Well guys, I’m already offline for a few days, life has been some sort of rollercoaster… So sorry I didn’t reply to your comments. I’ll try to do that later. This post is to clear up my own mind, and inform you about what happened.
What started as a normal day at work
Last week I was driving towards home while I left my customers office on Thursday. Nothing weird or wrong with me during the day, had actually a perfect day at work. Meetings with pro-active people, nice discussions, some challenging tasks I had to do. After work I jumped in my car and noticed at my navigation it was quite busy on the road. I was waiting till my navigation started to ask questions if I wanted a new and faster route. I was actually just 10 minutes on my way till that question came already. At the highway the A27 my navigation was proposing an alternative route through the polders surrounding Vianen. Normally I’m not driving there because the precautions against rat-run traffic. But I took the exit and drove through Vianen. While I was driving, I got some mean pressure at my chest, and at the same time I started to sweat a lot. And by a lot I mean A LOT! My clothes where instantly soaked. I called the emergency line, didn’t know what was happening to me. While I got them on the line, I started to see spots. My view disappeared totally. The woman who answered my call told me to stop the car, and that is the point where my memory stops….
Source |
The next memory I have is waking up in the ambulance with all kinds of wires running from my body to different machines. There was a woman next to me, checking those machines and trying to stick a needle in my finger. First thing I was thinking WTF happened what am I doing here? I must admit I freaked out… The doctor sitting next to me was telling me that I lost consciousness while driving. She was trying to get a blood sample out of my finger. But it was difficult to get some blood out of it because I had some numb fingers. But in the end I had a blue finger and the doctor had a small blood sample. My blood sugar levels where a bit low. The test told us the levels where 3.7 where they should be around 7+ normally. But because of this sample the doctor told me they wouldn’t bring me with them to the hospital, because the test should have been lower than 3.
She asked me if I had something to eat in my car, because I was shaking, and I felt ice cold. Luckily I have always something to eat in my car, so she sent out another doctor to find the food in my car. He came back with a currant burn so I could eat a bit. While shaking this isn’t going that well I can tell now.
In the mean time I still had no clue what was going on and what happened to me. The female doctor was creating multiple scans from my hearth and was measuring my blood pressure. While they were sure everything was fine, she told me that I had the bad luck that three things happened to me at once. That said those three things where, low blood sugar levels, hyperventilation and stress coming loose… A human body can adapt to all those things when they come alone, but three is too much.
After another check at the machine display they told me friendly I could get out of the ambulance. The only explanation they told me was, rest for an hour or something before you start driving your car again. I was standing there flabbergasted in the polder. I just did like they told me and waited in my car. While sitting I called my parents, would go for dinner at their place actually but wouldn’t make it anymore. So I called them and told them what happened. Freaked the shit out of them of course. After this I called my manager and told him what happened. He told me I should wait there, he was turning around and would come over to me. Not even finished the call or I am seeing a woman standing next to my car. In the ambulance they told me that there was a woman who helped me before the ambulance arrived. I opened the door and asked if she was that lady that helped me earlier today? She told me she was that woman indeed. She was actually shocked that she already found me here back in my car… While telling my story she invited me at her place nearby, so I could warmup a bit and recover a bit from the shock. I texted my manager and parents my new location and followed the lady.
While sitting at her couch she was filling in my blanks a bit. She stopped because she thought it was a bit odd to see my car parked that strange at the side of the road, my alarm lights where blinking and my head was bending forward. The other cars behind me where honking but nobody got out of his/her car… Lucky me this woman did! She opened my door and found out I was on the phone with the emergency line, she grabbed my phone and told them where this happened and asked for an ambulance. After a few minutes the police arrived to block the road and make a free way for the ambulance. A few minutes behind the police the doctors arrived. They brought me into the ambulance and like I mentioned before from here I started to remember things again.
While telling her story my manager arrived as well and we told him the story what happened together. She invited us for dinner (yes this woman was very kind!!!) and her husband found out he did know my manager from a long time ago. The IT world isn’t that big after all! My manager brought me home after dinner. Really happy he did that for me! He lives approx. 180 km from my place… Well I knew for sure that today I got so lucky the outcome of this could have been so much worse!
That night I did sleep poorly… Short moments of sleeping followed by a crying party… I never cry and that night I didn’t know what happened to me. Something with a shock I assume.
Diving into the unknown
Next day I went to the general practitioner with a head filled with questions like what to do next? How could this happen? They took a blood sample and he told me that I wasn’t allowed to work and drive my car for a while! The same day I tried to get some extra hours of sleep, but it was crying, sleeping, crying and sleeping all over again and again. That night my girlfriend arrived by public transport (it will take a few hours extra when you compare it by the time the trip will cost you by car), and not long after that @dboontje and @smalltall ringed the bell for a short visit to check how things were going. The guys did stop the worrying for the night a bit by their jokes. It meant a lot to me (more than they could imagine I think!)
On Saturday after a bad night of sleep again we went outside to get some fresh air. There was a storm from the southwest, so we had enough wind to clear my mind a bit while walking along the coastline. After that we went together with my parents to Lexmond where I left my car on Thursday. We planned to pick up the car and bring some flowers for the woman who helped me. By my point of view, this was the least I could do in return for her. Funny side note, my company send her flowers as well! My girlfriend did ride the car back home and that night I felled a sleep exhausted. I learned thing these days. Good people are still out there, willing to help others. I’m so happy that nothing bad happened to me that day, but the thoughts are still running through my mind and I can’t stop them. What if, I didn’t take the exit, what if I had hit a tree next to the road. All those things keep running through my mind, those thoughts are driving a man crazy!?
Not again… ?
Sunday night I just returned home together with my dad after we brought my girlfriend to the train station. I started to do the dishes me and my girlfriend left behind. For me doing the dishes is some sort of relaxing moment. But not tonight… I ended up at the E.R.
I’ve spent an hour or six at the hospital while the doctors where running tests, taking some ultrasound scans, X-rays, blood samples, hearth monitoring etc. Again, they couldn’t find anything. But the pressure at my chest didn’t disappear at all… The only thing they could tell me was that there were no life-threatening things going on in my body like a heart failure or something.
The next blood samples
Today I’ve been to the general practitioner, and there was another doctor. She did read my file and read through the test results from last Friday and Sunday. She told me that there was a suspicion that I got the Tietze Syndrome. They took another blood sample and the results will be there next Friday. So till then, sleeping,, try to get some Vitamin D from the sun and by food and cross my fingers it will be a deficiency of Vitamin D. ☀️☀️☀️
Out of sight hopefully not forgotten
I won’t be online that much I assume the upcoming days/weeks… Still need to rest a lot, because I’m so tired and the pain in my chest is still there. When I’m awake I will try to create a post while sitting in the sun about my January Photo Challenge. If not, I hope you guys won’t forget about me and will come around later to see if I did find some energy to write a new post ?
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