My visit to the ER

We had a very bad scare last weekend.

It was Saturday, I took a nap with Swe-cha and woke up around 6p with a headache. I decided to tough it out and by 8p, the headache had only gotten worse so I decided to take an Advil.

At around 9:45p, my sister called and while I was on the phone with her, I felt dizzy & nauseous. I went to bed to lie down while talking to her and she suggests taking my BP.

175/113.

"Try the other arm.", achi suggested.

173/115.

Sh*t.

She then tells me that I have to get husband to drive me to the nearest urgent care center. NOW NA! I started getting scared and looked at the operating hours of nearby urgent care centers. They all close by 8p. So we decided to go to the ER.

So we packed up Swe-cha, already in his PJs, in the car and drove to the nearest hospital. Swe-cha kept crying because he thought we were bringing him to the doctor.

When we got there, I got off the car and signed myself in the ER. Hubby stayed in the car w/ Swe-cha. I had asked him to leave me behind and just go straight home but he opted to stay in the parking lot and wait a while.

We were in the ER by 10p. 15 minutes later, I was already being interviewed by a nurse. They checked my BP, 197/115.  F*ck. The nurse turned out to be Filipino and I asked, "uh oh. that's really messed up. I guess that means that I'll be here a while ?" Then I explained how my husband is outside with our son and are waiting for me, should I just ask them to go home ?

Nurse confirmed that it will be a while since I would have to be medicated and maybe, the doctor may order a CT scan.  So I call up hubby and they left for home.

In the meantime, I was assigned ER bed #17 and attached to all sorts of monitors. A different nurse would come by every now and then to tell me that the doctor is coming. But he wouldn't really come until an hour later at 11:20p. During the wait, the BP monitor attached to me would automatically go off every few minutes. By the time the doc comes to check me out, my BP had gone a bit down - 180/110. Still very high.

Doc says that he will give me some meds and that he will also order a CT scan to make sure that everything is okay. I see him walk out, give some instructions to the nurse and walk away.

I wouldn't get the medication until just after 12mn.

All this time, I was alone and so scared that nobody would notice me if something happened to me. I asked the nurse not to close the curtains, telling her that I was alone and that if I had a stroke, I don't have anybody to call for help. I didn't care about privacy and would feel much better if I knew that they (hospital staff) can see me. She obliged.

I'd get the medication by 12:20a and would get a CT scan just after 1a.

The CT scan came out clear, thank God! and I was able to get out by 4a. My plan was to take a taxi home but was discouraged from doing so by hubby and by the nurse who did my initial interview.

There wasn't really any definitive conclusion as to what may have caused my elevated BP. I did come home with an Rx for maintenance meds and instructions to see my doctor ASAP so that my primary care doc can adjust the dosage.

This was such an eye-opener. I am not in the best of health, alam ko yan. But I have been making steady improvements since then.

2 weeks ago, I had some labwork done and it came back with the nicest numbers I've seen in a long long time. 1 week ago, I went to my endocrinologist for a follow up and my BP was 125/80 (higher than normal, but not bad). These days, my bp is at 150/90 w/o medication and only goes down to 120/80 with medication.

Ano kayang nangyari ? ER doc suggests my episode on Saturday could've been caused by dehydration. Feeling ko, it could be also be this virus that I picked up from Swe-cha + dehydration.

Would appreciate it if you would say a little prayer for my health.

Thanks :)