Last night my wife, who has major health issues as it is, woke me up at 2:30 am telling me to call 911. She was having intense chest pains. I grabbed the phone and called. Despite what had to be my obvious panic, the 911 operator exhibited no sense of urgency and started asking me all sorts of questions about her symptoms, what medications she was taking, her general health, etc. All this before even asking for the address or telling me they were sending the paramedics. I had to interrupt him and demand an ambulance, at which point he got annoyed but said he'd get one out there. It's like he didn't believe me or something, even though we've never even called 911 since we've lived here.
In the meantime I got my wife an aspirin, in case it was a heart attack. We live in a small town, so I expected paramedics shortly. No one showed up for like 10 minutes. My wife was scared to death and desperate to get to the hospital and asked me to just take her instead. I called 911 back and told them I was taking her myself, and found that apparently the nearest paramedics are 10 miles away, and that they had just been dispatched a couple of minutes ago. I knew I could make it to the hospital faster than they could get here and back, so I told them to call it off and I would drive myself.
My son and I got my wife to the car, and we made it to the hospital in record time, fortunately without getting stopped by police. The emergency room was great and got her right in immediately. It turned out that it wasn't a heart attack, but probably some sort of intestinal problem although we weren't sure. The doctor said a reflux attack or something similar can simulate heart attack symptoms. They checked everything out, and gave her medication that stopped the chest pains. We left the hospital after 5 am or so, exhausted but relieved.
Pretty scary. Glad to hear it wasn't her heart. Best wishes.
ReplyDeleteYeah, "I'm having horrible chest pains" is not something you want to hear ever, let alone in dead of night. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear she's alright from this at least. I'm about to hit 1 year married and the idea of hearing that scares the bejeezus out of me, can't imagine what it's like for you with a son.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Fortunately my son is now 12, so he is able to handle that sort of incident better than a small child. She has had major health problems a number of times when he was much younger, and I had one critical illness myself. When they are little all you want to do is shield them as much as possible -- which isn't easy to do if you have to drag them to the hospital with you. But at 12, at least I can explain things and reassure him somewhat.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad everything turned out OK!
ReplyDeleteThanks. Hopefully we won't have any reoccurences.
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