friday night follies

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A few weeks ago my doctor put me on a beta blocker that has been found to help with migraines. Thursday I called her office to let her know how it was doing – I am tired all of the time and I started to notice some aching in my chest the night before. All normal, my body needs time to adjust. So I take my pill and go to bed – now it isn’t an ache, but it doesn’t really pain either. I had a little trouble getting to sleep, but I made it. I go about my day, no ache, no pain, fine. I take my nightly dose, and 2 hours later in the middle of Lonesome Dove, my chest HURTS. I saw my cousin online (a nurse) and tell her what is going on and ask for any suggestions on what it is. She says “GO TO THE ER NOW”.

I get in there — they hook me up to all sorts of beeping gadgets. My oxygen was 100%, my pulse was 59 and my blood pressure 97/68 (low but to be expected with the type of drug I am on). The EKG was normal, but the doctor wanted to do more, I was tired but grateful someone was taking this seriously. I didn’t freak out about the chest pains until my cousin did. My mom had heart problems and knowing that this drug I was taking could cause heart problems I wasn’t feeling too froggy about the whole thing.
They brought the x-ray man to me; I didn’t have to wander around the hospital at midnight in my gown with my ass hanging out — of course, they probably did this for their protection, but I was grateful just the same.  Then I had blood drawn. Both the x-ray and the blood tests came back normal. Well, my sugar was up, but, I had a sweet potato for dinner and a couple of chocolate chip cookies for dessert. And I am happy to report that my cholesterol is down 20 points since the last time I had it checked.
It turns out that one of the side effects of this drug (other than whole cardiac arrest thing) is gastrointestinal pain. Yup, I had heartburn. Lovely. The doctor gave me some Pepcid and sent me home.
Well at least I didn’t have a heart attack, and my insurance is good enough to pay for the visit.
How was your Friday night?