July 6, 2015
12:07 a.m.

I should probably be in bed, but I doubt that I would be able to sleep. I am so wound up.

I think I'll just catch up on the last few weeks.

Went with my daughter to visit my parents and make sure her kids got to visit with them since they won't be able to make the family reunion.

It was a quick weekend only trip, but we managed to have a good time.

However, the trip home didn't go so well for me, and instead of having my daughter deliver me to my house, I had her take me to the emergency room. I was having chest pain that I attributed to bad Chinese food, but ended up being admitted for numerous tests. This was Monday afternoon, June 29th.

Naturally, I needed and IV.

These are the biggest bruises, but hardly the only ones. Suffice to say that my veins were not cooperative.

They managed one and sent me for a CT of my lungs, looking for a blood clot since I had been traveling for several hours by car.

They drew blood, it clotted and they had to draw it again. Boo. Hiss.

My EKG showed nothing, but they decided to admit me to make sure that a heart attack wasn't lurking my my future.

I was not happy.

The Emergency room I went to is now a separate facility from the main hospital, so I had to be taken by ambulance. It took hours to secure a room. By the time I went on my little ride, my IV had failed and the EMT attempted to start a new one in the ambulance. Once he bragged that he "did it all the time", I knew I was doomed. My tissues filled with fluid and OUCH! So he had to stop that, and there I lay, with IV lines in each arm, neither of them working.

Once I got there, I had to answer a million repeat questions, then a nurse worked in my original IV and was able to re-position it and start some fluids. I had managed to get a sandwich by 8 p.m. or so, the only thing I'd eaten all day, and then was told I needed to eat something before midnight because I had to be off food and water after that for my tests the next day. They brought me another sandwich, but I couldn't eat it. Food was making me feel worse.

The next morning a tech arrived to prepare me for my stress test. She injected a radioactive dye. She warned me, but I was still dismayed as it entered my veins, because it causes a sensation that feels just like you're wetting your pants! Ugh!

They took me down for an MRI, for a baseline before my stress test.

A while later, off I went for the stress test. That wasn't much fun! My IV failed yet again, and they couldn't get one going. They called in someone else to try, someone "really good". Well, she stuck me at least four times before they could get one to work. I felt like a pin cushion!

Because my foot is still healing, I didn't dare run on a treadmill, so I had to be injected with something to stress my heart as I walked. That's why I had to have another IV. Yikes! Stressing your heart is scary, man!

After that, I got to drink cola to get the caffeine to counteract the drug.

Then off I went for an echocardiogram, which is an ultrasound of the heart. That was a pretty lengthy procedure.

Back to the stress lab for the end of that test, another MRI to assess my heart's reaction, and back to my room.

I got to have a liquid breakfast while I waited for results.

And guess what? Bad Chinese food!! Imagine that.

Well, not actually. But I have GERD, (gastrointestinal reflux disease, better known as acid reflux), and have been on medication for it for years. What I experienced--probably--was an exacerbation of the condition, and the doctor doubled my medication.

They gave me a real lunch and let me go home. But I have to follow up on Wednesday, July 8th with my doctor, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up having more tests, because every time I eat, I feel awful.

It's all due to stress, I know this. I have been stressing about my house with its leaking roof, and all this rain, rain, rain. I have been stressing about my kids' problems.

Someone told me not to stress out over the things I can't control. That's so dumb. If I had control, I wouldn't be stressed about it! I wouldn't have to be stressed, because I would have control.

Bad advise, whoever it was who told me this. Bad advise.

I have been trying to be supportive to everyone who needs my support, but there's a breaking off point, and someone has crossed it. I can no longer be supportive to that person.

But it still stresses me out that it's come to this point.

I'm very sad tonight.

I'm going to try to sleep, because I have a very stressful morning planned.

Phooey!

Good night!