a flair for the dramatic...

[saturn]

Everyone initially thought I fainted because I was fasting but I didn't feel well when I woke up so I ate something before we left. My blood pressure has always been low and this has happened before but I've never gotten it checked out. The only good thing about an ambulance ride to the ER is that they see you right away. I got to the hospital by 12:30pm and they did an EKG, chest x-rays, and a CAT scan. I was hoping they'd let me go when the test results came back fine but there's some sort of lucency on my brain that showed up on the CAT scan so I was told that I'd have to wait for a neurologist. Have you ever had a doctor tell you that a test looked off and you needed to see a specialist? It's fucking scary. I was imagining every possible scenario while I was waiting for the neurosurgeon. He eventually came to see me around 6pm and told me that he wasn't comfortable sending me home without an MRI because he couldn't rule out the spot on my brain as something harmless. He also wanted me hooked up to a heart monitor for 12- 24 hours to ensure that everything really was okay with my heart. I met with an admitting doctor who told me that there were no rooms on the cardiac monitoring unit so I'd have to stay in the ER until one opened up.

Oh, the ER. It's depressing. Everyone is so old. There was a woman with no legs. A very old woman with a broken him. An old man who kept screaming in pain. A woman who wanted her son. "RICHAAAARD! WHERE'S RICHARD?!?! WHERE'S MY SON?!?!" I was right next to a singer. She was an old lady who made up some song about being old and sick and sang it for hours. Hours and hours and hours. Getting old can be so undignified. It's really sad.

I learned that hospitals are terrible places to get rest. I didn't get up to the cardio floor until 12:30am and I was finally able to go to sleep a little after 1am. Then they woke me up at 6am and 7am for assessments. At 11:30am, the admitting doctor spoke to the neurologist who said I could be released as long as I followed up immediately for an outpatient MRI. I'm sure the spot is nothing. If it was a big concern, he'd probably insist I stay at the hospital. But, for my peace of mind, I'll follow up tomorrow on the MRI, Echo, and tilt table test. I'm just glad to be home.

Big, huge hugs to powrhug for the calls, the Harry/Snape texts, and the flowers. You are one in a million.