Heart Condition Part II
5/20/12
After all of the doors were closed and the girls were safely locked into their car seats, I slowly started the van and turned around to look behind for any vehicles that would impede our leaving and according to Bonnie a grimace crossed my face as I quickly turned back around to the forward position. I felt the same pain once again and I no longer could deny that something was really going on in my chest but I did not yet agree to do anything about it. I slowly turned around again, to prove a point, and saw no vehicles and began to pull out of the parking space. I put the van in drive and proceeded to leave the parking lot. Not much activity inside my body occurred for the first part of the trip home with the exception that I would sweat a bit and then it would go away so my mind once again ran through all of the medical options of sweating and chest pain which I totally ignored the heart issues and continued to pursue the cold or flu issues.
Bonnie continually looked at me until we had left the lights of Junction then she could not really get a glimpse of my face so she resumed her lines of questioning. I was not short of breath nor any of my arms hurting so and really no pressure in my chest to speak of, just the recurrent and intermittent pain. After a few moments of answering or trying to dodge from answering her questions I reluctantly agreed to go to the lab and perform a Troponin test on myself; just as another dull pain shot through my chest. As we neared Delta we approached the turnoff to go to our house and Bonnie turned her head towards me and gave me that “don’t you dare do it” look which I pretended to not notice but I could not ignore the heat seeking darts that were coming from her eyes towards my direction so I ignored the turnoff and continued driving into town.
With Bonnie being satisfied, or getting her way as I looked at it, her questions decreased and focused on getting home as soon as possible. I knew that her mind was thinking of many things about what was happening because even though I did not say anything to her I was really beginning to believe that something major was happening. The arrival into Delta brought her attention back to my face and what my conditions were showing her. This was one time that I wish Delta still had the dark and dimmed lit lights so that my facial conditions could not be seen, but never the less she saw what she wanted. I turned onto the street that would lead us to the hospital and she broke the silence with the question of “how are you feeling?” At this point I could honestly tell her, and I did, that I was not hurting and that I was feeling ok.
As I turned onto the hospital street I had a thought cross my mind, maybe the hospital is busy and my presence would just be a hindrance and I would not have to go into the lab for the test. Bonnie must have been reading my mind because even before I could finish my thought she interrupted my thinking by saying something of the sort of don’t think that if it is busy we are leaving. So much for that concept, but I verbally told her that I was going to follow through with the deed no matter what. As we pulled into the hospital parking lot I noticed that there not many cars present but an ambulance had recently pulled up into the lot as I noticed that their back doors were still open. I quickly dismissed an accident or any other trauma situation fully knowing that there would be no getting out of this situation.
I parked the van at the end of the parking lot and turned off the engine. I was dreading this moment since every other time I had gotten out of the van that evening I had pains shoot through my chest. I slowly took the keys out of the ignition and the girls immediately jumped up and opened the door. They were excited about having the opportunity of seeing the lab tech that was working that evening far much more of my “excitement” about having my blood drawn. At this point the girls knew I was not feeling well but had no clue of the possible gravity of the situation. I opened the door and took a deep breath at the same time and was pleasantly surprised when my feet touched the ground that no pains were present inside my chest or any other areas of my body. I turned and shut the door and began to walk towards the back of the van when I heard the other two doors close. It was judgment time I thought quietly.
The walk into the hospital emergency entrance, which was the only entrance open at that time of night, was a long one kind of like walking down a long empty tunnel in which a person knew what was behind door number one at the end of the tunnel. Bonnie asked again if I was ok and I could honestly tell her that I was not hurting which really was surprising to me. I could feel my blood flowing and my heart racing in anticipation of an exact result of a pretty definitive blood test. The emergency room doors opened and we by-passed the other sliding glass doors and I reached to pull the glass door that allowed access to the emergency room waiting area. No pains were present when I accomplished this task and I held it open while everyone else filed into the area. I walked in behind them and my confidence continued to grow since I had completed a few tasks that did not provide pain, maybe I was out of the woods.
As we were walking down to the back hallway to go into the back entrance of the lab we ran into a few of my colleagues and we greeted each other cordially and then the inevitable question of why would I be here on my night off came up and Bonnie glared at me to see what type of response I would have to them. Luckily the one of the girls piped up and said I was not feeling well and that I was going to do a test so I hoped on board and said that I did not know what was going on and that I was going to check a couple of things. Not much else was said about me since all of the attention was now on the two blond headed munchkins which was a blessing of determent in my mind. We all said goodbye and they went down the hall and we began to enter the lab. The girls were first to enter the lab and immediately located the tech working and to wonder what she was doing for excitement at that moment. The girls had always been fascinated with the lab and the instruments that perform all of the testing.
The lab tech on duty asked me what I was doing there and since there was no way of getting around this question I had to explain the truth to her. She agreed about the test and immediately took the side of Bonnie and began to squawk at me for not coming in sooner. I knew that she would take sides in the matter so I stood there and took my punishment from another person, which looking back was totally deserved since I should have known to come in earlier to find out what was occurring.
I walked up to the drawing area of the lab and began to locate all of the materials needed for drawing my blood. I eventually gathered all of the supplies needed and then protested internally once again as I sat down in the drawing chair. Bonnie had migrated up to the area probably to make sure I was actually drawing myself and to witness the needle poke personally, she does know how my mind operates which can be a good thing or bad thing depending upon what I was trying to avoid. She stood there and asked if she could help in any way and I said no that I have done this many times to myself and that it would only take a few seconds.
I tore open an alcohol pad and took the square out and began to scrub the area in which I was going to stick the needle. While allowing the area to dry I attached the butterfly assembly to the small syringe and placed it next to my arm. I then took the cotton ball and patted the area clean and then placed the cotton ball next to my arm as well. Bonnie all the while stood there and did not say too much until I was ready to stick the needle into my arm when she asked if she could help. I refused and slipped the sheath off of the needle and slowly and methodically placed the needle into the prepared area. A small amount of blood appeared at the edge of the needle and tubing which was a sign that I had a blood return and ready to drain my blood into the syringe.
As I began to pull back on the syringe Bonnie made a statement that she was glad that I was getting this done so that we can get an idea of what was occurring with my pain. Her thoughts and concerns were noble and just in which I had no defense against her actions. I continued to pull back on the syringe plunger until the syringe was filled with the appropriate amount of blood. I pulled the needle out of my arm and laid the syringe and tubing next to my arm just as a spot of blood began to appear on the top of my skin, no big deal since this occurs when a person actually draws themselves correctly. I placed a cotton ball on my arm and folded my arm upwards and then began to reach for the syringe assembly to place the blood into the appropriate specimen tube for testing.
As I placed the needle into the specimen tube Bonnie thanked me for doing this and I looked at her and sarcastically replied “sure, no problem”. The blood was flowing into the specimen tube as I removed the cotton ball from my arm and placed a band aid on the injection site. I then took an alcohol pad and wiped clean the excess of blood that came out after the needle was out of my arm. The next question that Bonnie asked is if it hurt more when I drew my own blood and I promptly said that it does not hurt much either way, but since we had to do this procedure on ourselves in school it was common place for me to do it without any troubles.
Before I got up from the chair I quickly labeled my tube with my name and then proceeded to get up and go over to the centrifuge and placed it into one of the slots for spinning. I found an adequate balance tube and placed it into its slot and closed the lid and pressed the start button. In ten minutes the spinning would be completed and I then could put my specimen on the instrument to run. All during this time I had no evidence of pain in my chest and I was still feeling well. The lab tech had completed her work and came over, along with her two followers, to me to find out more details of the evening. All of us sat around and talked about things and passed the time until the phone rang. She answered it was then was off to the ER for some other tests. I could not help but wonder what my results were going to be as I stared at the centrifuge in silence. The centrifuge timer now read zero and the RPMs began to slow on a controlled basis, the time had come and my tension began to rise inside me.
DLB
Part III coming next….
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