Wednesday, December 03, 2014

ONE-DAY IN HELL


I need my coffee, and if I don’t have any I get headaches, low grade at first that build up to a symphony of kettledrums between the eyes. It makes me very cranky and if I don’t eat along with that I get downright ugly. (Uglier)

Recently I had to go to the cardiologist for some test under the heading of nuclear stress tests. It is a 4-5 hour procedure where you wait a lot in the waiting room between procedures, but the requisite to the test is complete fasting and no caffeinated drinks and nothing other than a little juice or water. I could take any medication I was on in the morning, but no blood pressure medication. My appointment was at 12:30 PM and it would last until rush hour in the most densely populated areas of auto traffic!

But wait, I forgot to mention what I did in the morning. Without my coffee and breakfast, I had a 9:00 am dental appointment! Yes, to put in a post for a temporary crown, in the most difficult area of the mouth for a dentist to work in: the upper last molar on the left. This required constant drilling, more drilling and then some drilling: as he had to clear out an infection that was under the gums! The scrapping and digging went along very well with the drilling I thought. Plus there was this assistant that decided to clean out a drawer that was next to my left ear, and with the headache, the drilling and scrapping, and the hunger, she was making the most awful racket I ever heard, all contributing to my headache and misery. I got out of the dentist office at 11:30 am, went home for a minor breakdown of e-mail checking and a minor errand. My headache was getting worst!

Immediately afterwards I left my home for the cardiologist office and checked in, sat down for 3 seconds and they call me in! Quickly I was led in for my test and I was in the beginnings of a long afternoon but only halfway through a long day. 

One of the things they do with a ‘nuclear’ stress test is insert a radioactive chemical in which it races your heart while you lay there. Sounds better than a treadmill, but you feel worse. It speeds up your heart, and it feels like someone poured hot water into your veins leaving you feeling like you wish to die. If I was given the choice, I just might have picked death. The port is put into your arm first thing when you enter, and it stays there for the whole time you are in there, and you better keep your arm straight, there is a needle sticking into your arm after all!

There is another form of torture they put you through and they do it twice: you lay on this platform with your arms raised over your head, straight back that after a minute feels very uncomfortable. I had to hold that position for 9 minutes, as it takes a picture of your heart. Twice I had to do this! Before the stress test and then afterward, it really helps you feel just dandy about everyone and everything, I kid you.

Well, I was supposed to go to a Board of Director’s Meeting that evening, and decided that I would see how I felt when I finally got home after the day I had which included the afternoon/evening rush hour and the idiots that rush and pass on the right were out there.

Getting home I made myself a cup of coffee, and just sat in my chair, a headache going full blast, I hadn’t eaten yet, I decided that the Board would have to carry on without me.








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You should!

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