Sunday, February 25, 2007

Late Night Trip to the Emergency Room

I awakened at 1:30 AM with severe chest pains. I figured it was a little fluky, like I fell asleep in a wrong position. I got up, got something to drink, felt better, and went back to sleep.

I awakened again at 3:00 AM with more severe pains. Now I knew it was something a little more significant. I got up, got dressed, and looked up the closest hospital (Kadlec) on the computer. By this point, I was feeling better, and decided to lay back down (still dressed) to see if I could go back to sleep. Within minutes, I started hurting again, and drove to the Emergency Room.

I had an EKG, Chest X-Ray, and CT Scan, and was given a nitroglycerin pill (in case it was a heart attack). After that, I fell asleep in the Emergency Room. It was around 5:30 AM.

At 7:30 AM, the ER doctor came and told me they found some sort of a mass in my chest. He suspected it was a Thymoma, but we wouldn’t know for sure until more tests would be run. He said I would likely be sent home, and admitted to the hospital the next day. It was at this point that I called my parents and girlfriend Dana.

Around 8:15 AM, they decided to admit me to the hospital to run more tests. They took many blood samples, and the hospitalist, Dr. Donna Hephinger, made plans to have a needle biopsy on Monday afternoon. I spent most of the day sleeping in the hospital, preparing for the next day. My mom and girlfriend spent most of the day with me. My dad came to visit, too, where he uttered the now famous quote: “I didn’t come here to watch him sleep.”

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