Hospital stay (Friday - Monday)

I'm so exhausted. Had trouble breathing last Thursday & Friday and by that last night I couldn't breathe at all. It was a painful frightening struggle. Ended up in the ER at Shands downtown at 10:30 pm on the 4th. The triage people were nice but they didn't realize the severity of it until they put me into another section called FLEX. I was in there a bit until a nurse came in and saw me struggling and then ran for help and came back with 6 or 7 people. They tried to stabilize me with something called a bpac (?) mask but I had a panic attack so they slapped a regular breathing mask on me and ran me to the next stage unit called RESUS.

Once again, I was the center of attention with what looked like 15 people crammed into the curtained off area trying to help. I couldn't calm down, I couldn't breathe, and then when a woman doctor threatened me with intubation I almost fainted. Thank goodness a respiratory therapist with a good, kind head on his shoulders took over and talked me down and got me to allow then to put the bpac mask back on - this time on very low instead of full blast. That was the key and it worked. I was still freaked but was able to handle it.

Was admitted to a room around 8 or 9 am. Missed breakfast, so by the time lunch came around, it had been 18 hours since I had eaten. Was eventually all taken care of and was put on a regiment of heart monitor, insulin, anti blood clot, Albuterol, and other stuff.

Doc ordered a respiratory test and an echo cardiogram but found out I'd have to stay in hospital until Monday to get them done.

Petunia was at a friend's house until Saturday night then came home and visited me with Sharky. Visited Sunday as well. Sunday night, Sharky to get to BB's house to spend the night. Near got home from Savannah on Monday morning.

Got the respiratory test done early Monday morning but the echo was not done until Monday afternoon, so another night here. Sharky and the kids visited that night and I was able to see Bear before he left early Tuesday morning. That hurt.

I had a roommate from Saturday to Monday afternoon. She was 75 and married with a ton of family and most likely is undiagnosed bipolar. Woke up really Sunday morning to find she had stripped herself naked and was dancing around the room. She would swear at the nurses and say horrid things to them. She lied to the nurses and doctors too. Hey family was worse though. One was a homophobe and bitched about me watching The Chew. Another couple purposely started fight between roommate and her husband and laughed about it. And the men used our bathroom. Gross.