WHY I WENT MISSING FOR THREE DAYS

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This topic contains 16 replies, has 8 voices, and was last updated by  Strega 4 years, 4 months ago.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 17 total)
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  • #29239

    Unseen
    Participant

    Last Friday morning, around 2 a.m. I felt what seemed to be the king of all heartburns. Got up and took a glass of baking soda water, which usually quells a heartburn attack. No dice. I was also noticing that the pain encompassed most of my upper body, the chest, shoulders, arms, and upper back. That’s when I said, this is a heart attack and called 911. While they were on their way, I was able to get mostly dressed.

    When the five emergency people arrived, they assessed me and helped me to finish getting dressed, set up my cat’s feeder for me, and took me to Emanuel Hospital, about a mile away

    There I was stripped of all my clothes and I don’t remember all the tests, but one was a scan of some sort that identified a blocked cardiac artery. A common ordinary “stent” was performed. Nowadays, this is bread-and-butter surgery. They tapped an artery in my wrist, found the blocked artery and inserted a tube allowing blood to flow again. I didn’t have a major heart attack and the solution was simple enough that I was pretty much set to be released the next day. However…

    A new problem developed because something they gave me—possibly the so-called “contrast” solution—gave me a severe urinary issue: I simply could not pee! This accompanied by overpowering urges to go to the toilet. As a result, I was catheterized FOUR times to release the agonizing bladder pressure. The thing is, being cathed rates as one of the most unpleasant experiences on the planet as a hollow tube is worked up your urethra to your bladder.

    Now, I knew the hospital wasn’t going to keep me around indefinitely in order to cath me three or four times a day, so I was looking at the prospect of being discharged with a temporary catheter, a leg bag, and instructions on how to cath myself.

    Forgot to mention that along with the urinary problem, something gave me severe constipation. The theory was that that could have been caused by the anesthetic or tranquilizer used in the stent surgery.

    I decided that I would do anything to avoid going home with a catheter and leg bag. I decided that getting out of bed and out of my room and becoming active was the key to getting out of that hell. So, I started walking up and down the hall, up and down.

    Slowly, drips and drops turned to dribbles, dribbles turned to squirts, and finally squirts turned to streams, and I was peeing enough to keep ahead of urine production. That was Saturday, day 2. Day 3 I got the okay to go home.

    Now the pissing situation is maybe 85%-90% of normal.

    Ahhh…

    #29244

    jakelafort
    Participant

    Praise the universe. Glad you are recovering.

    I have seen what a stinking horror show catheter is. If you have urinary retention and need another cath there are a lot of options.

    Heart attack is my greatest health fear. That is in part why i kill myself with aerobic exercise. Buena fortuna.

    #29248

    Unseen
    Participant

    Praise the universe. Glad you are recovering. I have seen what a stinking horror show catheter is. If you have urinary retention and need another cath there are a lot of options. Heart attack is my greatest health fear. That is in part why i kill myself with aerobic exercise. Buena fortuna.

    Thank you.

    What “other options”?

    Luckily, it wasn’t so-called “massive heart attack.” They didn’t bring out the paddles and shock my heart or anything. I was lucky.

    #29249

    Unseen
    Participant

    What does a urinary cath feel like? Well, it feels like what it is: someone sticking a relatively stiff object up your urethra abrading sensitive mucus membranes along the way, followed by the relief of a relaxed bladder, which is the only good part.

    To ask what something is like assumes you’ve felt something similar before. I assure you—and anyone who’s been cathed up the urethra can relate to this—you’ve never felt anything like it before. And you’ll never want to feel it again…unless you’re afraid your bladder is about to explode.

    #29251

    jakelafort
    Participant

    No Unseen, i have not experienced it but i had to rush my dad to ER where i witnessed the awful spectacle and also the relief of having bladder drained. There was urinary retention caused by brain tumor…issue abated when tumor was removed. There is a home cath. with small leg bag that for some reason is not as traumatic. Hope to never experience it and may you avoid future encounters with the big C.

    #29252

    JadeBlackOlive
    Participant

    So glad you called 911 when you did.

    My husband has a very bad heart after 2 heart attacks, & a stroke after the second one, as a piece of the clot broke off & lodged in his brain 3 days later. He has a defib/pacemaker implant & has had it since 2010.

    We have both had catheters, so yes, we know what its like.

    Get well soon.

    #29253

    Unseen
    Participant

    So glad you called 911 when you did. My husband has a very bad heart after 2 heart attacks, & a stroke after the second one, as a piece of the clot broke off & lodged in his brain 3 days later. He has a defib/pacemaker implant & has had it since 2010. We have both had catheters, so yes, we know what its like. Get well soon.

    Sorry to hear about your husband’s tribulations. I wish you folks well.

    #29256

    Jody Lee
    Participant

    Woah, @unseen. Although it is a common procedure,  stents are relatively serious business. Glad you are recovering and hope this is the last of your cardiac issues.

    #29258

    Davis
    Moderator

    I had a kidney biopsy with insufficient anaesthetic and it still wasn’t as painful as a badly inserted catheter. It is an ugly experience if your urethra resists invading plastic tubes. Worse…it hurts a lot more if they have to repeat it within a day or two. Even worse…it burns like hell when you pee at home for a week. There simply cannot be a God. Not with the kind of horrors humans have suffered due to their genitals.

    • This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by  Davis.
    #29260

    Unseen – Hope you are feeling better and on the road to full recovery.

    #29261

    @davisThere simply cannot be a God.

    What kind of architect would locate the sewage works right beside the playground?

    #29262

    Unseen
    Participant

    @davisThere simply cannot be a God. What kind of architect would locate the sewage works right beside the playground?

    LOL

    #29263

    Noel
    Participant

    Hey Unseen,

    Glad you’re ok now. Sounded horrible. Holy crap I never want to experience that happy horse shit.

    feel better.

    #29283

    Unseen
    Participant

    There is a PostLog.

    Last Wednesday, while in the midst of steady recovery from my heart attack, I experienced a hypoglycemia crisis, passed out for a few minutes, and woke up with blood on my pants as well as on the floor. I had opened a small wound on my left elbow but am on blood thinners which greatly inhibit clotting.

    Somehow, during the episode I injusred my back.

    About 4:30 a.m. the next morning I wanted to get out of bed to close the bedroom blinds, but the painful spasms of my back made this impossible. Luckily, I had had the foresight to keep my cell phone handy, so I called 911 and was put on a gurney and taken to the nearest hospital.

    After being given some oxycodone and an antiinflammatory, I was sent home with a couple prescriptions for more oxycodone pills and lidocaine ointment.

    Recovery has been slow. Periods when I feel I’m doing better are followed by total backsliding. I’m now losing a second week of work.

    I can’t wait to see my bills.

    #29284

    jakelafort
    Participant

    Is it known what caused the hypoglycemia? Side effect of blood thinner? Somehow related to heart condition, surgery or anesthesia? Prior history of hypoglycemia?

    Have you or will you change your diet or activity?

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