last night's adventure

if you ever go to the ER and don't want to wait for hours, just tell the nurse you are experiencing chest pain, and you'll be seen right away.

i'm sure i pissed a lot of people off when i came into the ER at good samaritan hospital last night complaining of chest pain and therefore increased everyone else's wait time.

monday afternoon, around 4 pm, i began to feel an incredible pressure on my sternum, like someone had put 10 bricks on my chest. breathing in was really painful, but i just figured it would go away. i talked to leslie at ~8 pm and her diagnosis was that i was having an anxiety attack. shortly after talking with her, my left arm started to hurt, then began going numb, and that's when i officially started freaking out.

i will try not to drag this out into a really long story, but after having an EKG, a full chest x-ray, drinking a NASTY cocktail of maalox and lidocaine (to determine if it was my stomach or esophagus), and being interrogated about various aspects of my medical history (have i ever done cocaine? um, no!), they found absolutely nothing wrong with me. but the pressure was still there. and i still feel it now, after over 24 hours!

so that was my first, and hopefully my last trip to the emergency room. i see my doctor tomorrow morning to see why this is happening. i hope to be back to normal soon...