took less than 10 seconds).

Jeremy said he'd drive me down to the car since he was parked out front. He wasn't kidding. His police car was parked right next to the front sidewalk in a no parking zone. Again, we got lots of looks as he was helping me into the car. I'm sure he's totally used to getting stared at, but I am definitely not! (Well, unless Elizabeth is having a breakdown).

I've been taking the pills for about a week now. My chest and breathing are much better. I still can't run too hard or fast though or I can feel my chest start to tighten up. So slow running for now. I can't wait to get back to regular Bloomsday training!