Taking a short break from the Grand Canyon -

It’s Wednesday night/Thursday morning. I’m still trying out this series (every week on Wednesday nights) covering my heart issues/time in the hospital. So, it’s time for the next installment.

I left off in late July with the doctor saying to come back in a few months if I still felt that something was wrong.

I was really not feeling well in September. In early October, on a Wednesday, I was completely out of energy. Completely. I could barely get out of bed. That past summer, I had done my first half marathon. Supposedly, I was training for a marathon (and another half). What was happening to me?

I honestly didn’t know that I could make it out of bed and out of my apartment. I had never been to an ER, and didn’t want to do something so drastic as to go to a hospital. (I think, actually I may have  been to an ER before when I was a little girl and sprained my ankle, and my daddy took me to a children’s hospital to get crutches and such. But I had never been there alone and not recent enough to remember it, for sure. And never in an ambulance…)

I opted to go to an Urgent Care facility, skipping my very favorite class in the process. I felt guilty and sad skipping that class, but I didn’t think I’d be able to get through it.

They gave me a once over at Urgent Care, took some blood, told me to go home and rest, and that they’d call with the results. Luckily, we were in performances of the show I was working on, and didn’t have any shows on Wednesday. I had the whole night off to sleep.

I woke up on Thursday feeling even worse than I did on Wednesday. I didn’t have the energy to do anything. I pulled a hoodie on, forgetting to even brush my teeth. I walked into school with my retainer still in. If Urgent Care didn’t find anything urgently wrong, I couldn’t very well miss class.

I think my teacher asked before class if I was feeling okay. I said I was really under the weather, but really wanted to be there. I sat in the corner, and just tried not to draw any attention to myself. That plan burst into flames when I passed out in the second half of class. Shucks.

I was so embarrassed when I came to. Mainly, I was embarrassed that people were around me and I still had my retainer in. Yikes, right?

The paramedics came. Everyone thought it would be a good idea to go to the hospital to see what’s up. Okay then.

They asked me in the ambulance if there was a specific hospital where they should take me. Uh, no. I don’t know. Just take me wherever you take people. It was a completely new experience. I knew nothing about hospitals or ERs or anything like that.

I got to Tufts Medical Center. They took my insurance and I hung out. I kept watching the clock ’cause I had a show that night. Luckily, this happened in the afternoon, so I knew I’d be okay on time.

I figured they’d probably just tell me to drink a ton of water, or whatever it is they tell people who pass out, then send me on my way. After all, my doctor dismissed my concerns, and Urgent Care hadn’t seemed to find anything, so I’m sure I was just under the weather.

And that’s when a medical professional (nurse? doctor? I don’t remember…) entered the room. “Hi Aurora. Have you ever had an EKG before?” “No, why?” “No reason. I’m just gonna take it again.”

I believe I ended up getting it taken 3 times that day. The way they said “No reason. I’m just gonna take it again,” I knew. I knew something was up, but I didn’t know what.

Was something up? Well, being that you know the end of the story is me having open heart surgery, I’m gonna go ahead and guess something was, but I guess you’ll see next week in part 3.

Tagged: cardiac patient, doctors, electrocardiology, heart patient, heart troubles, hospital, overcoming illness, patient, wolff-parkinson white