So I have to tell you the other day I literally thought I was having a heart attack. As, my chest is burning with pain, I am realizing that I am no longer a spring chicken. Perhaps, my smoking has blocked an artery and I was going to die at my desk before I attended to my daily 100 e-mails. Who was going to take care of my daughter? Although, I am a smoker, I rarely go to doctors. I hate doctors! I hate hospitals, I hate needles, I hate blood! Kind of surprising considering my first job was a bedmaker at a convalescent home. Then I was promoted to a Nurses Aide. At that time I was too naive to understand the promotion meant "We are short on help and you are the best bet to fill the weekend sucker routine". I actually did this for 6 to 7 years. I must admit the money was good, especially when you start working double shifts. I passed out once (actually twice), assisting the blood technician. They never gave me that task anymore. Also, at that time there were plenty of rooms for smoking breaks.
But anyways, about my heart attack. I finally decided to call the doctor at 11:30 in the morning. Told the receptionist that I had terrible chest pains and of course I'm thinking that I am having a heart attack. She asked me if I could come into the office at 4:15 pm. I was thinking more like lunch time, and of course this time only gave me a half an hour before I needed to pick up my daughter. I know I will wait at this doctor's office for at least a half hour, if not an hour. But I really did not feel well, so I say "I'll take it!" I called my husband to ask him to pick up "our" daughter. I was afraid that he would have appointments, but luckily the warm weather and his season has not fully kicked in yet. He was able to pick her up. I told him I was going to the doctors. Now, after 21 years, he knows how much I hate the doctors. Do you think he could ask me why I was going. No! I get, "Are you making dinner or do I buy dinner?" It's been a long time, but I really don't remember signing this contract.
So I arrive at the doctors office and as anticipated, waited forty-five minutes for my appointment. Well, beggars can not be choosers. The doctor saw me, ran an EGG or maybe it was an EKG. It was fine. Ordered some blood work and a lung x-ray. Oh my God! A lung x-ray, now I am dying of cancer. But she thought that perhaps I just have a bad case of reflux and stress. But I'm still thinking about that lung x-ray. I pay my 20 dollar copay. (There goes my cigarette money.) Run to the x-ray lab to find out they already have two people in the room, and they really close at 5pm. Can I come back Monday morning? Something to really keep my mind wandering about over the weekend.
The smoking summary speech, this time I did not have a heart attack. But smokers do have a much greater risk of heart attack than non-smokers.
P.S. I did get some smoking cessation pills from the doc, more on that later.
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