It has been awhile since I’ve posted an update here. I’ve been very careful to keep my mind off my problems. You’ll understand why I’d do that after reading this…

Trip to the ER

On Tuesday, January 12th I was having crazy vitals. My pulse was jumping up and down by 40bpm just by standing up and it was over 100 just laying down. My blood pressure was also jumping +/- 40 from 120 systolic throughout the day. Sometimes it was bearable and I thought it might pass.

Around 4-5pm my chest was in incredible pain and the tightness I was feeling was unbearable. It was time to go to the ER. I wasn’t sure why I was feeling this way. I checked my insurance’s website to see what hospital I could go to. Luckily, it was Orange Coast Memorial Hospital. It’s about 4 miles away from where I live.

Sharon rushed to me from work to take me to the ER. I’m glad she was able to take me.

My pain was so unbearable that I couldn’t walk at first. I tried getting to the front door of my apartment and I had to stop on the way a few times. I felt very unstable. Once Sharon got to my apartment she took my arm and put it around her and we carefully walked me to her car. Very slow and deliberate steps. My mom came with.

Once at the ER I had to fill out a sign-in sheet. I checked the box for chest pains and they whisked me into the back stat. They put me in bed #6 I think #9. They hooked me up with a 12 lead EKG quickly. One nurse was training a new nurse (apparently his first day) named Mike. Then they hooked up a catheter in my arm so they could patch an IV in quickly.

I'm glad they let me watch their robotic inventory system. It gave me something to look at.

They took some blood and ran off with it to do some tests.

My ER doctor was Dr. Dehaas. I liked him. Obviously a busy guy but… yeah it’s an ER.

After running the gamut of quick questions and small tests they could do they confirmed that I wasn’t imminently going to die and my priority was clearly lowered somewhat. From this point on there was a lot of waiting between interactions with the nurses and with the doctor.

During my stay in the ER I had a chest xray and a chest CT with iodine. I dunno if you’ve ever had an iodine injection but that was a really strange feeling. Instantly warming up your whole body and giving you an intensely metallic sensation in your mouth. I kinda enjoyed it… but I also like to poke bruises.

Since it was so late at night they had to send the CT data off to radiologists in Australia to provide a report.

Mike Mayer in the CT. Looks like some kind of awesome Sci-Fi device.

While waiting around for the results from the CT we asked the nurses nicely to get food for my mom. She was hungry and was getting tired/lightheaded/cranky because she didn’t eat. I also didn’t eat since 11am that morning. They didn’t give me any food though.

It was interesting listening to all of the other patients and the things going on around me. It seems that most everyone was there because of an injury or a cardiac event. The lady in the bed immediately next to me sounded convinced that she was going to die right there. It was pretty sad because I don’t think she was very old (40s).

The ER Results

THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH MY HEART. Nothing. Really. I’ve run the gamut of tests. There really is only one more test for me to have and that’s a boring ordinary stress test on a treadmill. I’m scheduled to have that done on February 4th at 4:30pm with Dr. Arora.

The blood test showed that I was a little low on potassium and a little high on white blood cells. The nurse gave me some giant pills to take and was very surprised that I was able to swallow them without ever letting them touch my tongue. She warned me that they’re incredibly bitter and was very adamant about it so I had to do the trick swallow.

They wanted to keep me overnight in the telemetry floor (3rd floor) of the hospital to be extra certain that nothing was wrong. So I agreed. It was time to let the doctors do whatever they wanted because I was tired of wondering.

My First Overnight Stay in a Hospital

I stayed in room 392A. They gave me a ton of food and set me up in my room. The doctor specifically directed the nurses to not allow me to get out of bed without supervision because of my vasovagal syncope episodes. So I bugged the nurse anytime I needed to pee. Good times.

Sleeping in a hospital sucks. I was really stressed out and really tired and there was too much light and noise and nurses going in and out of the room all night. The man in the bed next to me was born in 1926 and he had a syncope episode. The poor guy kept complaining when the nurses would come in at night “why won’t you let me sleep?” I felt bad for him. He sounded like he was barely alive.

To distract myself and try to un-focus on my surroundings I tried to imagine certain things in my head. One thinking device that I found most interesting was trying to recall all of the details of video games I’ve played in my life. Specifically certain areas that are the most memorable. I’d try to map out and fully expand these areas in the most vivid detail in my head. One area was the walk from Link’s house to Hyrule’s sewer in Zelda : A Link to the Past. Another was World 1-1 from Super Mario Brothers. I also tried recalling the details from the beginning of Secret of Mana from falling off the log all to the first boss battle in Potos.

As silly as that was, it seriously helped me distract myself and feel better.

Since I had a deficiency in potassium I was put on a 50/50 potassium and saline drip for the night. It was a huge bag. I kept wondering, how in the world is that supposed to go inside my veins? It seemed incredible.

They checked my vitals twice during the night. It wasn’t so bad. The nurse was incredibly polite and since I couldn’t sleep very well anyway it wasn’t as if he startled me awake each time.

In the morning, somehow the potassium bag was nearly empty. They gave me a really awesome breakfast. Well made eggs and tasty sausage. They also gave me cereal and milk but I didn’t feel like making myself sick from the milk.

I was told that an internal medicine doctor (Dr. Richard C. Cho) would come by and evaluate me before I would be discharged. He told me that I might have been having a reaction to the Midodrine and suggested that I take a smaller dosage for the time being. He apparently didn’t write that down anywhere because the nurse instructed me to follow up with my cardiologist.

Heather Lunski, “little Heather”, came and visited me. It was nice of her to do that. She works in the hospital so she stopped by.

I was discharged and I asked my dad to pick me up. They did the whole wheelchair thing and brought me outside.

I called my insurance people to let them know what’s up. I called my cardiologist to see what he thinks about the Midodrine reaction but he was “in a meeting until Monday.” It was Wednesday. He was in Boston.

I stopped taking the Midodrine altogether. I was afraid it could give me chest pain/tightness like that again.

Then I spent the rest of the day sleeping.

Now What?

I planned on taking it easy for the next few days. Do what I can to feel better. Jonathan Garcia suggested that I see a cardiologist named Dr. Arora. “He saves lives.” Actually, any cardiologist should be saving lives but since he spoke so highly of him and because he was a nurse that worked with him I thought I’d give it a shot. I confirmed that my insurance would cover a visit with him. Luckily since Dr. Pan and Dr. Jay Lee are out of the same medical group I was able to use Dr. Arora as my second opinion. So I scheduled an appointment.

Dr. Arora’s office is across the street from a Kaiser in Anaheim. You wouldn’t think much of a doctor in a little office like this.

Sharon, being the wonderfully supportive and loving girlfriend that she is, took me to the appointment. I’m very lucky that she came with me to every appointment I’ve had with every doctor for this whole thing. It was an extra set of eyes and ears as well as great support for me.

Dr. Rameen Arora was outstanding. The first thing he said, “What are you doing here? You’re too young to be here.” His word choice and the warm humanity of his speech was refreshing and even enlightening. He had me do a chest xray immediately.

We talked about my syncope episodes and we talked about my other cardiologists. I summarized everything and where I missed anything Sharon jumped in and filled in the holes to give him a complete history.

Sharon asked, “What are the chances that [the trip the the er and chest pain/tightness] was an anxiety attack?” Dr. Arora responded with, “100%.”

We suggested that maybe I should use anti-anxiety medication to mitigate any possibility that I have chest pains/tightness from the Midodrine. He didn’t agree and even suggested that Sharon needed the medication more than I did. I was too nonchalant or something that gave him the impression that I was okay.

Dr. Arora said that everything was an anxiety attack. There was nothing wrong with my heart at all. The chest xray he ordered looked perfect. I was going to be fine and that “vasovagal reflex syndrome” is normal for people my age. It happens and it goes away. They don’t know why it starts, there is no cure, they don’t know why it stops, but he said that virtually everyone who has this problem gets over it. It’s a matter of managing the symptoms while they exist.

Dr. Arora said one thing that seriously impacted my way of thinking for how I feel right now:

“You know more about your heart than I know about mine or how much [Sharon] knows about hers. You aren’t going to die. You are going to be fine.”

Wow. It seems so simple. I’ve been trying to remind myself that I’m okay. I’m fine. I am.

I mentioned that I had a low potassium and high white blood cell count so he immediately ordered a blood test. He said that any residual chest pain/tightness should go away with some exercise. Too bad I suspended my 24 hour fitness pass for two months and can’t drive anyway. He said that I’ll have to get cardiac clearance for driving from Dr. Jay Lee.

He knew Dr. Jay Lee and Dr. David Pan. He said they’re both really good doctors and that I’m seeing the best possible for my condition with Dr. Jay Lee. He also told us about how terrible Kaiser is and that they make money by “killing people.”

This was fun: there was some teenager-looking girl in the room they were going to take my blood. Sharon said, “who are you?” to that girl. I was wondering the same thing. She was wearing some hoodie and had a backpack with her. I assumed she was just some office worker’s kid or something. That girl responded with, “I’m a trainee.” She was going to be a nurse or something I guess. She probably should have been wearing scrubs.

Anyway, I decided I’d be nice and let the “trainee” take my blood before. “Have you ever done this?” I inquired. She responded with, “Yeah,” laugh. “I’ve done this a few times.”

Yeah well she was the WORST at taking blood ever. Good god she was bad. I tried not to make any faces while she was doing it but she stuck the needle in and didn’t get any blood. She took it out and stuck me again, no blood. She took it out and wiggled it back in, no blood. The other nurse in the room tried again in the same place. No luck. My arm was swiss cheesed.

They took out a baby needle and stuck the top of my right hand. Perfect.

My word of advice? Don’t be nice to the trainee. Let the actual nurse do it. Ugh.

This is how it looked after a few days healing...

Dr. Arora said that I might as well do the stress test. I’ve done everything else. He also said it would give him a chance to follow up with me on the blood test and to see how I was feeling in general. He instructed me to take the Midodrine and to calm down. “Have a beer. Be normal.”

The Conclusion so far.

So, the chest pain and tightness and crazy vitals? ANXIETY ATTACK. That’s right. I was incredibly scared and anxious that I could die or that this powerful medication was doing weird things to me. I was driving myself insane by checking my pulse and vitals every few minutes. I was forcing my body to react negatively to everything.

I never thought of myself as an anxiety attack type person. I guess that under the conditions that pretty much anyone could crack. I’m just glad that I’m taking it easy and learning to control my symptoms. I’m taking this day by day and hoping that I get my driver’s license back soon so I can be a normal person for real.

I am okay.