Trying to make sense of what happenned; was taken straight to resus...

[wallaby73]

Wonder if anyone can help? I am just home after quite a frightening few days and now i'm thinking about what happenned and trying to make sense of it all. I awoke in huge pain in my sternum area tight through to my back and shoulders in very early hours friday mng. I didn't know what to do for the best; i was on my own, kids with ex-dh and whilst in pain still had that british "i don't want to disturb anyone" attitude, and as i can see now, foolishly drove myself to a&e.

Within minutes of getting there i could barely speak, i was shown straight through to ecg monitoring area, all the time the pain increasing and i was white, extremely clammy and nauseous. The doc then said to me "now don't be worried, but we are taking you straight through to resus as we need to monitor you and find out quickly what is happenning".

Roll forward to today and a nurse was asking me what had happenned, so i ran through it, when i said "and they took me through to resus" she looked a bit horrified, said i was "very lucky"? I am fairly knowledgeable about medicine, but don't have much first hand experience of a&e or how it works. Is it unusual to go to resus?

At first they said they suspected a poss heart attack, i was in too much pain to register, i'm 40, fit, healthy weight...they ruled that out after blood tests. Next they suspected a dissected aorta, and (thank god) a scan ruled that out. So by process of elimination, i actually have pleurisy, which is much preferable to any of the above. But it all happened so quickly, i suppose i'm just runnning it through and putting it to bed. I just feel i have been through a very bizarre experience. Any suggestions??

[Lonecatwithkitten]

My interpretation would be they were worried you were having a heart attack (you had all the signs) and took you to the best place to manage it. They then worked through their diagnostic pathways and diagnosed you.

[iklboo]

Agree they were worried it was heart related. The proper equipment will be in resus - I think they were being cautious.

[wallaby73]

Thanks for your replies, just trying to digest it all, i didn't get upset once in hospital, but when this sort of thing happens on your own you have no one to discuss it with afterwards?! Thanks again

[JamForTea]

What a horrible experience for you and I'm not surprised you want to talk it through. I think what the other posters have said is true - it was a precaution as they suspected your heart was in some way responsible for your symptoms. I can imagine that being taken into re-sus when you are conscious and fairly compus mentus must be difficult for you to mentally process now as you may associate re-sus with people who are unconscious? (As would I!) Have you got any good friends you can have a chat with about it all or family?

[Lonecatwithkitten]

Think of resus as the place where they deal with most serious injuries and conditions and have the correct equipment. If they suspect you have one of these conditions you far better to arrive there awake before you need the equipment than spend precious minutes rushing to the equipment needing it.
I would say you had really good medics who planned for the worst and was ready for it. There are so many what ifs in medicine good planning is what saves lives and it sounds like you were really well looked after.
Having been through several really awful medical scenarios myself knowing that staff had thought through worst case scenarios and had planned and prepared for them is comforting. Had they very worst thing happened they would have been in the best position to help.

[loopylady83]

gallstones? sounds like the pain I had, I had one blocking something (dont really know what) and it was causing a back flow of blood to my heart, I took myself to a&e because I was in so much pain and couldn't cope any more. hope your ok

[HopeClearwater]

It's not unusual to go to resus if you've got a terrible pain in your chest! That's where your heart is... your lungs too! All the equipment they need is in resus. I've been in A&E frequently over the last two years or so with a lung problem (now fixed) and I was in resus every time. It's routine for certain sets of symptoms.