my fabulous ER evening
Dec. 3rd, 2011 09:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_andyIf you follow me or wrdnrd on Twitter you probably know I spent a few hours in the ER. And if you didn't, you know it now. Here's what went down:
Yesterday around 2pm I'm taking a bus up to get an evaluation on my receding gums (diagnosis: tissue grafts!) I took a nap on the bus (as one does) and woke up to my right arm tingling a bit. I didn't think much of it at the time, I probably was leaning on it.
But then it persisted. It had the pins and needles of a limb falling asleep, but to all intents and purposes was fine: not numb or painful or uncoordinated. Maybe I pinched a nerve?
By the end of the evening it had started to migrate along my arm a bit. Sill the same light needles, hardly worth noticing. I was starting to feel overall worse at this point, probably because I am very good at stressing myself out and I had already been under a ton of stress. Work is super busy, I spent all Friday writing my annual review (still not done), and then found out I need gum surgery. See? Stress.
After watching a one woman show with wrdnrd I insisted we go to bed early. I slept ok and felt a bit better in the morning. But the tingling was still there and at various points was felt from my right hip to my arm and hand to my neck to my forehead. Still, just a tingle. Had it not been there all day I would have written it off as one of those things and ignored it.
I had mentioned my arm to wrdnrd before, but this evening explained the specifics of the feeling moving and persisting. She recommend I call the med center's off duty nurses. I did, and though they agreed it didn't sound like a super warning sign they still recommended that tingling = ER trip. So we did (after having out planned eating out first).
Of course by the time we were done with dinner and on the bus to the ER I was feeling 80% better. But I was good and carried through with the plan. They got me in pretty quick, I explained my symptoms to a handful of nurses and a doctor, dot some blood drawn (messily), had an EKG taken, a CT scan, then was discharged. Ok, it wasn't quite that quick, it was a little more than two hours.
They ruled out all the standard frightening stuff, but that, and my fading symptoms, left them with not much. It didn't exactly match the standard tingling due to anxiety, but that's as good a call as anything (just wait, I'll have a huge shingles outbreak tomorrow). So I was discharged with a diagnosis of paresthesias, right side. That's the doctor word for the pins and needles feeling. If anything bad happens I'm to go back to the ER (of course) and if the mild symptoms persist I'm to see my regular doctor.
So there you have it, my evening. End rating: UW med center ER has friendly staff and comfortable beds. 4 1/2 stars.
Yesterday around 2pm I'm taking a bus up to get an evaluation on my receding gums (diagnosis: tissue grafts!) I took a nap on the bus (as one does) and woke up to my right arm tingling a bit. I didn't think much of it at the time, I probably was leaning on it.
But then it persisted. It had the pins and needles of a limb falling asleep, but to all intents and purposes was fine: not numb or painful or uncoordinated. Maybe I pinched a nerve?
By the end of the evening it had started to migrate along my arm a bit. Sill the same light needles, hardly worth noticing. I was starting to feel overall worse at this point, probably because I am very good at stressing myself out and I had already been under a ton of stress. Work is super busy, I spent all Friday writing my annual review (still not done), and then found out I need gum surgery. See? Stress.
After watching a one woman show with wrdnrd I insisted we go to bed early. I slept ok and felt a bit better in the morning. But the tingling was still there and at various points was felt from my right hip to my arm and hand to my neck to my forehead. Still, just a tingle. Had it not been there all day I would have written it off as one of those things and ignored it.
I had mentioned my arm to wrdnrd before, but this evening explained the specifics of the feeling moving and persisting. She recommend I call the med center's off duty nurses. I did, and though they agreed it didn't sound like a super warning sign they still recommended that tingling = ER trip. So we did (after having out planned eating out first).
Of course by the time we were done with dinner and on the bus to the ER I was feeling 80% better. But I was good and carried through with the plan. They got me in pretty quick, I explained my symptoms to a handful of nurses and a doctor, dot some blood drawn (messily), had an EKG taken, a CT scan, then was discharged. Ok, it wasn't quite that quick, it was a little more than two hours.
They ruled out all the standard frightening stuff, but that, and my fading symptoms, left them with not much. It didn't exactly match the standard tingling due to anxiety, but that's as good a call as anything (just wait, I'll have a huge shingles outbreak tomorrow). So I was discharged with a diagnosis of paresthesias, right side. That's the doctor word for the pins and needles feeling. If anything bad happens I'm to go back to the ER (of course) and if the mild symptoms persist I'm to see my regular doctor.
So there you have it, my evening. End rating: UW med center ER has friendly staff and comfortable beds. 4 1/2 stars.
