We had agreed to watch Teri’s sister’s kids on Friday night and then they would watch K and Gibby on Saturday night. Everything was going according to plan, except for the fact that Teri started to feel a little sick to her stomach Friday night. Saturday morning we were all going to trek out to the West Valley to visit Cabela’s – which Teri and K had never seen – so that Teri’s brothers could price check various camping gear in preparation for the big family campout this upcoming weekend. There was only one snafu – Teri was so nauseous she was having trouble standing up.
Teri’s first thought was pregnancy. Fear ensued. But I just wasn’t convinced because Teri wasn’t quite acting the same as she usually does when she is pregnant and miserable. Despite Teri’s misfortune (or reversal of fortunes as the Hot Dog eating competitors call it), we were all having fun at Cabela’s. McKay loved the animals – although he continued to be nervous the first time he saw them up close. Of particular note was the polar bear they have growling just 3 feet away from the enclosure fence.
The bear looks pretty cool and it’s fun to have him so close to you. As we walked up to him McKay gave his little scream, and clutched on to my collar about to bury his terrified little eyes into my shoulder at the polar bear’s first movement. But the polar bear didn’t move and McKay took courage and was willing to say “Hi bear.” Once the greeting was accomplished K figured that he was a “nice bear” and kept telling me “bear funny.” K rounded off the morning by checking out the cougars, the rhino, the elephant, the zebra, the lion, and then taking a little pop gun around the wildlife museum component of the store and shooting every one of them – complete with his trademark saying, “I did it.”
Then came the ride home. As we’re journeying in Teri’s brother’s truck, Teri starts saying things like, “I’m feeling really nauseous” and “I’m having a hard time breathing” and “My chest is hurting.” Because we still had nearly an hour’s drive to go, I began researching with our primary care physician (Dr. Internet – reasonable prices and always on call), what you should be worried about when you have chest pain and difficulty breathing. The Internet tells me that the chest pain/difficulty breathing combo is not always a heart attack and that you should look for other signs such as pain in the patient’s left arm. It was at this point that Teri says, “My body is hurting.” When I ask where, Teri says “In my left arm.” It was at this point I decided against telling Teri that she was gearing up for a heart attack and just tried to keep her calm and telling me what was going on so that I could relay that to the doctor.
I also began calling everyone I knew in my phone who had some medical knowledge. PAs, EMTs, first aid providers at Wal-mart. The common denominator was simple. If you are having difficulty breathing you need to see a doctor and urgent care might not be the best option because they’ll just send you to the hospital. So once we got home we trekked off to the hospital for our date night.
6 hours, 2 EKGs, a chest x-ray, and a full bag of IV solution later, Teri was pronounced to not be having a heart attack. I think everyone was pleased. Teri kept saying that she just wanted to be told that she was being a silly hypochondriac and be sent home. They didn’t quite go that far indicating that Teri was pretty severely dehydrated by this point which could have been why her whole body was cramping and her resting heart rate was up at about 120 beats per minute for hours. The exact cause of the whole thing was unclear and we’ll now get to embark on a fun medical fishing expedition but that is ok considering that Teri doesn’t have to undergo open heart surgery.
All in all, it wasn’t our best date night. Maybe next time we’ll settle on Golfland or something.
