Spanky's Place

I excused myself, grabbed my things, and headed off to the hospital. As I walked up the hill towards Hyde street, I started to feel a little bit better. Not by much mind you, but a little bit nonetheless. I felt a bit conflicted in that I knew there was something wrong and that I really did need medical attention, but the analytical part of my brain (which never shuts down) kept telling me that if it was a heart issue then I should have felt it when during exercise. But the fact is that I felt best when exercising. Weird huh?

After a 27 minute walk, I arrived at St. Francis Memorial Hospital, where the good people in the ER did their thing. After registering (a somewhat long process involving identification, paperwork, insurance stuff, etc.), I had time to ponder how much easier and quicker the process would have been if the hospital had been equipped with something like our gadget. Had such a system been in place, the registration process would have taken just a few seconds. Assuming my information was in the system, all that would have been necessary for check in would have been for me to place my finger on the scanner, acknowledge that I was in fact, me, tap "where it hurts", and that would have been it. Fifteen seconds, max. If you haven't already watched the embedded video (at the bottom of this entry), you should take the time to do so. It is very, very cool.

Shortly after I checked in a nurse took me into an exam room and started taking my vitals. Again, this process could have been so much faster had the hospital been equipped with our gadget. Bluetooth enabled blood pressure, EKG, heart monitor and O2 sensors could have been attached to me, and their information would immediately be added to my Electronic Medical Records. Other than inserting the IV and drawing blood, my nurse's full attention could have been on me, the patient rather than hand writing information from the various sensors onto my paperwork.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. The fine folks at St. Francis did an excellent job. I just think their job could have been easier and more efficient had they had some of the Star Trek stuff we've been working on.

After a few minutes the attending Physician came in, took my history, checked my vitals, and explained what they were going to do. The pain had returned, so they gave me O2 (I hate those plastic tubes up your nose) and oral Nitroglycerin spray. Nitroglycerin is very cool. The chest pain went away immediately, but was replaced with a massive headache. The headache is a normal side-effect of the Nitroglycerin. To be honest, I think I would rather have the chest pain.

A little while later the Cardiologist (Dr. Curran) came in and explained that they were going to keep me overnight for observation, and administer a Treadmill Stress Echocardiogram in the morning. He told me that based on my bloodwork, vitals, and history that he didn't think I was having a heart attack; but wanted to do the test just to make sure. Which sounded just fine to me. Shortly after that they moved me from the exam room to a private room to spend the night. The view from my hospital room was fantastic.

When Dr. Curran came to visit me the next morning, he told me that the rest of my bloodwork had come in from the labs (they drew blood every 4 hours throughout the night), and that I most definitely had not had a heart attack. After we completed the Echocardiogram he told me that my heart is absolutely fine, and that my pain was most likely stress-induced angina, combined with skeletal-muscular pain brought on by my sudden change in exercise habits and over work. Which makes sense. Several years ago I broke a rib at Nick's Kicks in Phoenix while kickboxing.

Actually that's not true. I was sparring with a student for an upcoming IKF Championship fight, and he broke my rib when I left my left arm up too high for too long. (Hell yes it hurt. And just in case you're curious, I took an 8 count and then finished the round). The pain I was having last week was right along this rib.

So my heart is fine. I just need to continue to exercise, eat (more salads, less steak) properly, and relax a bit and I'll be fine too. I'm not planning on working any less, in that I love what I do -I just need to relax and not let the stress get to me. They let me out of the hospital shortly after the test, and I made it back to my customer's office by 11am. I told Tim and Nathan about the "stress induced angina".
Tim suggested that it might have been brought on by working with DDE. I wonder if I can sue IBM?