Well that wasn't the Christmas I planned...

DisneyOma

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jul 27, 2015
Woke up Christmas morning feeling fine, but started to feel "off" while I was sitting at my desk on my laptop. By the time the rest of the family got up and we started to open presents, I had pain across my chest and shooting down both arms. Broke out in a sweat, shakes, and had a panic attack. Husband rushed me to ER, they took me right in, and hooked me up to EKG. This has happened to me before (twice) so I thought it would be fine - blame it on my anxiety and poor posture at the computer, and go home.

Nope- they saw something in that EKG that had me transferred by ambulance (with sirens) to a larger hospital that could do an angiogram. Rushed right into that when we got to the bigger hospital, yikes! Angiogram came back with no blockages, no sign of any narrowing (yet) arteries to the heart, and the heart looked fine too. A million bruises on my arms from the blood thinners and needle pricks and IVs, and a very sore arm from the scope that went up into my heart. Also, having something poke around a working heart is creepy! When it went through the valves - ugh!

Put into CCU for a few hours, monitored, then sent to the cardiac care floor for the night. Some machine that I wasn't hooked up to went off in my room around 2 AM. Of course, at 2 AM I'm sound asleep, and not thinking straight, yay! I buzz the nurse, she comes in pretty quickly, and it's a machine that another nurse unplugged to help me charge my phone. The battery backup got low enough to set off the warning beeps. Joy!

Morning arrives, doctors come in and ask me about my symptoms, and say it definitely was not a heart attack. I have an echocardiogram, showing a nice healthy heart, the doctor calls to say I'm being discharged, and I get dressed, hubby picks me up and we go home. I'm to call my PC this morning and see him this week. I get to take some drugs for a while, wean myself off caffeine and rest.

Not the Christmas I had in mind, but it's good to know my chest pains are not due to my heart. But curse this stupid anxiety!
 
So glad to know all turned out ok! That sounds scary and definitely not the holiday anybody wants. I hope you can have a “do-over” to celebrate with family as planned.
 
Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry you had to go through all that- start to finish.
Thankfully you didn't need further treatment (heart)
Sending prayers your way!!!
 
Woke up Christmas morning feeling fine, but started to feel "off" while I was sitting at my desk on my laptop. By the time the rest of the family got up and we started to open presents, I had pain across my chest and shooting down both arms. Broke out in a sweat, shakes, and had a panic attack. Husband rushed me to ER, they took me right in, and hooked me up to EKG. This has happened to me before (twice) so I thought it would be fine - blame it on my anxiety and poor posture at the computer, and go home.

Nope- they saw something in that EKG that had me transferred by ambulance (with sirens) to a larger hospital that could do an angiogram. Rushed right into that when we got to the bigger hospital, yikes! Angiogram came back with no blockages, no sign of any narrowing (yet) arteries to the heart, and the heart looked fine too. A million bruises on my arms from the blood thinners and needle pricks and IVs, and a very sore arm from the scope that went up into my heart. Also, having something poke around a working heart is creepy! When it went through the valves - ugh!

Put into CCU for a few hours, monitored, then sent to the cardiac care floor for the night. Some machine that I wasn't hooked up to went off in my room around 2 AM. Of course, at 2 AM I'm sound asleep, and not thinking straight, yay! I buzz the nurse, she comes in pretty quickly, and it's a machine that another nurse unplugged to help me charge my phone. The battery backup got low enough to set off the warning beeps. Joy!

Morning arrives, doctors come in and ask me about my symptoms, and say it definitely was not a heart attack. I have an echocardiogram, showing a nice healthy heart, the doctor calls to say I'm being discharged, and I get dressed, hubby picks me up and we go home. I'm to call my PC this morning and see him this week. I get to take some drugs for a while, wean myself off caffeine and rest.

Not the Christmas I had in mind, but it's good to know my chest pains are not due to my heart. But curse this stupid anxiety!
Oh no! I’m so sorry about Christmas, but I am sure glad to see your heart is OK!

Our daughter used to have what everyone thought was heart-related symptoms as a child; turned out she had Tietze Syndrome, and was successfully treated for it. She still has flare-ups as an adult, but overall her symptoms are well-managed.

I hope you will let us know what the outcome is; for you, and your family’s sake, I hope it’s something easy to manage, and never returns again!
 
Glad it turned out ok for you. Things like that are scary and anxiety can go up even more just from how the situation keeps changing.
 


Well, weaning back off the caffeine has triggered migraines, so that's a lovely bump in the road to recovery. Can't one thing be easy? My body's homeostasis is so out of whack right now. Might be time to retire!

I just saw something today (in Apple News) that said people are having good luck with eliminating or reducing a migraine by soaking their feet in hot water. Obvs you don’t want to scald your feet, but apparently the hottest water you can stand for the longest period of time. Just soak your feet.

I hope something breaks your way soon - like today!
 
Woke up Christmas morning feeling fine, but started to feel "off" while I was sitting at my desk on my laptop. By the time the rest of the family got up and we started to open presents, I had pain across my chest and shooting down both arms. Broke out in a sweat, shakes, and had a panic attack. Husband rushed me to ER, they took me right in, and hooked me up to EKG. This has happened to me before (twice) so I thought it would be fine - blame it on my anxiety and poor posture at the computer, and go home.

Nope- they saw something in that EKG that had me transferred by ambulance (with sirens) to a larger hospital that could do an angiogram. Rushed right into that when we got to the bigger hospital, yikes! Angiogram came back with no blockages, no sign of any narrowing (yet) arteries to the heart, and the heart looked fine too. A million bruises on my arms from the blood thinners and needle pricks and IVs, and a very sore arm from the scope that went up into my heart. Also, having something poke around a working heart is creepy! When it went through the valves - ugh!

Put into CCU for a few hours, monitored, then sent to the cardiac care floor for the night. Some machine that I wasn't hooked up to went off in my room around 2 AM. Of course, at 2 AM I'm sound asleep, and not thinking straight, yay! I buzz the nurse, she comes in pretty quickly, and it's a machine that another nurse unplugged to help me charge my phone. The battery backup got low enough to set off the warning beeps. Joy!

Morning arrives, doctors come in and ask me about my symptoms, and say it definitely was not a heart attack. I have an echocardiogram, showing a nice healthy heart, the doctor calls to say I'm being discharged, and I get dressed, hubby picks me up and we go home. I'm to call my PC this morning and see him this week. I get to take some drugs for a while, wean myself off caffeine and rest.

Not the Christmas I had in mind, but it's good to know my chest pains are not due to my heart. But curse this stupid anxiety!
I'm glad it wasn't the heart and you're ok. It's reassuring to know they thoroughly checked it all at least. I hope you can rest and feel better!
 
Thank you! Feeling fine, except that my head hurts from banging it into the hatchback of my car yesterday (ouch!) Now I'm concerned that I have a (very mild) concussion. I'm going to work today, and will ask the school nurse or one of the teachers that is also an athletic trainer (one a former nurse) to do an eval. But no more chest pains since a week after Christmas, so that's good. And I only got one bill, so far, for my Christmas adventure. I expect a few more to trickle in, but fingers crossed it doesn't cost too much.
 
I hope something breaks your way soon - like today!
I get 10 minutes a day to check online - and so I came here and reread this, and it made me laugh, because something did break my way - my darn head! :rotfl: It's a concussion, I'm out of work for a bit, then half days, and so on until I am all better. I'm supposed to stay active, so my house is getting very clean, very carefully and slowly. But no screen time beyond that 10 minutes.
 
So sorry to hear this OP!! I have had some bad anxiety attacks and went to the hospital in 2017 thinking I was having a heart attack as well. Though luckily I didn't have an angiogram, just a cardiac CAT scan. Sending HUGGS and healing vibes!
 
I get 10 minutes a day to check online - and so I came here and reread this, and it made me laugh, because something did break my way - my darn head! :rotfl: It's a concussion, I'm out of work for a bit, then half days, and so on until I am all better. I'm supposed to stay active, so my house is getting very clean, very carefully and slowly. But no screen time beyond that 10 minutes.
Oh, goodness. That is not a good break.
Hope for a quick recovery and no more breaks of any kind!
 
I get 10 minutes a day to check online - and so I came here and reread this, and it made me laugh, because something did break my way - my darn head! :rotfl: It's a concussion, I'm out of work for a bit, then half days, and so on until I am all better. I'm supposed to stay active, so my house is getting very clean, very carefully and slowly. But no screen time beyond that 10 minutes.
I’ll keep it short and sweet; please take care and heal all the way up - we like the 100% DisneyOma! (Oh, and grab a teenager, and ask them to set up some podcasts, maybe some audiobooks, and a screen reader so you can keep up with your Disney News - all by listening!)
 
I just saw something today (in Apple News) that said people are having good luck with eliminating or reducing a migraine by soaking their feet in hot water. Obvs you don’t want to scald your feet, but apparently the hottest water you can stand for the longest period of time. Just soak your feet.

I hope something breaks your way soon - like today!
When I told my husband that I heard soaking my feet in hot water would help my migraine, he said "Wouldn't it be better to soak your head?" :rotfl:
 

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