Surviving The Emergency Room
I practically put the Emergency Room on lockdown last night. It was an honest mistake, really. In order to tell you what happened, I have to take you back a few hours.
Todd came home from work and said he wasn’t feeling well. Then he said the words that set of alarms and red flags and all the other loud noises in your head that aren’t supposed to be there. “I’ve been having chest pains today.” Well. We’ve gone through our fair share of cardiac issues with him (I’ll save that for another post) so we don’t take this too lightly. He starts listing off all of his symptoms as we cross referenced them with WebMD Signs of a Heart Attack. Chest pain. Check. Headache. Check. Dizziness. Check. Light Headed. Check. Sweating. Check. Fatigue. Check.
Hmm. What to do….What to do. Of course we did the obvious.
We drove to the closest fire station and had them check his vitals. I mean, who wants to take a trip the the ER at 10 pm? Did you know that any fire station will do that for free? They are happy to help! They plopped him down in the truck and wired him up like a Christmas tree to do an EEG right there. Thankfully everything looked fine. Of course they strongly recommended we still go to the ER. They said there could be something that didn’t show up on the EEG. They really wanted to take him in their rig, Todd really didn’t want them to. So they made me promise to drive him straight there, and I did.
Todd was very appreciative of their help. As we drove away, however, I heard him mutter, “What’s the point of going there if they are just going to send you to the hospital anyway?” I know he wasn’t thinking about his own well being when he also said, “Do we have to go? I really don’t want to pay the $250 co-pay”. I assured him his life was worth it, as I made a beeline for the hospital.
The ER at midnight is some GOOD people watching. Man oh man. You’ve got the pacers, the mumblers, the sleepers, the moaners, the complainers, the bleeders, the coughers, the yellers. I really felt compelled to buy the check in guy a present. Or give him a hug. What a job. Not for me….no thank you. I think I would lose all empathy. “What do YOU want?” “Oh geez, stop breathing on me!” “YOU again? You’re not sick…you’re FAKING!”
So as the minutes became hours, and the people watching no longer could keep me awake, and Facebook was no longer interesting because everyone had long since gone to bed, I told Todd I was going to go out to the car and charge my phone. “Text me when they call you back”. 10 min later he texted me saying they took him back. The next thing I remember is sitting in my car with some blaring alarm going off. It was my phone. It was saying, FIND MY PHONE ALARM, and it was annoying as heck. When I turned it off I could see that I had 3 missed calls, 3 texts with messages like ” are you lost?” “Are you ok?” “Where are you?”.
It had been 45 min since he told me they took him back and I said OK. I had fallen asleep. Whoops.
I scurried into the hospital and had just asked the worn out check in guy for Todd’s room, when a nurse came out and said “here she is!”. Strange. She took me through the double doors and as we passed people I heard things like, “found her!”, and “Is that her?”. When I finally got to Todd, he looked so relieved. He said I almost gave him a heart attack. Um…Ok. He thought I had been kidnapped. He alerted nurses that he couldn’t find me and activated the “find my phone” app that set off the alarm on my phone and woke me up. He was expecting to see my phone traveling down 436 on the GPS map on HIS phone. Poor guy.
The good news is…he didn’t have a heard attack last night. Not at work, and not from me falling asleep in the car and “going missing” for 45 minutes.
So, yes. We paid $250 to find out that he DIDN”T have a heart attack, and for me to take a nap in the car at the hospital. You know what though? It was worth it. I’d rather know he is ok, than take the chance just to save a few bucks. And the nap? It was worth every penny.
I am so glad that Todd gave me a heads up about the “event” and your post – which, BTW, was well written and funny . . . and made me thankful he didn’t have a heart attack and you weren’t kidnapped! There’s never a dull minute around your place.
I went through that last summer on Uncle Steve’s birthday.
Coincidently your Mom was here visiting.
I walked into the kitchen, told her I was experiencing some chest pain etc and I’d be right back…I drove myself to urgent care…..with my family history I cant be too careful!
As they checked me out and took my history they decided to admit me overnight for observation…my heart rate and pressure were jumping up and down
Lucky for me it was just a panic anxiety attack.
Your Mom, Aunt Diann, Aunt Cindy and Uncle Steve went to an outdoor concert to celebrate his birthday……..I told him there was nothing he could do and I was where I needed to be if something happened.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get away just paying $250..
Well, they did want to keep him overnight for observation. He respectfully declined, with the promise to all his cardiologist in the morning. 🙂 Glad everything was ok for you…except for your bill 🙁