December 2008 – "Wakeup Call" – Part 5

Seeing the Doctor:

Georgia drove me over to the facility and we went in for the “long wait” to be seen. Surprisingly, it was not that long; perhaps an hour as I recall. I was seen by a real doctor who gave me an examination that was thorough at least as it related to the symptoms I described. It included an EKG, and when he was done, he told me that I had fluid on my lungs and that a shot of lasix should take care of things. Since he hadn’t really gone into my history, I asked him if it would impact his diagnosis at all to know that I had had open heart surgery in 1985 with a quintuple bypass? Oh yeah, that made a big difference. He disappeared for about fifteen or twenty minutes, and when he returned he said that because of my history I needed to get myself up the street to the emergency room at the hospital. At that point, he had my attention! We were no longer talking about some other way he could treat me there, we were talking serious stuff with more in depth examinations in the ER. Assuring me that they would be expecting me and that he would transfer all of the data he had directly to them, he packed us off to the emergency room at Alta View Hospital.

Within just a few minutes, Georgia and I were in the emergency room, and while they were not actually expecting me when we walked in, they did get everything from the doctor I had already seen within five minutes of our arrival at the ER. With some degree of annoyance, I left Georgia in the waiting room while I went back to one of the examination rooms. Unless it is something that is going to leave me with no degree of modesty, I really prefer to have Georgia with me for any doctor visits and examinations. Simply put, two sets of ears are better than one. And my boss of bosses knows the right questions to ask. Often times I don’t. Anyhow, there were more EKGs and a lot of listening to my chest and back. This led the ER physician to a diagnosis of congestive heart failure. Now they really had my attention! Simply put, congestive heart failure is a condition in which the heart can no longer pump enough blood to the rest of the body. In my case, it was also resulting in excessive fluid retention. Finally I was able to have Georgia join me in the examination room. I was given a shot of lasix which resulted in a rather quick resolution to the fluid retention symptom; though it kept me using a portable urinal every few minutes for about an hour and a half. That was followed up with a prescription for furosemide to help keep the “evil fluids” at bay. But this was only something that addressed one of the more uncomfortable symptoms that I was having. It did nothing to resolve the underlying problem, but oh did I feel better! Once again I could breathe, and even walk across the room without collapsing.

The ER physician carefully explained to us the nature of the illness and highly recommended that I see a cardiologist as soon as possible. He made it clear that the next morning would be just the ticket, and that he would be able to set an appointment for me with a staff cardiologist at 7:30 AM. The hour was early, but we were talking about my life here, and I wasn’t going to be put off by the time.