Paramedics and Policemen

Well I've finally experienced 911. Last Sunday they came for me! Here's the story: I woke up Sunday morning with bad "heartburn" pain accompanied by an ache in my upper back. I took some Tums, hoping it would go away, and went to church. I felt sleepy during church and on the way home had a sort of sharp stabbing pain right in that breastbone/back area. When we got home, I crawled immediately into bed - felt awful. I did take two more Tums hoping again that it might help. I also knew that for heart disease in women two of the major signs of heart attack are heartburn and upper back pain (one can also have shortness of breath, dizziness, and nausea). I have heard that women having a heart attack can experience just one or all of these symptoms. I might have done nothing, but after I mentioned how I was feeling to Annie when she called, she and Justin insisted that I go see a doctor. (Justin sells drugs to cardiologists and is very familiar with symptoms of heart attack). It was such a drama. I first called the nurse associated with our insurance company to determine if this was really an emergency. After tons of questions, her advice: After you hang up, take an aspirin, lie down with your head elevated, and call 911. What??? Okay, I've never done it before, but thought I'm into this now, so I guess I will. Maybe it will prevent me from having to go to the emergency room. If they come and check me out, say I'm okay, then all is well. They came about 10 minutes later, five guys in all, and I felt so silly lying on the couch. Though the pain was still there, I didn't feel like it was worth all of this attention! When they checked me out, though they couldn't determine whether or not I was experiencing a heart attack, they did say I needed to follow up by going to the hospital. I chose NOT to go on the ambulance - Jim was still home (having to call the elders at church to say he couldn't make their noon meeting, nor pick up the pizza he had ordered!) and said he would take me. Thankfully they took us right away at St. Luke's emergency room, and a couple of hours later I was free to leave. I had an IV, an EKG, a blood test, and was given some sort of cocktail to drink (it numbed my mouth and throat for 30 minutes - weird). I think the purpose of that was to see if it took care of the "heartburn" pain. It didn't. Of course, after receiving discharge papers, I was told to follow up with a cardiologist this week to have a cardiolite treadill stress test. I was now in over my head. I ultimately decided I might as well run the entire gamut and then receive peace of mind for future occurrences.

If that wasn't enough for one week, yesterday I was coming home from a haircut appointment. Shawn (my hairdresser) and I had just finished talking about how much we hate driving in the winter weather conditions. After we hugged goodbye, wishing each other a Merry Christmas, etc., we both told each other to drive carefully. Just 5 minutes later as I was driving home on Blairs Ferry Road, I was rear-ended. Yup! I was doing my best to drive carefully, but it's sometimes the other drive you have to worry about. Katy, the other driver, said she was sorry, handed me her insurance card, and as I was sitting in my car copying down the info, a police officer drove up to assist. He first asked me if I was okay (thoughtful), then asked me to drive onto the first turn-off, and gave us forms to fill out. About 30 minutes later we were free to drive home. He told me that because of the poor road conditions he didn't issue Katy a ticket, but that she was clearly at fault. He handed me her info, gave me his name and badge number, and finally I was on my way home. Ah, the joys of winter!