An Emergency Room Trip at 3:00am.....

Short version: About 3am Saturday morning I thought I was dying.

Longer version: I woke up around 3ish to go potty, as usual. But on the way to the bathroom I noticed my abdomen hurt a little. By the time I was on the way back to bed, it hurt a lot. Then the left side of my chest hurt. Then the next thing I knew my heart was racing out of control. Really, I didn't know a heart could beat THAT fast. I thought my heart was going to explode. And about that time as I was waking up my husband to tell him I don't feel right at all, this strange burning sensation was overcoming my body, and when it hit the back of my neck and then back of my head and my heart was racing and chest was hurting I told my husband to call 911, that I thought I was dying.

This is the scariest thing I have ever been through.

So the ambulance comes. Slowly, because we are rural, and might I add that they turned into our drive and then pulled back out and then my hubby chased them down the highway and brought them back. He's such a good hubby, bless HIS heart, I scared the crap out of him. We really need to make our address HUGE on our mailbox. If I wasn't already dying, the trip down our front porch stairs on the stretcher was about enough to kill me! It was like a roller coaster ride, which I do not do. But while I was waiting for the ambulance I was shaking all over uncontrollably, but my heart rate was slowing, which I was not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing so I laid on the bed in one position, scared to death to move. My hubby had to put some jammie pants on me because I had went to bed in a tshirt and undies. I have also been really run down the last week or so - taking a lot of naps and going to bed early. I thought I was fighting off a bug so I didn't give it too much thought...UNTIL all of the sudden this was going on - then I was sure it was because something was terribly wrong with me.

So in the ambulance they are trying to get an IV in, which they could not, and they hooked me up and monitored me. The paramedic told me I had the most beautiful sinus rhythm he had seen in a long time. I blushed.

At the hospital they ran a bazillion tests. All tests came back negative. My heart is fine. My electrolytes and all that jazz are fine. My blood is all fine. My chest x-ray was fine. My thyroid was even fine. They kept referring to my test results and "Perfect" and "Beautiful". Which made me think...are they normal because I am crazy?!?!?

So I have to see the Dr on Monday. The ER doc suspects a massive ANXIETY attack, which I misinterpreted as a massive HEART attack. And the more I research nocturnal anxiety attacks, the more sense it makes. I have had some issues with anxiety before, but nothing compared to the magnitude of this experience. I really hope to never go through that again! So my suspicion this far is that perhaps I was either in the process of an anxiety attack when I woke up and it escalated. Or in my sleepy stupor I had an anxiety attack in response to the abdominal pain I was having. I don't really know.

So I spent yesterday resting and taking it easy. I still had a little bit of abdominal pain off and on. Last night I slept in a chair because the thought of sleeping in my bed was just not appealing at all. When I woke up for the usual bathroom trip at 3am last night, I was wide awake and nervous just thinking about the night before. I did a lot of deep breathing to get me through last night. I'll see the Dr tomorrow after work and go from there.

So there it is. Anyone have anxiety issues? Nocturnal anxiety attacks? I could really use some "You are not crazy" hugs right now! While I am thrilled there is nothing wrong with me, something IS wrong with me. Know what I mean? Ugh.