Wearing our Hearts on our Sleeves

After simultaneous but unrelated medical emergencies for two of our cats, Cardigan and Smog, I badgered Robb into taking our third cat Sleeves to the vet for a routine checkup.  Something was awry in his blood-work, so the vets ordered a kitty EKG.  Goodness only knows how the vets attach the electrical sensors to a cat's body to get the readings.

Thankfully, Sleeves was just fine, and there is nothing wrong with his heart.





My heart may be a different matter.  For the last week I've been experiencing constant annoying chest pains.  I finally decided to contact my doctor on Friday, and WHOOOO BOY did they take this seriously.

I got my own EKG in my doctor's office and was sent across the street to the emergency department of the hospital.  I've spent my share of time languishing in the waiting areas of hospital emergency rooms, and so I was glad that I'd packed my knitting.  I figured I'd be sitting around for hours and hours.






I was actually worried about how little yarn I had with me.  In fact I was a whole lot more worried about my knitting than my heart.

My healthcare providers had other opinions.  I was whisked right into a room, where I got another EKG.  And almost immediately, I was sitting on a hospital bed getting blood drawn and an IV inserted.

(The ER nurses were kind enough to place the IV in a way that would allow me to keep knitting.  It's actually remarkably difficult to tension one's yarn while hooked up to monitoring devices.)

I had a series of chest x-rays, and was scheduled for a battery of further tests the next morning.

My blood tests showed that I hadn't had a heart attack recently, which was good to know.  Heart attacks present very differently in women than they do in men. Many women don't go to the doctor because their symptoms aren't very dramatic.

My emergency doctor allowed me to go home for the night, but I was back at the hospital the next morning.

It took three unpleasant attempts and half an hour to connect me to the IV this time.  Apparently, I have very squirmy veins.  I'm not great with injections, under the best of circumstance, and we had to take a break when I started getting a bit woozy.

I was pumped full of radioactive drugs, and things that would extra-stimulate my heart, and lots of scans were administered.

At the moment, it's all very inconclusive.  I've got more tests scheduled.  I'm feeling pretty awful, probably from the heart-stimulating drugs.

Let's hope this is all much ado about nothing.