My roommate was experiencing chest pain on Monday. Long story short, we went to an urgent care center, where the doctor recommended that he go straight to the emergency room, so we did that. We were there from 7:30 pm to 2:30 am. (He's vision impaired and needs help navigating unfamiliar places, so I couldn't just leave him stranded.)
They found no signs of a heart attack, since his EKG, X-ray, and enzymes were all normal. In fact, after a battery of tests, they couldn't find anything wrong with him. That's...good, probably? I always read malpractice cases where they discharge the patient and then he's dead a day later. But that's obviously massive selection bias; if the patient turns out fine then you don't get a malpractice suit in the first place. Point is, they don't think there's anything of immediate concern, although they referred him to a primary care physician and a cardiologist.
One of the theories the doctors had was that it was an esophagus issue. (This kind of makes sense, because he would sometimes feel a jolt right along his chest scar from his heart surgery...but that's also where the esophagus is.) They couldn't directly test for it, but they gave him some esophagus medicine, and he's felt significantly better since.
Man urgent care centers are so useless. I went to one once that just straight up turned me away, and another that did a chest xray (somehow found nothing...) and sent me home with tylenol. Next day I managed to get into my doctor and it was bronchitis 🙄 ERs take a long time but at least do a good job. Good on ya for sticking with your roommate through it. I hope it isn't hos heart, since it sounds like he has had trouble with it before. It's a good sign the other meds are working!
@iyazo We actually went to a regular doctor first, who was even more useless. She was like "you need an EKG and an X-ray, but we don't do that here, go get them done somewhere else and then come see me again." Thanks for nothing?? So that's why we went to an urgent care center to try and get the EKG/X-ray, and then the rest happened.
@Achaius That's even more rediculous! At least they ended up doing something about it.
I remember feeling the same way in a college library in 2012 at night so it was empty basically, I was studying and eating two Burger King Whoppers, I ate half of one and then felt chest pain. It wasn't a good feeling, I felt like I was having a heart attack and was uncertain, was I dying? Would that be my last moment? I didn't fall off my seat, but I got on the floor for some reason, on my knees, as the chest pain got worse. I looked at the two burgers which were now eye-level and I just threw them in the trash right next to me. I told myself that if I survived, I would dramatically change something.
Eventually the pain passed and I just packed my things and left. I didn't care about my studies anymore, they just didn't feel so important anymore. I was 19 at the time too, so a young kid.
That incident made me do some research, I stumbled upon some video called "Uprooting the leading causes of death" which was highly educational and got me to stop eating all animal products. I never had any chest pains since, everything just felt clean and clear like it was supposed to. Years later, I still never went back to any animal products just because I never saw the point, and it would actually be more expensive and more inconvenient for me to go back. I also learned about its environmental impact and the ethics behind it, which further made me never go back. I've now been living without a fridge or freezer on $2 - $3 a day for about two months, and this only further exacerbates the needlessness of any animal products ever.
@JustMegawatt Wow! I always sorta wondered how you became a vegan in the first place. Glad you were okay and that it's done so much for your health.
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