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lydamorehouse I'm about 125 pages into T. Kingfisher's Paladin's Grace, which I'm loving for a number of reasons, not the least of which is PALADIN BESERKER!!
But, the reason I read so much in one sitting was because Shawn and I spent about seven hours at the ER.
SPOILER: SHAWN IS FINE. Symptoms turned out to be related to a new neck/spinal degeneration.
Shawn, who many of you know, Is... medically complicated. There's not one big thing wrong with Shawn, though, just an exceedingly long list of small things. In fact, thanks to the way one of her medical charts was written, we sometimes joke that her biography would be entitled, "Problem List Continues."
Long time readers of this blog might also remember that when Mason turned 16, Shawn was hospitalized for a very rare blood clot in her superior mesenteric vein (a vein that returns blood to the heart from the intestines.) When she went to the urgent care that time, she thought she just had a very bad case of stomach flu that just wouldn't go away. Turns out, if she'd waited any longer... let's just say the outcome would not have been good.
All these things combined makes this family very, very willing to pick up and go to the ER if Shawn says, "Something's not right." Her intuition about her own body is VERY good.
However, because she's got a thousand things going on with her at any given time, it can also be really hard to know what's life-threatening and what's "just a little out of the ordinary." Keeping in mind, of course, several factors, including, she's been right to go when things are just a little out of the ordinary AND women can present with very weird symptoms when they're having a heart attack.
All of this leads us to yesterday around 4 pm, when Shawn came down the stairs just as I was wondering if I should start a second coat on the final kitchen wall and announced, "I think we need to go to the Emergency Room." I was like, "Whelp, that makes this decision easier," and packed up my painting supplies, tossed the drop clothes and ladder into the basement, and put on my "going out of the house" shoes. I didn't even ask what she was feeling until we were in the car and were halfway there.
She'd been experiencing a strange pain in her right arm. She would not necessarily have worried about that, but for the past few days, she'd been experiencing odd heart flutters and, because she's stepping down off some blood pressure meds, per doctor's orders, she'd been taking her blood pressure and it was through the roof.
The ER, thankfully, took her very seriously. They did blood work and an EKG immediately, but not seeing signs of having had a heart attack, they let us cool our heels in the waiting room for a couple of hours until a bed/room opened up. The desk nurse initially didn't want to let me through to sit with her, even when I explained that I was her wife, but Shawn kicked up a fuss when she noticed that a bunch of straight people were allowed to be together as couples. So, I ended up starting Kingfisher's book while we waited for a room.
The docs were all lovely once we were processed. We were only at the ER so late because they absolutely wanted to make certain no heart-related events were in progress or might happen were they to randomly discharge her without making absolutely sure. But, as part of the scan for blockages, the doctor ordered a neck CT, which revealed the possible culprit for the arm pain--which, I should note, did radiate (though Shawn felt it as a cold sensation which initially baffled the doctor) and then as some shoulder pain--new degeneration in C4 and C5 regions of the spine. They called this cervical radiculopathy? Anyway, Shawn knew she had some degeneration in this part of her neck, but had been diagnosed with spondylolisthesis. Which is somehow different? I'm not up, this morning, for a huge amount of web research into the differences. Will do later, though. Shawn is currently pouring over the results.
The blood pressure was given a shrug and a "we don't worry about it when a patent is upright" from the ER doc, who had clearly SEEN SOME THINGS. But, apparently, it's worse to try to artificially bring down blood pressure just because and so they want her to follow-up with her regular GP.
At any rate, we were eventually discharged and headed home around 11 pm.
Which, for Shawn and I, is WAAAAAY past our bedtimes.
On the other hand, I did not have election night jitters....
But, the reason I read so much in one sitting was because Shawn and I spent about seven hours at the ER.
SPOILER: SHAWN IS FINE. Symptoms turned out to be related to a new neck/spinal degeneration.
Shawn, who many of you know, Is... medically complicated. There's not one big thing wrong with Shawn, though, just an exceedingly long list of small things. In fact, thanks to the way one of her medical charts was written, we sometimes joke that her biography would be entitled, "Problem List Continues."
Long time readers of this blog might also remember that when Mason turned 16, Shawn was hospitalized for a very rare blood clot in her superior mesenteric vein (a vein that returns blood to the heart from the intestines.) When she went to the urgent care that time, she thought she just had a very bad case of stomach flu that just wouldn't go away. Turns out, if she'd waited any longer... let's just say the outcome would not have been good.
All these things combined makes this family very, very willing to pick up and go to the ER if Shawn says, "Something's not right." Her intuition about her own body is VERY good.
However, because she's got a thousand things going on with her at any given time, it can also be really hard to know what's life-threatening and what's "just a little out of the ordinary." Keeping in mind, of course, several factors, including, she's been right to go when things are just a little out of the ordinary AND women can present with very weird symptoms when they're having a heart attack.
All of this leads us to yesterday around 4 pm, when Shawn came down the stairs just as I was wondering if I should start a second coat on the final kitchen wall and announced, "I think we need to go to the Emergency Room." I was like, "Whelp, that makes this decision easier," and packed up my painting supplies, tossed the drop clothes and ladder into the basement, and put on my "going out of the house" shoes. I didn't even ask what she was feeling until we were in the car and were halfway there.
She'd been experiencing a strange pain in her right arm. She would not necessarily have worried about that, but for the past few days, she'd been experiencing odd heart flutters and, because she's stepping down off some blood pressure meds, per doctor's orders, she'd been taking her blood pressure and it was through the roof.
The ER, thankfully, took her very seriously. They did blood work and an EKG immediately, but not seeing signs of having had a heart attack, they let us cool our heels in the waiting room for a couple of hours until a bed/room opened up. The desk nurse initially didn't want to let me through to sit with her, even when I explained that I was her wife, but Shawn kicked up a fuss when she noticed that a bunch of straight people were allowed to be together as couples. So, I ended up starting Kingfisher's book while we waited for a room.
The docs were all lovely once we were processed. We were only at the ER so late because they absolutely wanted to make certain no heart-related events were in progress or might happen were they to randomly discharge her without making absolutely sure. But, as part of the scan for blockages, the doctor ordered a neck CT, which revealed the possible culprit for the arm pain--which, I should note, did radiate (though Shawn felt it as a cold sensation which initially baffled the doctor) and then as some shoulder pain--new degeneration in C4 and C5 regions of the spine. They called this cervical radiculopathy? Anyway, Shawn knew she had some degeneration in this part of her neck, but had been diagnosed with spondylolisthesis. Which is somehow different? I'm not up, this morning, for a huge amount of web research into the differences. Will do later, though. Shawn is currently pouring over the results.
The blood pressure was given a shrug and a "we don't worry about it when a patent is upright" from the ER doc, who had clearly SEEN SOME THINGS. But, apparently, it's worse to try to artificially bring down blood pressure just because and so they want her to follow-up with her regular GP.
At any rate, we were eventually discharged and headed home around 11 pm.
Which, for Shawn and I, is WAAAAAY past our bedtimes.
On the other hand, I did not have election night jitters....
no subject
Date: 2022-11-09 04:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-09 08:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-09 07:47 pm (UTC)Though now I'm thinking of her range of conditions as a word I misread in your post, ridiculopathy. (You know, where you keep needing more replacement parts/ repairs for no apparent reason.)
no subject
Date: 2022-11-09 08:41 pm (UTC)But, yeah, she's basically? Okay? But, now there is another problem on the "problem list continues."
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Date: 2022-11-09 09:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-10 11:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-09 09:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-10 11:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-09 11:32 pm (UTC)This cracked me up, but I'm sorry that Problem List thinks it should go on Continuing. Also glad Shawn is doing okay for her own values of okay.
P.
no subject
Date: 2022-11-10 11:34 pm (UTC)And I was hoping to pull out a bit of a grim laugh, if nothing else, so I'm glad I did!
no subject
Date: 2022-11-10 12:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-10 11:35 pm (UTC)