Emergency Room

On Tuesday morning I got out of bed around 3:30am. This was a common occurrence since my condition was discovered.  Around 5:30am I started feeling nauseated and my body was hurting all over.  I decided to take a hot bath to ease my pains. That proved a bad idea.  While it did give me immediate relief, I became overheated and very lethargic. I tried to get out of the tub after about 15 minutes of hot water soaking and most likely fainted. I was very weak but was able to call for Janine to help me. She could barely hear my calls for help as she was still laying in bed in our bedroom which is not within site of the guest bathroom where I was in the tub.

Janine was not able to get me out of the tub and she saw I was in a very bad way. Not knowing if I was having a heart attack or stroke she called 911.  I think it took the ambulance and firefighters about 10 minutes to get to us.  One of the firemen picked me up from the tub and placed me on the ambulance stretcher.

AMR is our ambulance service in Jackson.  The medics that worked with me were very professional and did an excellent job caring for me. Janine wisely chose to drive her car to the Baptist Hospital ER instead of riding in the ambulance with me.  The vehicle was not comfortable and I could feel every Jackson bump in the road.  Thankfully, they drove at a normal pace without a blaring siren.

The Baptist Hospital Emergency Room is where I was taken.  My oncology clinic and doctors as well as my pulmonary doctor's clinic are all located within the Baptist campus so it was the most logical place to go.  I guess we got there around 7:00am and by about 10:00am I was admitted to a private room.  The ER staff and doctor did a thorough job of assessing my condition and getting an understanding of the recent history of my situation.  Luckily they ordered a chest e-ray, which I protested because I thought Dr. Young did not want anyone doing any procedure without her consultation. Anyway, the ER X-Ray person rolled me and my gurney to their lab and made me stand up for the x-ray pictures. I was not happy as I was still very weak and shaky.  They even had to redo one of the pictures because they did not keep my IV hose from interfering with the x-ray.

The x-rays showed I had pneumonia. So admitting me was a good call.