Turning 38

Saturday was my birthday.

I wasn't expecting much.  Jamie always forgets to prepare.  Mum had been in hospital, so couldn't send a card, Dad wouldn't send a card.  The rest of the family are not "senders" either.  Sure they'll call, but send a card, ahhh no.

Saturday morning, 4am, Ben woke up for a bottle.  I had a pain in my chest, it hurt when I breathed (get it, hurt all the time, but was worse when I breathed in).  The pain went through to my back, I thought it was my back-pain playing up.  Then my mind wandered, the pain when I was breathing, was this a pulmonary embolism?  Best plan... ignore it.

5am Ryan woke up, the pain was worse, I felt I had to "hold my chest" which is not an easy thing to do.  I ummed and ahhed for a bit, by 5:30 I had woken Jamie to ask him what he thought.  I had a pain in my chest, all over my right side, my back, felt nauseas and a bit sweaty.  Jamie consulted his "first aid" book and then we both decided it would be best to call the ambulance.  We did and one was here in about 15 mins.

The worst/ best part was the pain went away - before the ambulance came.  They did an ECG, blood pressure etc, all looked normal, but we decided I'd go to the hospital anyway to be checked over as I had never had any thing like that before.  Plus all the advertisements say "don't wait when you have chest pain"

They took me to the Mater Hospital, and the nurses were sneery at me.  I'm sure the ambo handed over "Here is Christy she had chest pain ***whispered*** but its all in her head ***returned to normal volume*** we've done an ECG" blah blah blah.

The nurse did another ECG (my skin has reacted to the adhesive!).  Within 5 minutes the lovely Dr David arrived and he took my history and some bloods.\

Then Dr Katie (I think) she was an intern on the Renal side when I was largely pregnant with Ben and was completely thorough and wonderful, she remains so.  She came and had a long chat with me, explained that I hadn't had a heart attack, didn't have a blood clot and now I'm thinking it was an anxiety/panic attack.  I was home by 9am.

Good start to one's birthday don't you think?

The fellas picked me up, gave me a lovely card and a Lotto ticket, my real present is a ticket to Dolly Parton for later in the year.

I ended up not going to work, had a snooze in the afternoon as I was feeling *heavy and down.*  We went to the Shortland Pub for dinner with my dearest Terese and her boys.   It was very nice indeed.

So Happy 38th Birthday to me.