One of the best weeks of the school year is spirit week where we get to dress up - crazy hat day, mismatch day, superhero day, and the best...... pajama day!!! I have the best elephant pajama bottoms and I never get to wear them in India because it is hot! Last year pajama day was on a Monday and I FORGOT. My kids and I were so bummed. This year it was on Friday so I talked it up all week. On Thursday night, one of my sweet girls emailed em to remind me because she knew how disappointed I was last year. I replied to her and said I had them all laid out and ready to go.
Then my chest started to hurt - not like it normally does, but straight in the center. I get weird pains all the time due to my Lupus so I thought it would pass. My yoga teacher, Ratish, came at 6:30 - I told him it hurt, but we started doing my normal stretching warm up and it immediately got worse. Really bad pain in the center of my chest and I was struggling to breathe and swallow. I got down on the floor and had Ratish get my phone and call Karen who lives in my building. Then I had him call Alison, out school nurse. By this time I was in so much pain, I would barely move. Karen came down and called Kylie who lives a block from us to come over (she is the athletic director so she has good first aid skills). It didn't get better no matter what position I was in, so we decided to go to Lilavati hospital. They all three came with me which is necessary in Indian hospitals :) We went into the casualty ward and they did an ECG, blood sugar test etc. They hooked me up to an IV in my hand to give me meds in case it was gastric related. Karen and Kylie filled out the paper work and Alison made sure they didn't put me in the wobbly bed that was totally unsafe. They decided I needed to stay for observation, but they didn't have beds so they transferred me to Hinduja Khar Hospital. They let me keep my IV port in so they wouldn't have to redo it at Hinduja. Alison and I laughed that they would never allow that in the US or Australia because people could inject drugs through it.
Alison called the school doctor so he could call the hospital and pave the way. They took me in the ambulance - with sirens! and the cardiac specialist was there waiting for me. They repeated the ECG, blood sugar, etc. I was feeling better, but they put me in the cardiac ICU anyway. I really wasn't that sick, but they do things differently here in India. Karen had gone to my apartment to get some clothes, toiletries, my ipad etc... but they wouldn't let me keep anything. They took my clothes, took my nail polish off, and wouldn't let me go to the bathroom or keep my ipad.
I was feeling better, but the night was rough. It was loud, busy, lights were on, and I was only allowed to use a bed pan. At 2 am, I asked a nurse to get me some cotton balls to put in my ears and that helped a little. I managed to sleep a couple of hours. At 6 am, a nurse came in and offered tea and biscuits, then they did a sponge bath and changed the bed with me in it. Doctors would come and go and every time I said the pain was gone and they kept saying it wasn't likely to be heart related yet they did a chest x-ray and an echo (even though I just had one like a month ago) . Alison came back at 8am and helped me navigate the system. It took me awhile to get discharged and she did a lot of work getting the insurance payment squared away. Our school has an insurance representative to help with this stuff and he came and he had a lot of problems too - they make things so hard sometimes!
No real answers as to what it was, but they ruled out the big things - heart stuff and blood clots. Kylie and I were hoping it was worms!! Alison and I thought it might have been esophogeal spasms because the pain was in waves and I was having trouble swallowing.
I'm totally good as new though and feeling fine except sad about pajama day!!
Then my chest started to hurt - not like it normally does, but straight in the center. I get weird pains all the time due to my Lupus so I thought it would pass. My yoga teacher, Ratish, came at 6:30 - I told him it hurt, but we started doing my normal stretching warm up and it immediately got worse. Really bad pain in the center of my chest and I was struggling to breathe and swallow. I got down on the floor and had Ratish get my phone and call Karen who lives in my building. Then I had him call Alison, out school nurse. By this time I was in so much pain, I would barely move. Karen came down and called Kylie who lives a block from us to come over (she is the athletic director so she has good first aid skills). It didn't get better no matter what position I was in, so we decided to go to Lilavati hospital. They all three came with me which is necessary in Indian hospitals :) We went into the casualty ward and they did an ECG, blood sugar test etc. They hooked me up to an IV in my hand to give me meds in case it was gastric related. Karen and Kylie filled out the paper work and Alison made sure they didn't put me in the wobbly bed that was totally unsafe. They decided I needed to stay for observation, but they didn't have beds so they transferred me to Hinduja Khar Hospital. They let me keep my IV port in so they wouldn't have to redo it at Hinduja. Alison and I laughed that they would never allow that in the US or Australia because people could inject drugs through it.
Alison called the school doctor so he could call the hospital and pave the way. They took me in the ambulance - with sirens! and the cardiac specialist was there waiting for me. They repeated the ECG, blood sugar, etc. I was feeling better, but they put me in the cardiac ICU anyway. I really wasn't that sick, but they do things differently here in India. Karen had gone to my apartment to get some clothes, toiletries, my ipad etc... but they wouldn't let me keep anything. They took my clothes, took my nail polish off, and wouldn't let me go to the bathroom or keep my ipad.
I was feeling better, but the night was rough. It was loud, busy, lights were on, and I was only allowed to use a bed pan. At 2 am, I asked a nurse to get me some cotton balls to put in my ears and that helped a little. I managed to sleep a couple of hours. At 6 am, a nurse came in and offered tea and biscuits, then they did a sponge bath and changed the bed with me in it. Doctors would come and go and every time I said the pain was gone and they kept saying it wasn't likely to be heart related yet they did a chest x-ray and an echo (even though I just had one like a month ago) . Alison came back at 8am and helped me navigate the system. It took me awhile to get discharged and she did a lot of work getting the insurance payment squared away. Our school has an insurance representative to help with this stuff and he came and he had a lot of problems too - they make things so hard sometimes!
No real answers as to what it was, but they ruled out the big things - heart stuff and blood clots. Kylie and I were hoping it was worms!! Alison and I thought it might have been esophogeal spasms because the pain was in waves and I was having trouble swallowing.
I'm totally good as new though and feeling fine except sad about pajama day!!
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