Hello everyone.
First off I want to take this time to thank each and everyone of you for the prayers and support. It means a lot to me. I will try to cover the this situation as briefly as I can with the hopes of informing you all on something that I had absolutely no idea about, until now. This is in hopes of helping anyone else in the event they ever experience such.
I was awaken at 0312 with the strangest pain at the back of my tongue. It was a very dull pain. As soon as I moved to get out of bed, the pain radiated all the way down my esophagus to the top of my stomach area. It was a very dull pain that I have never felt in my life on any part of my body. The more I moved, the worse it became. I tried to drink a little bit of milk, Tums, and a few other things. The pain kept increasing. I laid back down in hopes of the pain subsiding, but it never.
Laura got up, got ready and went work. I assured her I was fine. After getting out of bed the second time, the pain had elevated to the degree that I was having a difficult time breathing. The pain also expanded to include my entire upper chest area, especially over my heart and the tops of my lungs. Then came the coughing with each tiny and shallow breath I tried to take. I could only take in a small amount of air with each breadth.
Realizing this was not good and medical attention was required, I wanted to take a shower and get dressed first, then call Laura at work and have her drive me to a decent hospital an hours drive away. When I got out of the chair, the pain went through the roof. The higher intensity of pain, the tighter my chest got and the less oxygen I was getting with each shallow, tiny breath. My heart began to race like a weedeater at full throttle. I got back into a dining room chair just as things were getting fuzzy.
I've always considered myself a very strong-minded person during any sort of emergency situation. I told myself to think and that I was going to be okay. So I reached over and picked up a bag of Halls cough drops, emptied it on the table, placed the bag over my mouth and began trying to contain my runaway heart and rapid shallow breathing by breathing into the bag. It helped very little.
At this point I was thinking it was a heart attack. Thankfully, my cell was within reaching distance. So I called Laura and told her the situation and asked her to "get home now" and get me to the London hospital. She said she was on her way. Getting back up from the chair trying to get dressed was a mistake. The more I moved, the pain increased to what appeared to be exponentially. The pain was like being hit in the chest with a 20 pound sledgehammer. Getting back into the chair I called Laura back and told her I didn't think I could make it another hour to London plus her 20 minute drive home. I told her to call an ambulance.
Long story short, the only way the ambulance EMS folks and the hospital could get control of this situation was with Morphine. Was given a very little bit in the ambulance but the hospital increased the dosage. It was the only way they could get the pain under control which slowed down my heartrate. It was like a runaway train. The worse the pain became, the tighter my chest got from the pain, the faster my heartrate, the worse the pain become. Very strange situation.
After much testing, I was assured it was not a heart attack. However, as soon as the morphine began to wear off, the terrible pain was back. I was given morphine every few hours the entire time. It was like a Dodge pickup truck was parked on top of my chest. After all day of testing, being up most of the night, more testing yesterday morning, then two new doctors going over everything, the best I can relay until more testing is done is this, per the report.
"Your symptoms are likely related to peptic ulcer disease and advanced gastroesophageal reflux disease with gastritis/esophagitis (I would reckon that means GERD in medical lingo). Due to also having a hiatal hernia, decreasing pressure on stomach will also help with your symptoms. You were also found with moderate stool within the intestines and some sort of partial blockage is suspected".
Try as they did, and after being violated by not just one, not two, but three pretty nurses, two different times, they have not been successful at removing the partial blockage. I'm not bound up, and things are moving and getting past the partial blockage, evidently just not like it should be.
They went on to explain there could be damage to the esophagus in several places but they will not know for certain until I have an endoscopy in a couple of weeks. So, several issues going on at the same time for sure. I have medicine to get me by for a while, and I am very limited as to what can can eat for a while. I am still weak but getting a little stronger. The pain is mostly gone now and my breathing is better but the cough is still there if I move around too much, especially if I begin to breath heavily. My chest muscles are still sore, for whatever reason.
I was not in any shape to type, at all, due to being so wooggered out on morphine and being weak. Last night was a pretty good night for me, actually got some sleep, finally. Being on a limited liquid diet, not sleeping, pain, morphine, light breathing.........it all took its toll on me. Who would ever thought that the above could put a man down like that, to the degree that I was certain I was having a heart attack?
I have known for over 20 years that I have had some issues in the stomach area. It got better for the most part. However, the signs were increasing the last few months. At first I refused to believe it. Then I hid it. Then I was trying to live with it thinking it would improve again, despite issues increasing. I reckon there were simply too many issues going on at the same time to avoid putting it off. It made sure of that one.
Also, I was informed last night that one of Laura's sisters (which is a nurse) experienced the same basic thing as I did several years ago. She too, was certain she was having a heart attack.
Again, I thank you all for the support and prayers. It means a lot.
