February 21, 2005

Heart attack, pulmonary embolism, or food-borne illness?

I'm up at this ridiculous hour, trying to decide which of those three I have. Why is it that 'bad feelings' usually tek yuh when everybody else is sleeping?

What are my symptoms? Well today at the gym, I had palpitations. But that's nothing strange. That's a regular once-a-month thing. (And then there is the question whether it's a palpitation or 'cardiac gallop'. I once went to a doctor and he asked me to describe the rhythm of my heart when it skipped the beat. Boy, was that difficult).

Later in the day I was feeling fine. Went into bed at about midnight, read a bit, then turned in. Snuggled up under the cover, then had one of those moments where you feel like having just jumped out of an airplane at 30,000 feet.....the kind of moment that makes you jump up in the bed and say "gosh" or "Jesus" as I have done in the past. (Tonight it was "gosh").

Then I felt like my body was suddenly unfolding, moving to a jelly-like state (no, it was not the cellulite!). Next came two visits to Le Twa-lay in quick succession, then shakes inside my body. Tightness in the top of the head is also present, and a pain in the back behind the heart.

Now all of these symptoms could be any one of those three init? Only a doctor can tell.

So, here's what I did.....

Got out my UWI Casuality card (Got it in September last year when I went to check out the chest pain....the ECG turned up negative), put it on the table, sat on the bed, took some inhaling breaths, then came to the internet docta to explain my symptoms. I was really heading into the parents' room to wake them up to ask them to take me to the hospital. But ah say lemme hold on a bit.

You read articles about PE however, and see that some patients pop off within 60 minutes. Of course, coupled with seeing symptoms in the article that mirror your own, your heart starts to beat that much faster, and you don't know if that's a symptom, or a symptom of seeing the symptom!

Anyway, I have my feet up while typing....oh, forgot to mention tingly legs....to see if that will help.

The sleeping family are oblivious to what's happening to me. After all, some have to work tomorrow. Oh, whenever I feel like this, I swallow an aspirin. So I have just had an 81mg one with a glass of milk.

Ok, enough of this. I'm sure it's nothing. Let me go and read something more pleasant....like cricket (but not about West Indies cricket). I'll letch know how the night turned out (if I am able!)

Posted by yamfoot at February 21, 2005 03:24 AM