In another question I mentioned that I wasn’t having a good Memorial weekend…here’s why: Friday night I think I aspirated some stomach liquid – I have GERD. I was even sitting/laying almost upright in bed, which is supposed to keep that from happening, but between burps and toots I was pretty gassy. I finally got up and went to the recliner. I noticed I was breathing fast and shallow, so I took my BP. It was 81/44. I felt horrible – upper back/shoulders were hurting badly, trouble breathing, low temp of 99.9, lethargic, and repeated low BPs (lower number in the 40’s). I really thought I might die; that something might be seriously wrong and I was dismissing it. I kept debating about either taking myself to the hospital or calling an ambulance (it was from 1am until 4 am)

Isn’t this just typical? I could think of 20 reasons not to call – apartment isn’t up to snuff, hadn’t showered that day, bed hair, would neighbors see, would they let me walk or put me on a gurney…then all of the crap you have to go through in the ER and the endless waiting which is so difficult when you’re miserable. Even if the first wait to be seen isn’t long you have the wait between each thing – labs, then they discuss it among themselves, MRI, then they discuss it among themselves, etc.

So I ended up not calling.

What have you done when you wondered if you should call for an ambulance?

Topics: health, ambulance, hospital, excuses, possibly dying