Nope, more like weekend at Baylor hospital in Dallas, Texas. Yep spent the whole weekend in a hospital bed. How did I end up there? I’ll try and make this story short. 
In some of my past blogs, I had mentioned that I was short of breath during some of my exercises. Last week leading up to this, my breathing had become a little taxing. Last Thursday night, I was feeling like I was coming down with something. My chest was getting tight and of course breathing was an issue.
This past weekend, my daughter and I were going to attend the OU/Tulsa football game in Norman, Oklahoma. We were going to stay with my uncle in Dallas on Friday night and then again on Saturday, after the game. When I got up Friday morning, my chest had a small ache. My breathing was difficult. Had to stop and take a deap breath once in a while. Again, thinking I was getting sick. But I had a goal of getting to the game, come hell or high water.
So we arrive in Dallas Friday afternoon. My sister meets us at my uncles house and we go out to eat. And all the while, during the day, I am getting more uncomfortable. By the time we’re half way through dinner. The ache in my chest had become a pain. And every time I breathed in, it hurt more. I tell my sister and my daughter that I’m not feeling well. And my daughter and I go back to my uncles office. He’s co-owner and CFO of the restaurant. I tell him that I think I’m having a heart attack. Yep, that’s right. A heart attack. He takes us to Baylor hospital, which was near by. As I’m telling him my symptoms. He thought that I may have walking pneumonia. That’s what he had once. And he tought he was having a heart attack. At this point, I am in panic mode.
We get into the ER and tell them that I’m having a heart attack. They quickly get me in and hook me up to an EKG and start asking all sorts of questions. Which, throughout the night were asked over and over again. They wheeled me down to a staging area. There they put and IV needle in my arm. And gave me a dose of morphine. And took some blood. The morphine calmed me down some. And eased the pain a bit. By 2 am Saturday moring I was checked into a room. At 3, 5, and 8 am they came and took more blood. oy, oy, oy…. Also, they gave me a shot of blood thinner. This was done in my abdomen. That really stings!! I had about 5 of those done over the period I was there. At nitro patch was put on my chest and replaced about every 9 hours or so. This dilated my arteries and increased blood flow. Which gave me a constant head ache all weekend.
They had set me up for a stress test and echo cardiogram for that Saturday morning. Turned out they don’t do them on weekends. So on the advise of all my family members, I stayed in the hospital to have the stress test done on Monday. I could not have any food after midnight the day of the tests. So Monday morning came and went. Finally by 1 that afternoon they wheel me down to the testing area. They wire me up and get me ready. First is the echocardiogram. Then they get me on the treadmill. Every 2 minutes he took my blood pressure and increased the speed and incline of the treadmill. By the time it was at 18% incline and 5 mph. My HR was around 170 and in a jog. When I felt I was done. He slowed it down a bit. Then I rolled back on the bed and the tech quickly did another echo reading before my heart rate had time to reduce.
Results of the all the tests. Blood, stress, and echo…… All negative. I’m in perfect health. Nothing wrong with the old ticker. Exrays were negative as well. Lungs are clear. So what could have been the problem? After thinking about it all weekend. Cause that’s all I had to do laying in bed all weekend. It’s my opinion that it was indigestion. Yep, just eating too much.
Over the past month or so. I had increased my diet to increase my calorie intake. Over time my body did not take kindly to this increase. At times I thought my body was adjusting to the change. But it was quietly telling me otherwise. And I wasn’t listening. Until finally Friday night my body revolted and sent me for a loop. Some people can handle a hig calorie diet. Others cannot. I seem to be one of the others. So now I’m going to cut back on my diet. And pick up were I left off.
Moral of the story? Listen to your body people. It will tell you what it needs and doesn’t need. Maybe not loud at first. But tune in. You just might hear something.
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