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Things I see in the Emergency Room
I called my doctor's office this morning to ask my primary care physician what to do and her assistant called back two hours later: "go to the emergency room." So I did.
They admitted me immediately. My oxygen levels were normal, blood pressure and temperature fine. They whisked me to a curtained area with an empty bed, and I changed into the gown they gave me. A nurse came by and asked me questions. I answered them and he left. The doctor visited me next. She listened to my breathing, and then announced, "we will do an EKG first, and then take a chest X-ray."
The doctor left and a woman with a computer-type machine on wheels rolled up. She put stickers all over me and connected wires to them. "Do not breathe". I sat still for a moment, and then it was over; a jagged line stretched across her monitor. She released the wires from me in a single stroke and wheeled away, leaving me to pull the stickers off.
Then I was led down a corridor to a room with a high ceiling and an enormous x-ray camera hanging on a mechanical arm. The X-ray technician was impossibly tall. I don't think I've ever seen anyone as tall as him in my life. He was a genial giant though, and once the images had been taken he allowed me to come back into the other room and see them. I could see my organs and bones and the ghostly outline of my body. Then he led me back to the curtained area where my bed waited for me. Eventually the doctor came by. "The X-ray looks good. No masses or anything abnormal. The EKG was also normal. We can find nothing wrong with you. I suggest you follow up with your regular physician as an outpatient." I thanked her and gathered up my things. So I still don't know why I'm having trouble breathing.
I tried to get copies of the x-ray images of my chest for artistic purposes, but they wouldn't release them to me (I will have to go through the Medical Records office to get them).
I think my number one suspicion now is a food allergy. I tend to get worse after I eat, so maybe the food I'm eating has something to do with it. I tend to eat the same things for breakfast lunch and dinner every day, so tomorrow I'm going to eat differently than I normally do and see if it helps.
They admitted me immediately. My oxygen levels were normal, blood pressure and temperature fine. They whisked me to a curtained area with an empty bed, and I changed into the gown they gave me. A nurse came by and asked me questions. I answered them and he left. The doctor visited me next. She listened to my breathing, and then announced, "we will do an EKG first, and then take a chest X-ray."
The doctor left and a woman with a computer-type machine on wheels rolled up. She put stickers all over me and connected wires to them. "Do not breathe". I sat still for a moment, and then it was over; a jagged line stretched across her monitor. She released the wires from me in a single stroke and wheeled away, leaving me to pull the stickers off.
Then I was led down a corridor to a room with a high ceiling and an enormous x-ray camera hanging on a mechanical arm. The X-ray technician was impossibly tall. I don't think I've ever seen anyone as tall as him in my life. He was a genial giant though, and once the images had been taken he allowed me to come back into the other room and see them. I could see my organs and bones and the ghostly outline of my body. Then he led me back to the curtained area where my bed waited for me. Eventually the doctor came by. "The X-ray looks good. No masses or anything abnormal. The EKG was also normal. We can find nothing wrong with you. I suggest you follow up with your regular physician as an outpatient." I thanked her and gathered up my things. So I still don't know why I'm having trouble breathing.
I tried to get copies of the x-ray images of my chest for artistic purposes, but they wouldn't release them to me (I will have to go through the Medical Records office to get them).
I think my number one suspicion now is a food allergy. I tend to get worse after I eat, so maybe the food I'm eating has something to do with it. I tend to eat the same things for breakfast lunch and dinner every day, so tomorrow I'm going to eat differently than I normally do and see if it helps.