{"id":937,"date":"2015-03-12T09:09:39","date_gmt":"2015-03-12T16:09:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/customikes.com\/?p=937"},"modified":"2015-03-12T19:01:11","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T02:01:11","slug":"chest-pain-vs-pressure-and-a-view-of-the-common-denial-yes-im-ok-d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/customikes.com\/?p=937","title":{"rendered":"Chest Pain vs Pressure and a view of the common denial. Yes I’m OK =D"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hey you! Yes you,.. my family, our friends, our valued Customikes enthusiast, and all kool fellow car fanatics\u2026 Yep You! =D<\/span><\/h1>\n

We do not talk a lot about this, but I will share my heart issue experience with you today\u2026.<\/span><\/h1>\n


\nI\u2019m sitting at home chillin\u2019\/ writing after a 15 + hours in the ER and reflecting on me and my wife\u2019s different view points on what I was experiencing\u2026 <\/span><\/h2>\n

Maybe this story will help you or someone you know one day\u2026 Please share if you feel right about this =D<\/span><\/h2>\n
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Image credit ataheri.wordpress.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To be clear, I did not experience chest pain. <\/span><\/h1>\n

I experienced chest pressure, discomfort and the feeling of impending doom on Monday night. My wife with 35+years in emergency services (paramedic, trauma nurse and EMS spec), automatically calls it \u201cchest pain\u201d, and so does almost all the EMS (Emergency Medical Services) and ER staff, that I dealt with in the last 24 hours. This, for me, leads to the core issue of what the EMS pro\u2019s call \u201cdenial\u201d around heart related emergencies\u2026 I\u2019ll explain more in a bit and my wife even added her .02 cents to the end =D<\/span><\/h2>\n

Some background for you:<\/span>
\nI had a relatively low activity life while working for an insurance carrier for 16 years. Some of the environmental challenges and organizational changes led to some stress and I was traveling 50-65 % of the time, eating a much too rich diet, alone in a hotels a lot\u2026<\/span><\/h2>\n
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Image credit www.collegeconfidential.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Needless to say, I gained some weight and got myself some high blood pressure which was treated. Yes, I was told to lose some weight\u2026 (260#\u2019s at the time)<\/span><\/h3>\n

I was rear ended badly in Dec 2014, was off work for 4.5 months from the injuries and the treatment\/ recovery. Three weeks after returning to work, I was presented with a severance package and after some serious considerations, I accepted it in May of 2014.<\/span><\/h3>\n

Fast forward to 2015:\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

We have a new health care insurance carrier. I could not use my old Dr. anymore so we signed up for a new one. I was running low on my BP meds (which were working fine). Unfortunately there was about two weeks that I did not have enough BP meds for before my first appointment. I figured \u201cno biggie\u201d as it was only a few weeks\u2026 Mistake for sure\u2026<\/span><\/h3>\n
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Image credit www.pinterest.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Proactively I\u2019ve dropped some weight (now 230# on a 6\u20194\u2033 frame) but the target from my old doctor was 200#. Biggest change was stopping with the Pepsi\u2019s =0 Now if I have one, it\u2019s a treat, and I rarely drink a full can. Eating more fish and discovered sushi. I\u2019m thinking about veggies =D Yes I eat more veggies but likely not as much as I should. Love fruits, especially raspberries.\"ER<\/a>\u00a0I have intended to do some exercise but until now my honest efforts have been sporadic at best and mainly focused on core strength, to help my back. I have learned that doing it for my horse Prince, works the best, cause he loves our walks around the neighborhood. \u00a0They tend to be much longer with him too\u2026 Strange how we always give more to others than directly to ourselves =D<\/span><\/h3>\n
\"Prince<\/a>
Prince and I (K. Mikael Wallin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I digress\u2026 sorry!! Back to the point\u2026<\/span><\/h4>\n
After laying on the couch for the entire weekend feeling like crap, blowing blood out of my nose and having headaches, my chest started to feel really strange.<\/h5>\n
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Image credit www.webmd.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Have I had some minor chest pressure earlier? \u00a0Yes, but nothing like this. Someone (relatively small) was standing on my chest. Yes I know, That\u2019s part of my denial\u2026 =0 Either way it did not feel right and the later the day grew, so did this feeling. Eventually it fit the \u201cImpending doom\u201d \u201cSomething\u2019s wrong\u201d \u201cthis is not right\u201d or \u201cthe someone\u201d standing on my chest grew significantly in weight\u2026<\/h5>\n
\"Image<\/a>
Image credit emergencymedicinecases.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Considering my relatively \u201csedentary\u201d lifestyle, getting short of breath is a relatively common thing when doing something. It does\u00a0not really seem as a warning sign either, because by now I\u2019m used to it\u2026 Yes I know, that\u2019s part of my denial too,\u2026 Unfortunately, this also goes for light-headedness and feeling faint when doing something strenuous,\u2026 So it\u2019s easy to deny when you\u2019re sitting on a couch, because it is something familiar to you, not something new\u2026<\/p>\n

Yes I\u2019m a proud 52-year-old, type A male, who rarely slows down until my body forces me to\u2026 Considering this, I\u2019ve grown familiar with all the warning signs. What I did not think about is that they were present while I\u2019d been on the couch for two days\u2026 Yes, now I know,\u2026 =D<\/p>\n

Reflecting on making my EMS wife less than happy with my \u201cdenial\u201d =0<\/span><\/h4>\n
She did it all right and talked me into going to an urgent care. Then proceeded to drive me to the ER,\u2026 Yes, it was the right thing to do. Yes, the denial in me did not want to go, but I did not fight her in the end =D<\/h5>\n
As she\u2019s been in EMS all her life, she could not wait for me to explain my symptoms. \u00a0She walked right up to the ER window and proclaimed that I was having chest pain!! To be clear I did not have chest pain and I now (two days later) understand some of the frustration on both sides that could unfortunately lead to delayed care and possibly someone not getting the care that they need at the time that they need it.<\/h5>\n
The first thing out of my mouth when she did was: \u201cI do not have chest pain!!!\u201d\u2026 which was not met with a good response by anyone present. This took me aback a bit,\u2026 yet at this point I succumbed and became a \u201cposter child chest pain victim\u201d and everyone went into their \u201cproper and likely well written procedures\u201d<\/h5>\n
Unfortunately this barrage of events and the constant \u201chow bad is your chest pain now\u201d, \u201cwhat would your rate your chest pain at\u201d \u201cchest pain this, chest pain that\u201d continued for over 15 hours in the ER. Laying on my ER bed all hooked up, while everyone is frantically trying to figure out what is going on, I did have some time to reflect. I had not yet recovered from feeling railroaded by my wife, telling them I have something, that from my perspective, I clearly do not have.<\/h5>\n
Playing along and satisfying everyone is not feeling good, especially when they are projecting onto me something that I cannot honestly tell them I\u2019m experiencing,\u2026 made me feel funny in ways, maybe even uncertain, that I was doing the wrong thing even being here. I mean, they clearly are looking for chest pain and I do not have it!.<\/h5>\n
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Image credit www.practicalpainmanagement.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
I even reflected on my time as a firefighter\/EMT in the early 90\u2019s which is one of my wife\u2019s favorite references. Like I should remember it as well as her life career in EMS,\u2026 =D<\/h5>\n

So now, yes now, from my perspective, I finally understand \u201cdenials\u201d. \u00a0I also now understand why there\u2019s frustration on the EMS side with their perception of patient\u2019s\u00a0\u201cdenials\u201d\u2026<\/span><\/h4>\n