Unfortunately, the doctor wasn’t very sure.
Saturday night, returning from dinner out at the beach in South Haven (45 minutes from Kalamazoo), I started having chest pains in the car. Every time my heart beat, it hurt. My girlfriend, who has had to drive her mother to the hospital three times for heart attacks, asked me if I was all right. I told her what was going on, and she got me to the hospital. During the drive (only about 30 minutes with the way she was driving) my throat and jaw began to go numb on the left side. She was wondering how she managed to go 95 MPH without getting pulled over in a 55 MPH area. We wanted to get pulled over; our cell phones didn’t work in the area we were in.
When we got into decent cellphone range, I called the Target store we both work at, since she was supposed to go in at 10. The manager had the audacity to ask me how late Wendy was going to be. Here I am, possibly having a heart attack, and being asked if she’s going to be late to work.
We got to the hospital at 9:45. My BP was at 174/92. My EKG was decent, so my heart was working just fine by then. I was relieved to have a hallway bed, since I figured that they would put a dying person in a room so everyone couldn’t see. A few hours later, my BP was still at the same level. The doctor did release me early Sunday morning, and said I probably didn’t have a heart attack. I have to go see a cardiologist, and I’m not looking forward to that.
I’m still sore. The left side of my chest is very sore right now.
I’m only 22! And I’m athletic! I run, I play tennis, I play lacrosse, I bike, I lift weights, so why would this happen to me? Of course, my grandfather was only 41 when he died of a heart attack, so age doesn’t really matter.
What a horrible call Wendy had to make to my parents, especially on the eve of Father’s Day. I feel terrible for putting all of them through this.
Wendy’s at work right now, and getting the cold shoulder from all of the managers. FTR, she’s the highest ranking hourly worker in the store, and can perform all of the duties of a salaried manager. In effect, her peers are ignoring her because she missed an overnight ad set shift (that’s when we put up the sale signs for Sunday morning). I understand that it was inconvenient, but Jesus, one of their employees was in the freaking hospital.
Thanks for reading, and sorry this was so long.