[Sailor Steve]

Is You Is or Is You Ain't?

Two weeks ago I developed a small pain in the middle left side of my back. It felt very much like when I had a tiny spot of pneumonia forty years ago. I figured I would ignore it for a few days and if it persisted I would go to the VA clinic and have it looked at.

The following Saturday it moved to my shoulder. Not spread, moved. It was no longer in my back. Two days later, Monday, it moved again, this time to my upper left arm. Two days later it suddenly grew until it was almost unbearable. I drove up to the VA Medical Center and couldn't find a place to park. Their parking garage has been under reconstruction for the last six months, and is nowhere near to being complete, so parking is catch-as-catch-can. There is Valet Parking, but I can't afford that.

Friday morning the pain was still bad so I went back up to the VA, this time at around 0600. Parking was no problem. After a while I found out that 'Valet' parking is free. You just drive up to the door and give them your keys. I checked in and they took some blood, the wheeled me into a bed in the patient intake area. Awhile later a guy came back and told me I was having a heart attack and that they needed to lower my blood pressure. He put a tab of nitroglycerine under my tongue and waited. My BP dropped. And dropped. And dropped. I was so listless by that time I could hardly understand what he was saying. He managed to get my blood pressure back up, and the heart doctors came to talk to me. They said I had an elevated enzyme that indicated heart damage. They checked me in and wheeled me up to a room in the Cardiology Floor. Out of my clothes, into pajamas, strapped into an IV with blood thinnners then finally to the lab. Angiogram time. They put the tiny tube into my right rist vein with the tiny camera that was fed up my arm, across my chest and into my heart. I slept through most of it. Then back down to my room and pretty nurse Paula, who took good care of me. Later the doctors came to tell me they wanted to do a heart stress test on Monday, so they had to keep me over the weekend. The problem was that the angiogram showed absolutely nothing wrong. Later some general (i.e. non-heart) doctors asked about the pain. When I told them it lessened when I held my arm above my head their leader said “Sounds like a pinched nerve to me”.

Saturday: I was poked an prodded some more, blood tests and injections. The only pain killer they gave me was plain old Tylenol, but it seemed to do the job just fine. They took my blood pressure on the left side all that day, saying they weren't supposed to do it on the side the angiogram went in for twenty four hours. I slept a lot, probably because of the angiogram and the drugs and the bloodletting.

Sunday: They took my blood pressure from the right side. Six hours later I had an ugly bruise on the bottom of my upper arm. Six hours after that the bruise covered my whole upper arm, top and bottom, and the underside of my lower arm as well. It's quite ugly, but doesn't hurt at all.

Monday: I missed breakfast because of the upcoming stress test. Then they didn't bring me lunch. Still no test. At around 1400, after almost twenty hours of nothing to eat or drink (not even water) the nurse brought me a “late tray”, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some chips. Then the hear doctors came and said that if the test turned out positive they would put me on blood thinners and do it again in six months. If it was negative they would probably do the same just to be on the safe side. If there was no heart trouble the medication wouldn't hurt me, unless of course I got hurt and the bleeding wouldn't stop, in which case I should get up there immediately.

So there's nothing to indicate any trouble except that one raised enzyme level, but it's a sure indicator that I “definitely had a heart attack”. Sometime. Maybe a long time ago. I asked them about the pain that brought me into the hospital in the first place. The said the two seemed to be completely unrelated, and they were heart doctors and didn't know anything about that.

Finally the Physical Therapy people said the X-rays showed some arthritis in the neck, which may be causing the problem, so keep taking Tylenol and they'll schedule an appointment. So, at 1830 last night I checked out, picked up some new pills to take and came home.

So, did I have a heart attack or not? The heart doctors insist I did, but it has nothing to do with the pain I went there for in the first place. It makes me wonder if they want it to be that, just to justify their big paychecks.

Supplement: I hadn't been on the computer for more than a couple of hours before my arm started to hurt again. As an experiment I swapped out my nice new computer chair for my old ratty-tatty one and I'm not having any pain right now. It may be because I just took a Tylenol. I'd hate to think that I went through all that because my new computer chair is junk. We'll see.