"untold stories of the e.r."

Hi folks,

still alive but been largely homebound by migraines and nerve pain.  The couple downstairs chain smoke as you know but I have not been well enough to "fight the good fight" (hmmm maybe I should go to karaoke and sing that tonight, haven't been in 14 months)



So you may recall that I was having  crushing chest pain (I now suspect it was chostochondritis  which is chronic chest pain associated with fibromyalgia)

So, I go to art walk then I go to the e.r. because that is what the local urgent care place  instructed me to do.  They did the e.c.g. then oddly they had me dress then go the wait room.  They didn't explain why.

Two hours later at 11 p.m. they got me a room.  Even though I brought my own blanket and pillow I was absolutely freezing.  I would request a heated blanket, then they would leave for 2 hours without bringing me a blanket.  For the most part the staff were pretty good this time, but there was one dr. who (I didn't realize it until later) was trying to do a physical exam and the pain upon touch (allodynia) was so severe that he laughed.  Attempting to read his mind, I suspect that he thought I was "faking" the pain.  But you all know by now that certain types of touch are therapeutic but most touch even light touch is excruc iating.

One dr. stated that they would take blood and put an i.v. in and give me pain meds to see if the meds help with chest pain.  By the time they released me at 3:50 a.m. they had never gotten around to giving me any pain meds.  So, I asked if I could at least have meds for the migraine and they made it a point to tell me that "we'll give you something but we aren't going to give you narcotics!" (they didn't explain why that is)

They took me for a cat scan and I was violently shaking from being so cold.  The room where the machine was, was even colder.  They said that they were going to give me contrast dye which I found terrifying.  The tech stated that I would feel "warm all over" "feel like I have to pee" and have a metallic taste in my mouth" but that the entire test would be only 5 minutes.

The entire top half of me tasted metal, and I yelled out "OMG IT'S 200 degrees!"  I felt like someone had set me on fire.  Then suddenly, I was freezing again and shaking.

There were so many sensations from being in the e.r.  As you may know even the electronic  bp cuff is torture.

The bottom line is that they found "a mass in my upper outer right breast"

I would find out weeks later that this has absolutely nothing to do with being in pain.

I am supposed to go for the mammogram.  So, although on some levels qol has risen this summer, I am still fairly certain that if you look at the overall picture, there are few Americans that could tolerate the conditions.