Life Surprise...36º

I posted a blog on Thursday last week, it was a busy day, mostly relaxing things, and I only dreaded grocery shopping..."At my age," I wake up on any given day with assorted aches and pains that go away once I get moving...Looking back I had a heaviness in my chest, and when I arrived for my massage and climbed some stairs, I was very short breath...Passed it off as not enough exercise this winter...The massage was good and I went on to water therapy where I floated around on a noodle, exercising arms and legs, hit the hot tub and was soon at safeway...Halfway through safeway, I got really warm, almost sweaty but it quickly passed...When I arrived home, packed groceries from car to house the shortness of breath was back and my chest seemed more heavy.

Not wanting to alarm Herb, I said, "I'll put the groceries away in a few minutes, I just need a little rest."..As I sat resting, thinking 'elephant sitting on my chest,(heart attack) no not that bad, maybe a cow sitting on my chest...I could also feel my heart pounding and when I took a deep breath it hurt deep in my right lung, pleurisy maybe, I thought.'

I picked up the phone, called my Doctor and she said "Idella go to the emergency room."..."But can't I just come to see you?"..."NO, go to the emergency room, they have everything there to take care of you."

I could blather on for several more paragraphs, giving you a picture of the drama in the ER, but I will give you a brief glimpse  of what transpired over the next 24 hours...It was about 3pm when we arrived at the ER...My blood pressure and heart was  monitored, EKG, blood tests, X-rays, endless questions...I could also hear conversations outside my cubical..."We can't get a flight out tonight, but I'm ready to do a ground transport." 'Hmm must be someone in worse shape then me.'  Then Dr Allen (ER doctor for the night) got my attention when she said, "I want to send you out of here, but I have to find a bed (Walla Walla, Tri Cities, Spokane, Boise) and I want to talk to more cardiologist because you could be having a heart attack, but all of the signs aren't there..."I'm feeling better Dr. can't I just stay here for the night or even better go home."

Okay to cut the drama and make a long story short, about 6pm, Dr Allen sent me down the hall for a cat scan of my lungs and the diagnosis pulmonary embolism was assigned to me...It is a serious condition but I did not have to leave Wallowa County...I was admitted to the hospital, started immediately on blood thinners, so I would stop making blood clots...The clots I have are small, but there are many and it will take weeks for them to dissolve, hence weeks of being on a blood thinner, and down the road, more tests to try to determine why my body did this, we may never know WHY...
'Right now I'm thinking about how thankful I am that Herb stuck with his Forest Service job for all of those years so we have good medical and prescription insurance to supplement Medicare...We are very lucky.'

This is not a tale of woe, I'm not looking for sympathy, I know that my friends and family love and care about me and need to know when something crazy like this happens...I'm going to stop here and come back tomorrow and tell you the fun things I did over the weekend...Dr's orders, keep on with the things you always do, just be mindful of any abnormal bleeding (blood thinner) bruising and DON'T overdo...Hugs To All...OWAV:)