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In the ER lobby. Stooped over, two people ahead of me at the metal detector. It’s like the airport.
“Are you a visitor?” the elderly African-American lady in a blue smock asks.
“No. Patient,” I say.
At the reception desk. “My chest hurts. I can’t breathe.” I start to cry.
“What’s your name, honey?”
After I tell her, she reads out my social and date of birth.
“Yes,” I say. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. You don’t know what’s going on. Of course you’re afraid.”
“Yes,” I say. “Please help me.”
In Triage. My blood pressure is 190/__. The usual questions.
“Do you have a history of high blood pressure? Heart disease?”
“No.”
I am glad to be here. They will take care of me. That’s what I always wished for when I was anorexic. That I would get sick enough that I would be hospitalized and someone would finally take care of me.
An EKG, blood draw, an IV port, a plastic wristband.
“Are you admitting me?”
“Yes, ma’am,” says the beautiful blond nurse.
“Okay.”
“We’re giving you a magnesium drip. Your magnesium is low.”
“Okay.” It burns.
I am wheeled into a large room called “MED SURGERY/OBS.” It’s a barracks-like ward with two rows of beds, each with its own personal sky blue curtain.
I am safe.
They will take care of me.
Maybe I need surgery and I will die on the table. Then I will be with Lorin. Maybe that is what is meant to be. I am calm and unafraid.
They will take care of me.
It is loud and bright in MED SURGERY/OBS.
I have the bed nearest the bathroom. Lucky me.
Each bed has a number dangling above it. I am Number 8.
Every two hours: blood taken, blood pressure, temperature. I am grateful for their diligence. The nurses, doctors and aides are kind, respectful.
They will take care of me.
11 o’clock. The night nurse says, “I’m going to give you something to prevent blood clots. It’s subcutaneous, goes in the belly. It’s gonna burn.”
“Okay.”
The magnesium burns too. I am a sicko on fire, in a ward of sickos.
It’s impossible to sleep. I read a kindle book on my iPhone.
Snoring, bright lights, cell phones going off, the bathroom being cleaned, floors mopped at midnight. At 3:08, two new patients are rolled in. Questions, lights, odors, fear. I hear ambulance sirens, reminds me of the car accident, the day I lost everything.
A sound like a 747 going off every 45 minutes. Is it the air vent or my ancient hospital bed? I don’t know. My neck hurts but I don’t want to ask for anything else. I try to sleep.
10:30 a.m.
No food for me. I am classified “NBM” or “nothing by mouth.”
In the morning they send me for a stress test. Dye in the IV, wait 30 minutes, images of my heart. The machine comes so close to my chest I feel it will crush me. Waiting. Power walking on the treadmill. Waiting. Another heart image. Waiting for someone to transport me back to the ward.
I’m back in Bed Number 8 at 1:30 p.m.
I am hungry. No food since lunch Tuesday. I do not complain. The nurse gives me ice chips.
5:00 p.m.
“Your cardiac enzymes are negative. Your heart looks good,” Dr. C says. “Have you ever had anxiety attacks?”
“Yes,” I say. “But nothing like yesterday.
“I want you to start on some anti-anxiety medication.”
And so it goes. I am grateful for the diagnosis. I stopped taking anxiety meds a long time ago.
I felt somewhat ashamed that I asked my boyfriend G (yes, the widow has a boyfriend—you might judge me. Widows are not supposed to seek love after death, some believe.) to bring me to the ER, that I was not dying. I start to worry about how high my hospital bill will be. I realize how mental disorders/illness are a cause of shame for so many of us, how we feel we have to explain to people why we are sick, why we have panic attacks or why we are depressed. Do cancer patients get judged this way? Perhaps growing up with a mentally ill mother has made me even more ashamed and susceptible to shame. I remember how many times I brought her to the ER and had her admitted into the psych ward. Shame, shame. I never thought I could get this way.
Four Days on the New Meds
I feel like a person. I do not wake up with a sense of terror or dread. My chest does not hurt. I do not have shortness of breath. A bit of dizziness from time to time, but I can deal with it. I feel in charge, alive and hopeful. I feel better than I have in a very long time. I am grateful I have health insurance. I am still working on not being ashamed.
