Not the Way I Wanted to Get a Check-Up

Tweet

Last night -- more precisely, at about 4:30 this morning -- I received an unwanted medical check-up. I woke at about 4:10 this morning with a massive panic attack. Panic attacks are hard to describe. The minute details are unique to the individual having the attack, but there are general similarities among the sufferers. They include a feeling like you're dying, pounding heart, shortness of breath, sweats, chest pains, and numb feelings in extremities. In short, many of the same symptoms of a heart attack. I lost two uncles at young ages (45 and 63) to heart attacks. Plus, I have cholesterol issues for which I take Pravastatin, as well as other issues. The biggest of the "other issues" is GERD, which gives more than sufficient explanation as to why it's called "heartburn." So I woke up out of a bad dream into the "reality" that the bad dream was still going on, and I was having a heart attack. I grabbed the phone and called 911 before I really knew what was happening. And off we went to the emergency room. Now, with the VA Hospital on lockdown the Louisville EMS won't go there, so they had to take me to the nearest hospital of my choice. To make a short story shorter, I'm fine. It was just a panic attack. I got the dreaded "GI cocktail" (not something for soldiers; rather, a particularly awful-tasting mixture of Maalox and liquid lidocaine ) to ease the burning in my chest and back. Reporting to the ER with chest pains automatically gets you certain "benefits" (that is sarcasm, trust me), such as an EKG, blood work, and a chest X-ray. All of those things came back normal. That's not the way I wanted to get a check-up, trust me. ------------------ And a post-script: I made sure I thanked everyone for the job they're doing. While I'm not overly fond of the guy in the White House, he did say something that's absolutely true: we are in a war right now. Instead of soldiers, marines, and sailors, however, it's the paramedics, nurses, and doctors on the front line. God bless them. Song title connection (there's a "bad word" in the song somewhere):