Mom, stepdad, and my ER visit

Monday my mom and stepdad came to town and then flew out Tuesday morning to Switzerland for their honeymoon. They took a train downtown and then another train through the city to the airport. Then their flight actually left on time (very surprising for O'Hare!) and landed 25 minutes early at JFK. Unfortunately that flight was 2 1/2 hours delayed - yikes!! So they didn't fly out of JFK until Tuesday night. But they are safely in Switzerland and enjoying it immensely. I am so thankful they are safe and mom gets to finally have a dream of hers come true!

In other news, I ended up being in the ER for three and a half hours last night. I was having intense chest pain. I didn't think it was my heart because I didn't have any of the symptoms, and it wasn't quite in that spot. But I also had severe pain in my left neck, shoulder, arm, and leg. I was really uncomfortable, scared, and in tremendous pain. I was really scared about heading to the hospital, but Tim thought that was best. Better to be safe than sorry. I am so thankful for him and his ability to make decisions when I simply cannot do it. He made the call, and I'm glad he did.

I don't know if I've ever mentioned this before or not, but I also have costochondritis - from www.webmd.com, this is the definition "Costochondritis is an inflammation of the junctions where the upper ribs join with the cartilage that holds them to the breastbone or sternum. The condition causes localized chest pain that you can reproduce by pushing on the cartilage in the front of your ribcage. Costochondritis is a relatively harmless condition and usually goes away without treatment. The cause is usually unknown."

Mine has of course never gone away, but it does come and go. I have to be careful with certain things that I know can make the pain worse. I don't know what happened last night to make it so intense. It was very frustrating. So, we went to the ER. They saw me right away since it was chest pain. After 10 minutes or so on a bed in the hall, I finally got a room. My nurse was kind of abrupt and not super nice. Then I had this EMT student who was really nice and helpful. I had 4 viles of blood taken, an EKG done, then a chest XRay, and then I waited, waited, waited, and waited some more for the doctor to finally see me.

She said all of the tests came back normal. Nothing is wrong with my heart at all and my other vitals (such as liver and pancreas function) came back normal as well. That is a huge relief but sad I had to spend that much time in the ER to find that out!! The doctor was going to give me meds through an IV to help me feel better. At that point I didn't want any meds, I just wanted to go home and sleep. I figured since I know it's not something serious, and I deal with pain all the time, I can handle it now that I know what it is. So she got my discharge papers and the nurse ran through some recommendations with me (like take it easy, take Motrin for the pain, etc). At that point my nurse's schedule had slowed down I guess because she spent more time with us, laughed with us, and was actually very sweet. We were finally home about 11:30 after a long ordeal and no major additional diagnosis (just "chest cavity wall pain/costochondritis"). But at least I know it's not something serious and I have some peace of mind.

Even though nothing really came of it, I am really thankful for Tim and the decision he made when I couldn't think on my own. I probably never would have gone to the ER if it was just me, but he knew that it would be best (the local urgent care centers were closed at that time of night). I truly praise God for my wonderful husband. He was right there beside me the whole way. If nothing else, it gave me even greater appreciation for my hubby. Thank you Tim for being so loving, gentle, and helpful. You were great!