The $1,000 Brownie
The other night I woke up around 1:30 with chest pain. I was mostly annoyed that it was keeping me from sleeping, and eventually I got up to take some ibuprofen. I kept tossing and turning, however, and a couple hours later when James woke up and came in I decided I better take it more seriously. I ended up going to the emergency room, which (as Brian Regan pointed out) is a nice, relaxing drive. Someone else was checking in right in front of me with chest pain, so I guess it's all the rage right now.
I went back to the triage room and they got me hooked up to an EKG machine right away. It was normal. They took some blood to check for the marker the heart releases when it's distressed. That was normal. They took a chest X-ray, which was also normal. They repeated the EKG and blood tests a couple hours later, and they were normal again. After talking with me for a while, the doctor decided to have me get a CT scan to eliminate a problem with the aorta. That came back clean as well.
In talking with the doctor again about what could cause this, he did mention reflux, which I've heard about before. It's nothing like standard heartburn, if indeed that is what caused it. Instead of burning it's a crushing feeling in the chest. But I had eaten a brownie with milk before bed, and I've noticed that can cause heartburn. I have no idea if that's the cause here, but if so then that brownie could end up costing well over $1,000.
Anyway, the good news is that nothing at all appears to be wrong. Obviously because I exercise and am reasonably young means a heart problem was unlikely, but I wanted to not die just in case. I guess the moral of the story is you can put a price on peace of mind?
I went back to the triage room and they got me hooked up to an EKG machine right away. It was normal. They took some blood to check for the marker the heart releases when it's distressed. That was normal. They took a chest X-ray, which was also normal. They repeated the EKG and blood tests a couple hours later, and they were normal again. After talking with me for a while, the doctor decided to have me get a CT scan to eliminate a problem with the aorta. That came back clean as well.
In talking with the doctor again about what could cause this, he did mention reflux, which I've heard about before. It's nothing like standard heartburn, if indeed that is what caused it. Instead of burning it's a crushing feeling in the chest. But I had eaten a brownie with milk before bed, and I've noticed that can cause heartburn. I have no idea if that's the cause here, but if so then that brownie could end up costing well over $1,000.
Anyway, the good news is that nothing at all appears to be wrong. Obviously because I exercise and am reasonably young means a heart problem was unlikely, but I wanted to not die just in case. I guess the moral of the story is you can put a price on peace of mind?
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