I am still baffled by my blog showing up on my Face Book notes. I wanted it to link at some point and now I am thinking I may not. Of course, 6 of 1, 1/2 dz of the other. Why should I care?
On another note my pal Dan had a big cortisone shot in his hip today with the big needle. I have my own little medical episode to report on too.
I have been feeling this discomfort in my chest for about 3 weeks. Actually, I don't know exactly how long its been, but for some time. So the other day I got call from work about my health insurance that is a 10 month policy, but I worked 80 hours in July, so they wanted to know if I wanted to pay my part of the premium, about $35 for Aug. and I did. So back to my little chest pain. I looked on the web at the kp.org site to see if I could make an appointment etc. but determined I would just ride my bike the couple of miles or 3 down there and go to urgent care. When a 61 year old guy goes to a hospital and tells them he has been having chest discomfort for about 3 weeks, they busy fast. I have to keep reminding myself I am 61 and putting into a figure 61 helps me to realize I am talking about myself. One word, Gastritis!
That diagnosis came after I got all the tests. And they were quiet surprised when I told them I rode my bike to the hospital. I kept my sense of humor when they tried to find my veins for various needles using the nurse in training. I told when you put it in and if you miss, don't spend to much time hunting around in there or likely to get a black eye from my right hand! I told her I was not serious about the black eye, but serious about hunting. The full fledged nurse had to help out. She had x-ray eyes and found it without withdrawing it. They poked me 3 times with needles and the CT scan, whoa! Had my ECG taken and that was pretty good, but the doctor wanted to make sure and the CT scan was sci-fi all the way. Considering that I watched Blade Runner last night and some other sci-fi last night, well what do you expect?
They gave me about 300 years of radiation, that is 300 years of going out in the sun every day for that period of time is how the doctor described it. That means I've had about 500 years now of radiation along with my regular daily doses. This CT scan was different than the one I had 4 years ago. They put iodine into my veins 4 contrast so they could get a better idea about my heart the arteries. The iodine for all you folks that have not had it is like drinking really hot chocolate. They described it as feeling like wetting you pant, warm urine or something. I just think that description was from some folks who have a limited imagination. So, you drink this really hot chocolate, but it's not to hot. It warmed up my throat, I could feel it in my chest, warm from the inside out. My hands broke into a sweat, warm, like sitting in a hot tub, every part of my body lit up like the 4th of July for about 10 seconds and they did it 2 times. They shot me without it one time for a normal scan. I asked the tech and she said that women have described it kind of like the hot flashes they get at the change of life. So, that was it. Spent about 3.5 hours in the hospital getting poked, prodded and scanned all the while on O2 which really didn't do anything other than keep me a little bit away, not like when I had carbon monoxide poisoning and they gave be big does of 02.
Reading the paper work they gave to me after I left the hospital, I see that I am supposed to be taking Omeprazole and probably could have purchased it at Kaiser but didn't read the paper work until I got home. It is now 10 past 8 pm and I think I need to drive to the store. I don't like riding my bike on main streets or at dusk that much. I need to get some of this and some of that. I think I should get something for dinner. Life, what a long strange trip its been....
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