Differential Diagnosis
Mar 29th, 2006 at 1:13 pm by Susie
I noted the pain in my chest last night, more as a matter of interest than panic. It’s worse if I cough (although I don’t have a cough), and it goes all the way through to my back. In fact, it feels much like when I had pneumonia last year, only without the crackly sound effects. But I don’t have pneumonia, as far as I know. I don’t even have a cold.
I have a lot to do at work, and I have even more to do before I move Saturday. And with disappearing landlords, sick fathers and work, I’m a tad stressed lately - perhaps a 12 on a scale of 10. I don’t think I’m having a heart attack but who knows? I’m getting this tingling down my left arm, but maybe I only notice it because I’m worried about the pain in my chest.
It can’t be a heart attack; it would be such an inconvenient time.
I did have some acid reflux the other night, so bad it actually woke me up. It’s probably related to that. Right? Probably I inhaled some bile into my lungs or something and now I have aspiration pneumonia. (Can you tell I used to be a medical editor?)
A vendor calls me on the phone at work. “What’s the matter? You sound a little funny,” she says. I tell her I’m trying to decide whether to go to the emergency room. She insists I call my doctor. Why should I, when I already know he’ll tell me to go to the ER?
I’m a Libra, so I call a few of my friends to get a consensus. They all say the same thing: Why won’t you go to the emergency room? And I tell them I really don’t think I’m having a heart attack, and I hate to waste an entire day sitting around.
[This is Melanie from Just a Bump on the Beltway. I'm on the phone with Susie, who is in the ER at Thomas Jefferson Hospital--because I told her to. "Those bastards are making me stay overnight," she said. She's not happy, but better safe than sorry. And I know that I'm never going to hear the end of this.]
“It can’t be a heart attack; it would be such an inconvenient time.”
[hugh_laurie]Well then, that rules heart attacks right out! What a relief![/hugh_laurie]
Hope it gets better!
I’m so glad you are getting this checked out! I’d say a prayer but as Chimpy is on tv talkin’ about “free elections” without getting struck by lightning — I’ll go with sending healing QI. Take care of yourself!
Damn, if it’s not one thing, it’s another.
Get better right quick, Susie!
wtf?
get better!
I’m downtown. I can stop over and visit once she gets situated.
Keep in touch.
Amy says it’s just a ploy to get us to do all your moving…
Thank you, Amy. For a Libra Susan is mightily stubborn sometimes.
Be well!!!!
I need my daily dose of one of my favorite progressives to keep my blood pressure up.
Jeff’s a good place…I’ll forgive you for not going to another nearby hospital which pays my salary.
Susie, get better soon. I hope it’s simply stress.
Jeff has a great cardiology program– my dad had his triple bypass there two years ago.
Here’s hope you’re feeling better, and that this is just a scare and not a real cardiac episode!
Well, given ho stubborn you can be, Melanie, if you say “Go to the hospital”, it should carry weight with Suzie.
Heck, I’d go if you said so, and I hate them…
take care of yourself, Uberblonde. We need you around!
lutton,
Don’t go to the Jeff, they are keeping her in the ER overnight, so you won’t be able to visit.
I’ve had that several times and it was a muscle spasm from lifting too many things like, say, ummmm…..moving boxes?
This is such a surreal post. Thanks, Melanie, and everyone else who talked Susie into going to the ER.
Hope she’s all shiny and better in the morning.
(And that she mets a cute single doctor. What? Nothing wrong with her multi-tasking.)
Heart attacks happen when they’re inconvenient; I had mine while my mom was refusing to get checked for the pain that turned out to be terminal cancer. It all fell in at once.
The day long stay is to check for enzymes, if no one’s mentioned that earlier — once heart muscle dies a bit, it takes that long for the enzymes involved to get into the bloodstream. Even if it’s embarrassing, especially for women who usually don’t get that ‘tight chest pain’, GO to the ER.
hello everyone-
i just spoke to susie and she wanted me to tell everyone she is still bitching so she must be ok.
she’s in a comfy room in the back of the er and they’ve done a bunch of tests and she doesn’t have any results yet. she is annoyed more than anything. she told me something interesting too - that women’s symptoms tend to be much more vague than men’s when there is a heart problem, so that is why they are being especially careful before they rule it out.
i read her your comments too and she really appreciated all the greetings.
so get well susie, we’re all waiting to move you on saturday!
“she is annoyed more than anything.”
lol. Thanks for the update, somegirl, and for the original post, Melanie. Susie — let me know if there is anything I can do to help.
Jeff is great — you’re in good hands.
I’m so glad you took Melanie’s advice. Will be thinking about you. I’m betting on the acid reflux. It’s a bear.
GOOD LUCK!!
Take care of yourself, Susie. First things first.
Yeah, seeing as how “acid reflux” is one of the symptoms of a heart attack in women, plus things that are flu-like or pneumonia-like, getting her to go was the Right Thing.
Lots of Love, and Loads of Positive Vibes to you, Suze.
And Melanie– thank you, thank you, thank you for getting her to go in Hospital. You’re a true friend to all of us!
Damned eclipses.
–mf
Scorpio– men, too. My dad claimed he had bad acid reflux for a good 25 years before he finally got himself to a cardiologist. It was angina the whole time.
Oh, for Christ sake, call your doctor. If you have a doctor who you can’t get into during the day and who therefore refers you to an e. room, get another doctor. If this pain is not going away, take care of it. I have gotten used to your posts.
Gug
Susie,
Get better soon.
Here’s hoping it’s something flukish, temporary, and preventable. Get better soon!
It could be a-fib, Susie. Feel free to give me a call or drop me an email if you want any advice, I had to stay overnight at the hospital as well when I checked into the ER. If it is a-fib and it rights itself overnight, they’ll send you home tomorrow. If it hasn’t righted itself they may decide to do a procedure involving a mild shock to get the heart back into rhythm, in which case DO NOT EAT BREAKFAST tomorrow because you have to fast before the procedure.
Elayne,
I’ll bet they’ve factored that in and who would want to eat a hospital breakfast, anyway?
Hey, Susie — hang in there. The Mercury retrograde is over so this should be just a minor speedbump.
My brother dropped dead after ignoring symptoms (and pleas from friends to get to a doc) for a week. Please take care of yourself.
Yeah, I concur with James G.
I have gotten used to your posts.
So don’t die. We love you more than some can say.
We trust you to point to some of most important news of the day. With pith. And stuff.
Sending Susie healthy and vibrant snake energy. And hugs.
Get well. Yuck. I can’t imagine being stuck in the hospital over night. Well, I hope it proves to be just another irritating and stressful event and not something more serious.
Susie, I’m sorry you’re so stressed. Sending positive vibes.
P.S. I’ve read women’s heart attack symptoms differ greatly from men’s — pain located in the neck rather than radiating down the left arm, fluish symptoms, tiredness, sneaky symptoms that many of us feel everyday. Best to be vigilant. Take good care.
Susie;
Damnit, I don’t have words. Get well my friend, get well.
Susie you have my prayers, we girls have different symptoms, its great that your getting medical care. Better safe then sorry.
Get back soon, but get better first.
Hope it turns out to be an “undigested bit of beef or an old potato.”
Sending prayers and good wishes.
get better susie!
once you’ve ruled out more acute pathology, seriously consider getting a massage. you started out your post talking about a pain that went through your body when you coughed… and the tingling; these suggest things possibly remedied by bodywork. if it isn’t something more “serious”, you might find a massage to be just what you need!
Susie,
Please get well. I can’t face the day without you.
You’re in my thoughts. Speedy healing …
Susie - I was sent to hospital on Sept. 12, 2001, after terrible chest pains in the middle of the night and three (!) alarming EKGs. An angiogram was negative. Diagnosis: reflux. Over the next year, I called fire rescue twice because of almost unbearable and terrifying chest pain. Reflux. Like my life at that time, yours is terribly stress-filled. I feel sure that you’ll be fine. Write if you want any advice about managing reflux — I’m getting good at it. Love! Val
Your many friends are waiting hopefully to hear that you are well.
It’s highly inconvenient for us readers not to have a good dose of Suburban Guerrilla every day. Some people are so selfish. Please get better soon and make sure this doesn’t happen again.
Thank you.
– Jordan Barab
Third Recording Secretary, Susie Madrak Fan Club
E.R.s are the worst possible place to ever be, but they’re better than the alternative
Get well, Sue. Let me know if you need anything.
Suburban Guerrilla is one of the sites I check and read daily. I hope things are going well and it’s nothing real serious. Take care of yourself Susie.
All the Best
Ron
Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy Autumn-fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.
Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,
That brings our friends up from the underworld,
Sad as the last which reddens over one
That sinks with all we love below the verge;
So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.
Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns
The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds
To dying ears, when unto dying eyes
The casement slowly grows a glimmering square;
So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.
Dear as remembered kisses after death,
And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feigned
On lips that are for others; deep as love,
Deep as first love, and wild with all regret;
O Death in Life, the days that are no more.
–Lord Alfred Tennyson
My chest pain (after every cardio test known to man) turned out to be a sick gall bladder full of gall stones. After the ’scope operation (three tiny incisions) I was and am fine. It’s very subtle and can happen at any age.
Hope you are better soon, Susie.
I hope you get well. peace and love chef
Every home med case should have-
Maalox, 60 cc- if the pain goes away, it was heartburn.
Codeine, 30 mg (x2)- if the pain goes away, it was muscle pain.
But you didn’t hear it from me.
Good luck Suzy!
They made me drink some ghastly combination of Maalox, novocaine and something else for that very reason.
Tasted like shit. Didn’t work.
“… seriously consider getting a massage. you started out your post talking about a pain that went through your body when you coughed… and the tingling; these suggest things possibly remedied by bodywork. if it isn’t something more “seriousâ€, you might find a massage to be just what you need!”
Calling Maya masseuse…
Calling Maya masseuse…
See you are loved!
Told ya
Godspeed my oh so stubborn friend….
Robin,
Ain’t that the truth (the stubborn part.)
A good wish for you.
Damn, I was hoping for some good news by now.
Don’t forget to get tested for H.Pylori, which is what was causing my strange symptoms (and reflux).
Oh the emergency room, cold-bright-noisy. No food. No sleep.
Get well soon Susie.