Jack Bauer has nothing on me. I can top any of his 24 hours. 48, for that matter. The past few days, I’ve been a little under the weather, nothing serious, somethin’ I et. I was feeling better on Thursday when suddenly Xavier took ill. X is a guy’s guy. A regular guy, never hysterical. He leaves that to the experts (me). So when he came down the stairs at 10:30pm Thursday night with his shoes in his hand, complaining of chest pains and extreme shortness of breath… well, you take it pretty frickin’ seriously. When he actually said the words, "I need to go to the emergency room," I wake the boys, tell them where we’re going, and get in the car.
I drive. He said the trip to the emergency room almost made his heart stop. Haha.
Although our doctor is at Clinica Biblica in downtown San Jose, we are five minutes from CIMA, the other big fine hospital here. In CIMA’s emergency room, they gave him a shot of pain reliever, hooked him up to an IV with more drugs, took two blood tests an hour apart, took his blood pressure a million times, took a chest x-ray and three EKGs over the course of three hours. Apparently if you are having a heart attack, there is some enzyme that shows up in your blood and he had none of that. X-ray and EKGs were normal.
An odd thing: the minute he got the shot of pain reliever, his
blood pressure dropped dramatically, he broke into a cold sweat, all
the blood left the top of his body and he started to faint. Faint? X? The ER staff went into ER mode: they hooked the get-your-blood-pressure-up IV bag to his tube, the doctor is holding
this up in the air and squeezing it to get the stuff into him faster, they put his feet
above his head which makes the chest thing significantly worse… but
he doesn’t faint and his blood pressure returns to normal after about a minute. Which, of course, felt like an hour. The doctor explains that sometimes the pain from the shot makes people faint. This sounds lame to me, but it’s the best she has.
The drugs (non-narcotic so no "feel good" stuff) relieved the pain
and he can breathe. The ER doctor suggested a stress test the next day, but
determined he was not having a heart attack and there is nothing else she can do. At 2am, we pay our bill ($480) and go home to bed.
It’s really really nice to find out you’re not having a heart attack. But what are you having???? Here are the symptoms: the pain starts at the top of his windpipe and, with every breath, spreads across his chest, up his neck and across his shoulders, including the back of his shoulders. He feels like he wants to hunch over. He has to take shallow breaths because of the pain – he can’t breathe deeply, too painful. And it’s connected to his blood pressure somehow: when he lies down or bends over to put on his shoes, blood pressure increases sharply and he says every heartbeat feels like a hammer pounding on his chest.
Friday morning, around 9am, after being up for an hour or so, the pain starts again and rapidly gets as bad as the night before. Scary. We hop in the car to see our doctor at Clinica Biblica. I do not tailgate this time. We stop to fill the prescription for painkiller (Lisalgil); X takes one. By the time we get in to see the doctor, the pain has subsided to a 1 from an 8. The doctor is mystified. He looks at all our stuff from the night before and suggests a double-check of everything. We’ll be there all day.
X has another round of blood tests, a chest x-ray, several EKGs, a stress test, an echo-cardiogram, a sonogram, every test available and all of which I witnessed. After the stress test, we are in the waiting room. I notice that X’s head, which is now bald, is going chalky white. I ask him if he feels ok, he says yes. Then his head gets bright white. The cold sweat starts. I ask if he feels ok, he says no, he’s about to pass out. They take him back and do another EKG. The episode passes and he does not faint. The doctor explains that sometimes after a stress test, the arteries are open further… I don’t know. It sounds lame to me, but what do I know? Aren’t these two fainting spells related? They think not.
By 4pm, we have spent another $500* and are certain of only one thing: X’s heart is going to last forever. It is so good, it will probably out live him. No one could have a better heart. Still otherwise mystified, we go home. I Google chest pain. After heart-related causes, there’s only anxiety, diabetes and shingles left. He will have a fasting blood test to rule out diabetes, but none in his family and previous blood test said not. Could someone who is rarely concerned, always pragmatic ("everybody dies" is in the top ten Xavier expressions) suddenly experience debilitating chest-crushing anxiety? I guess if he breaks out in a rash, we’ll know it was shingles. But where did he contract the chicken pox virus? Does shingles cause this degree of chest pain?
The cardiologist gave him a stronger painkiller, an NSAID, and this stuff knocks out the pain completely. It’s now Saturday afternoon and he can feel the pain lurking back there. He has plenty of drugs to keep it at bay. BUT WHAT IS IT? Someone today suggested a parasite. At the hospital, a virus was mentioned, as in "Maybe he’s coming down with something." Uh, yeah. I’m afraid to ask about the parasite thing. Does a virus/parasite present like this? I don’t know. I sure as hell wish I did.
Here’s my confession. When X was laying in the ER bed Thursday night, his life insurance policy flashes before me. I can’t help it. If he dies, I get 500 big ones. (He’s safe because it has that selfish clause about how murder voids the policy.) So while he’s laying in the ER hooked up to a bunch of stuff, fainting, I’m thinking about how I will spend the $500k. I tell him this. He says, "I know." I find that endearing and decide I’d rather have him. I just have to figure out what he’s got so we can keep him.
*The last 48 hours of medical attention cost just under $1,000 paying full price. Our health insurance policy in the states had a $5,000 deductible and cost $670/month for the four of us. The last chest x-ray I paid for cost $400 and that was years ago. My mom had an EKG four years ago in Key West that cost $800. For ONE. X has had at least 10 so far along with everything else. We’ve gotten our money’s worth.
We’re hoping you can figure this one out and get it cured. Mysterious symptoms, especially pain, are much worse than those you know the cause of.
Robert
I’m with you. I want to know what it is so I can a) fix it and b) prevent it from happening again. But it’s been a good day, he’s doing good, ready with the painkiller if needed. Too weird!!! We are both exhausted… but it’s nice to have been reassured of our good medical care here. See you!
JE-Sus Sally, what could be going on? Where is Dr. House when you need him!?! You are his nurse now and you log every ache and pain and what degree it is. They took 3 months to diagnosis my husband for pancreatic cancer. We had already surmissed as much reading medical books. Stay on it (I know you are) and don’t ignore ANYTHING (even a burp). You are so fortunate to be near two good hospitals. Here in Jaco, we just die. Call me if you need me. Teri
I shoulda been a doctor, I’ve got every symptom down pat, watching for everything. Unfortunately (or I guess fortunately) when he’s not in actual pain, he thinks he’s just fine. The pain was much subsided last night, although it did come back and he took another pill. He feels so great today, he bought croissants for breakfast… So we shall see. It will be telling if the pain comes back tonight. If it doesn’t, I probably won’t be able to drag him to the doctor for more tests. Oh well, it’s his body. And there’s always the $500k. Heartless, that’s me. Thank you, Teri. xoxoxo.
Man, poor X! And poor you! Hope they/you figure it out soon. This is a very long stretch but could it be something with his Gall Bladder or something weird like that? Something that is shooting the pain around so to distract from what the real cause is?
I had a gall bladder-itis/infection thing once and lmty the pain was worse than child-birth, AND misdiagnosed at ER (here in the states.) – I had to google it to find what mine was. Thankfully the ER had given me the right med anyway.
Good luck and I hope you put off receiving that 500K for some time. X seems like a keeper. 🙂
I think Robin may be on to something. I had gallstones for 5 years because I didn’t want that 6 inch scar. ANYTHING with grease or spices would set it off. The pain got to be so great, I finally had the surgery. Feels like a heart attack (although I’ve never had one of those). When I would have an “attack”, I would be in intense pain, go white and then break out in a cold sweat and then go to sleep (like a coma). I lived off Coco Puffs for years and even now (20+ years later) pizza will bring back the ghost of the gallstones (stomach ache).
It’s a simple test to detect them. Sonar.
Thanks, Robin and Teri, but not gallstones. I looked it up on Wikipedia and there was no stomach or upper ab pain at all… He’s fine today, did not have to take a pain pill last night. And, of course, being a guy, if it no longer hurts, it’s not worth addressing. I’m going to call the doctor and get a recommendation for an upper respiratory (ear, nose, throat) doctor, see if there are any other tests to do just to completely rule out lungs (although xray was clear) and throat (but I’m thinking that would be a stretch too)… I guess it could have been JUST a sore chest muscle… but I have a hard time believing one could be that severe or could raise the blood pressure like that from laying down, like a “hammer pounding” on his chest? Too weird. I’ll keep you posted…
When a stone gets hung up in the duct, one just feels intense pressure between the shoulder blades. It’s not like a stomach ache.
Hmmmm, no pain between the shoulder blades. Just across the chest, up the neck, across the shoulders and in back of the shoulders, but not really between them… Much more front of the upper chest, that’s where it was really located. Like heart.. BUT KEEP THINKING!!! xoxoxoxo
Hmmmm…. First off very happy he’s feeling better! Yay!
For what it’s worth, my pain wasn’t stones that I know of (And that sounds completely horrible too Teri!) but my pain was intense only along the top of the bottomish to middle area of the breastbone and up some, and across my back. So in the chest cavity and not the abs. Altho, I don’t recall it going up as high as you are describing; altho’ stranger things have happened probably.
What about an acid reflux issue? My mil went to hospital via ambulance b/c she thought she was having a heart attack and it was acid reflux they said. Of course this is the same hospital that said I had a UTI or bladder infection when I had my gallbladder attack. 🙂
I’ll keep thinking…
Thank you, Robin. I appreciate it!
Hi Sally: Greetings and happy new year to you and your family. I read with interest and deep concern your experience with X’s chest pain, etc. Before you call his heart 100% perfect you need to have a heart catherization, which is when doctors snake a camera through the groin and into the heart. They see exactly how the arteries and so forth are working and it’s the definitive diagnostic tool for heart disease. It will rule out heart disease totally.
it’s a real drag when symptoms persist without explanation. After reading your superb blog, I think when my health insurance runs out in September I’ll fly to Costa Rica for my annual check up. It will be a whole lot cheaper and I’ll get a vacation, too!!
I hope all turns out well and X is recovered from this strange thing. He didn’t eat any Peter Pan peanut butter did he? ‘Cause here in Amerika there’s a recall of that stuff. Love and best wishes always, June
I would check into the gallbladder also. I had the same symptoms after months of ignoring other symptoms. I was sick at my stomach after eating anything spicy or greasy. I’d say gallstones are a good possibility, this can be checked with a untrasound scan. I was out of breath and felt like I was having a heart attack with the worst symptoms.
I’m so glad X is feeling better!
Most likely no one will agree with me about this but I speak from personal experience–try a chiropractor!
I have many problems along my spine and with my back in general but the worst is when I get the sharp pains in my chest, which are just like those you described.
Fortunately, I generally remind myself they’re related to my bone/spine injuries and after some deep breathing and a good spell of stretching I’m better until the next time.
If something is out of alignment in the spine it will push things into the chest so that the pain is there. Additionally, I have observed that the more pain I’m in the higher my blood pressure goes–the doctor wanted to put me on medication for my blood pressure but that’s not the root of the problem, the root of it is the pain. When that goes away (more gradually with an oral pain killer) the blood pressure is not an issue.
Hope you all stay well!
I’m so glad X is feeling better!
Most likely no one will agree with me about this but I speak from personal experience–try a chiropractor!
I have many problems along my spine and with my back in general but the worst is when I get the sharp pains in my chest, which are just like those you described.
Fortunately, I generally remind myself they’re related to my bone/spine injuries and after some deep breathing and a good spell of stretching I’m better until the next time.
If something is out of alignment in the spine it will push things into the chest so that the pain is there. Additionally, I have observed that the more pain I’m in the higher my blood pressure goes–the doctor wanted to put me on medication for my blood pressure but that’s not the root of the problem, the root of it is the pain. When that goes away (more gradually with an oral pain killer) the blood pressure is not an issue.
Hope you all stay well!