A heart episode, or not
Discussion
Over the last weekend I felt pretty unwell, indigestion-like pain, was sick, shivering, woke up Sunday felt absolutely fine. Blamed Saturday’s dinner and my cooking.
Went to work Monday, chest pain came back, not too painful but definitely noticeable, so went to the local walk-in who tested BP and it was 140/90 (no idea what it normally is, am 37, non smoker, reasonably fit). Doctor just told me not much they could really do and I should head to A&E.
So I did, although the pain had gone by then, they saw me quick and did ECG and bloods at triage, sent me off waiting again - “this is a waste of time”, I thought - then called me back for questions, more ECG traces, then a chest X-ray before dumping me on a monitor in a resus bay.
Next thing, I’m transferred to another hospital’s cardiology unit, and hooked up to even more ECG wires. Apparently the traces looked normal but the troponin levels were 8000 then 9000, which apparently isn’t great, and my white blood cell count was also low.
Consultant and sonographer have each done an ultrasound and neither saw anything obvious they’re concerned about.
A viral infection seems to be one possibility, but while I’m here they may offer an angiogram, so we’ll see if that shows anything of interest.
(Bored in an isolation room, and have now read the internet, avoiding googling about causes!)
Apparently I should have gone to A&E on Saturday, but who does that for a bad stomach?
Went to work Monday, chest pain came back, not too painful but definitely noticeable, so went to the local walk-in who tested BP and it was 140/90 (no idea what it normally is, am 37, non smoker, reasonably fit). Doctor just told me not much they could really do and I should head to A&E.
So I did, although the pain had gone by then, they saw me quick and did ECG and bloods at triage, sent me off waiting again - “this is a waste of time”, I thought - then called me back for questions, more ECG traces, then a chest X-ray before dumping me on a monitor in a resus bay.
Next thing, I’m transferred to another hospital’s cardiology unit, and hooked up to even more ECG wires. Apparently the traces looked normal but the troponin levels were 8000 then 9000, which apparently isn’t great, and my white blood cell count was also low.
Consultant and sonographer have each done an ultrasound and neither saw anything obvious they’re concerned about.
A viral infection seems to be one possibility, but while I’m here they may offer an angiogram, so we’ll see if that shows anything of interest.
(Bored in an isolation room, and have now read the internet, avoiding googling about causes!)
Apparently I should have gone to A&E on Saturday, but who does that for a bad stomach?
I went through a similar experience about five years ago and there's no doubt that it can be rather frightening since you feel out of control of what's happening to you and your body. But you're fairly young, and even if they find something you'd rather not have (and I suppose the chances are they won't) they can do some truly amazing things these days.
The thing I learnt was to face any problems in an honest and straightforward way.
Let's hope you'll be out in a few hours and be good for another few decades yet.
The thing I learnt was to face any problems in an honest and straightforward way.
Let's hope you'll be out in a few hours and be good for another few decades yet.
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