And then
Tuesday October 08th 2024, 5:34 pm
Filed under: Family,Knit,Life

The *ECG machine was a total flatline.

The nurse was getting flustered with it, so the patient laughed and assured the nurse that the patient at least was not.

The doctor, a little earlier: Was it a slip first? Or a faint first?

Patient: Slip, then a fall headfirst onto the cold water valve on the shower, missing my eye, then very nearly throwing up once finally getting up with his help, then starting hard to pass out but managed to just make it to the bed to collapse.

Doctor: It doesn’t need stitches, but you do need an ECG and complete bloodwork and thyroid tests. We need to find out why you were fainting.

Thus the ECG machine. A second nurse came in. I made a joke about wearing the wrong shoes–can’t reboot with clogs. Okay. They tried rebooting the machine. Then finally they sent me to cardiology down the street–but first I was to go to CT and get a brain scan. And the lab.

Which is how my husband ended up leaving work early to spend hours with me at the clinic, because no way was I driving. He is my rock.

Thirteen previous concussions?! Knocked out five times? When was the last time you saw neurology? It has been too long, they told me.

Okay, so that’s on the list, too. But enough for today.

I figured all that was one way to get a carry-around project teal-green hat back into my list of ready-to-give-aways. But seriously, life? If you want a stinking green hat, you do know there are easier ways to say so.

 

*Update 10/9: I typed EKG yesterday when it was an ECG, and if that’s the worst mistake my brain did after that head banging then I’m okay with that. Update 10/11: Oh wait. I was thinking EEG when I corrected away from EKG. The brain is getting there!


9 Comments so far
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It ain’t bad enough to get sick; you gotta fall down, too. My dear friend, I am praying for you to be better and no more falls.

Comment by Sharon Stanger 10.08.24 @ 6:45 pm

I am so sorry you fell. My dear friend, I pray you are all better.

Comment by Sharon Stanger 10.08.24 @ 6:51 pm

Do I have to come down there and make you behave?! (You: yes, yes, yes, please come down and visit!)

Please take care of yourself. I hope they find the cause of all this falling, and are able to help you stay upright when you want to be. Praying for doctors to have wisdom in treating you.

Comment by Anne 10.08.24 @ 8:24 pm

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Goodness, I so hope you are feeling better today, and that the tests help solve the mystery.

Comment by DebbieR 10.08.24 @ 11:21 pm

Oh Alison ๐Ÿ™
Iโ€™m so sorry for your troubles! I hope this gets sorted out quickly. Please take care of yourself.

Comment by Chris S in Canada 10.09.24 @ 4:37 am

What the heck???!!! Canโ€™t leave you alone for a minute!!! ? You need a helmet. Many thanks to The Rock. Stay safe. We need you!!! ?

Comment by Jayleen Hatmaker 10.09.24 @ 7:16 am

I was joking with another woman at an event a few weekends back about our tendency towards passing out at inconvenient times. The others around us were horrified. There are people who pass out and people who don’t, I guess.

Good luck and I hope they figure this out ASAP.

Comment by NGS 10.09.24 @ 7:51 am

Uuuuugh. If you have a home blood pressure thing or can otherwise do a “beats per minute” count, maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to do the at-home relaxed-stand test for POTS [once you no longer have a fever and when you are not dehydrated]? I am absolutely not a doctor, but POTS is often set off by viruses and can cause a lot of fainting, esp. in heat [showers are a prime problem; if your shower was a cold one, though, that’s less likely], and there are [non-pharmacological as well as medication-based] things you can do to knock the problem down by a chunk at least. Not necessarily very likely to be the culprit, *but* the test is about as cheap as you can get, costing only 10 minutes or so, so there’s that? ๐Ÿ™‚

I hope your rounds of tests turn up something readily fixable and non-scary!

Comment by KC 10.09.24 @ 8:34 am

Oh, my goodness! I’m glad you’re okay but this is kind of a lot. Take it easy.

Comment by ccr in MA 10.09.24 @ 12:36 pm



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