My trip to the ER

Let me start off before I went to the ER last night.

On Tuesday, I started getting a cough and achy joints from the hips down. I told my husband that I was probably coming down with a cold. Which sucks. Because I am diabetic. And it takes FOREVER to heal.

Wednesday morning I woke up and the cough felt really deep in my chest. Then later on in the day it felt like a sharp pain behind my right shoulder. I took a hot shower and then coughed up nasty dark phlegm (sorry but just leading up to it all).

So my husband got home and I told him I was worried that maybe I was coming down with swine flu or something because of all the aches and pains. Around 9:30pm last night, I finally told him to take me to the ER, because I was worried that maybe, just maybe, I had pneumonia.

Got the Memorial Hermann ER and was seen right away. Got a breathing treatment, while they stuck an IV needle in my arm and drew blood, made me pee in a cup, then stuck a long little brush up both sides of my nose (OMG I think it touched my brain! it freaking hurt!) to test for the flu. Sent me to Xray and had my chest xray'd and doctor came in and said " You seem to have a touch of pneumonia".

So they hooked up an antibiotic to the IV and let it drip for an hour. Nurse came in, disconnected the bag, pulled out the IV and left the room.

5 seconds later.......

...came back into the room with an OMG! look on her face and holding a bag of sodium chloride says, "I'm sorry, I was supposed to give you this one too". WTH??

So said nurse has to stick a NEW IV into my arm, which was just lovely, and hook me up for another hour of IV dripping into my veins. By this time it is 2 in the morning and when she comes in to remove IV I say "Go find out if this is it b/c you ARE NOT STICKING me again." So comes back in 5 minutes later with another bag just to make sure I am hydrated. Meanwhile, the ER Doc is on the phone with my doc discussing if they should admit me into the hospital. Outcome...we think it's safe for her to go home.

So he comes in and they remove the IV and the nurse takes my heart rate....99. So he checks my pulse..99. So they put the little thingy on my finger.....240!

I have to lie down and they hook me up to the EKG and ......99. Freaky. I was really worried that I was having a heart attack or something even though I felt fine and normal.

They released me at 4am, came home, went to bed, went to my doc's office at 8am, got the all clear, filled my prescriptions which consisted of 2 antibiotics, 1 albuterol pump and (mercy me!) Robitussin with codeine. I have gotten a total of 6 hours of sleep today but only in 3 hr increments as the coughing is waking me up. Hoping for a better day tomorrow and that they caught this early enough for me not to end up in the hospital.