Emergency Room
A week ago today I got a call at lunch from the nurse at Julie's school that she had been having some strange and scary symptoms at school, and that they were going to take Julie to the emergency room at Emory. The symptoms were the kind that could be associated with something like heart attack or stroke, so we were clearly concerned. I met Julie at Emory about 1:30. By 4:30 she had had a battry of tests, all of which came back clear. Because one of the symptoms had been some trouble forming words, and because the doctors were not certain what was going on, it was decided to keep her overnight in the 23 hour unit. We felt this was a good idea, and so she stayed. More tests were also clear, and she got out by lunch on Tuesday. This was good news for us, because it is a frightening thing to go to the emergncy room with such unsettling symptoms. We were greatly relieved that the really scary physical possiblities were ruled out, but we were left then with a mystery. What had led to these symptoms? We now believe that it was brought on by stress. Julie is taking some very good steps to reduce stress, and we hope that we will not have this kind of scare again.
A side note. The week before I had been to a luncheon meeting about the readiness, or lack thereof, of our country to respond effectively to a pandemic. The speaker was from Emory and is a nationally recognized leader in the field of emergency room issues. He said that not only were we not prepared for a pandemic, but that we do not have the facilities to handle what comes to the emergency rooms today. If you call 911 today, there is a chance you will be told that there is no ambulance available because they are all in use. If you do get an ambulnce, you may have to go by one hopital, sometimes two, before you can find an emergency room with space to take you. I thought of that when Julie and I got to Emory, and there were patients on beds all up and down the hallway because the rooms were full. The nurse said it was pretty much like that every day. This is an issue that affects all of us, and one that we need to talk to our representatives about. The situation is aggravaterd by people with no health insurance who use emergancy rooms as their primary care providers.
Jimmy
A side note. The week before I had been to a luncheon meeting about the readiness, or lack thereof, of our country to respond effectively to a pandemic. The speaker was from Emory and is a nationally recognized leader in the field of emergency room issues. He said that not only were we not prepared for a pandemic, but that we do not have the facilities to handle what comes to the emergency rooms today. If you call 911 today, there is a chance you will be told that there is no ambulance available because they are all in use. If you do get an ambulnce, you may have to go by one hopital, sometimes two, before you can find an emergency room with space to take you. I thought of that when Julie and I got to Emory, and there were patients on beds all up and down the hallway because the rooms were full. The nurse said it was pretty much like that every day. This is an issue that affects all of us, and one that we need to talk to our representatives about. The situation is aggravaterd by people with no health insurance who use emergancy rooms as their primary care providers.
Jimmy
posted by Jimmy at 6:41 PM
1 Comments:
Please let us know if we can do anything for you or Julie. I know that stress can be REALLY HARD on someone, and it's easier said than done to reduce it.
I went through a really dark time a few years ago, the work stress was incredible, and I didn't see any way to reduce it.
I'd come home and think about work and then dream about work. Weekends weren't much better, either, just two whole days in a row to think about work.
I found that actually DOING something completely different (and it had to be an ACTIVE thing, like going somehwere or being with non-work people) was the only thing I could do to reduce my stress level. TV Watching or computer time didn't help.
If there's anything we can do, please do let us know.
We want you both to stay healthy and with us for a long, long time.
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