It Started On A Sunday

I woke up on a Sunday morning in March.  I hadn't slept well the night before, it felt like I couldn't breathe.  You would think that would make me nervous, but living in a poor air quality area in Central California, and having asthma, it didn't really alarm me.  I took a shower, thinking that the steam would help, it didn't.  I thought perhaps I would need a breathing treatment, or a new inhaler, maybe I could wait until Monday.

I was huffing and puffing for air, the inhalers weren't helping at all.  I finally decided I would go to the emergency room.  I figured I might have to wait a while, but at least I would get a breathing treatment.  I made sure to get my grocery list together, because the shopping needed to be done, and hey, it was just a breathing issue.

I drove myself to the hospital, after all, I had grocery shopping to do afterwards.  The walk from the car to the door was excruciating.  I couldn't breathe and I was sweating.  I had to take several breaths between words, as I explained to the admissions person that it was just a breathing issue, most likely my asthma.  I was surprised that I didn't even have to sit down in the waiting room, instead I went straight back to have my stats taken.  My blood pressure was over the moon crazy, but that didn't alarm me, I've had blood pressure issues for years.  So, after the initial stats, it was out to the waiting room.

I hadn't even had time to start knitting, when they called me to take a chest x-ray. So, back to the x-ray room I went, this time in a wheelchair.  The x-rays were taken, and back to the waiting room I went.  This time I did manage to get out my knitting and had gotten a row or two done. I was surprised when a doctor sat down beside me.  He took my pulse and started asking me questions, did my chest hurt?  Did I have a stomach ache?  Did my back hurt?  Did my arm hurt, or jaw?  I didn't have any of those pains.  He then reached down and pushed on the skin of my calf.  It left an indentation.  He told me we were going to go into the back and called for a wheelchair.  Okay, now I was getting a little nervous.

Once we got to the back, into a scary room, he told me he thought I'd had a heart attack.  Suddenly blood was being taken and I was being attached to an EKG machine.  He put my x-rays up and pointed out my lungs.  They were filled with fluid.  He began reading my EKG, and before he was done, I was being handed an aspirin.  The good news, I wasn't currently having a heart attack, the bad news, I had had one recently, the really bad news, I had Congestive Heart Failure, the terrible news, there would be no grocery shopping today.  I was being admitted.