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Wouldn’t it figure that the one time Howard is out of town I have a scary health crisis? Well, How and Jack were out of town for 2 nights. On Saturday I felt a little dizzy but I thought it was a result of the nagging allergies. So, I took a Benadryl and was fine. On Sunday morning at 4:30, I awoke to go to the bathroom. I sat up and got out of bed. I was so dizzy, I whirled to the ground. I got up, held onto the wall and sink and barely made it to the bathroom. Everything was spinning. I crawled out of the bathroom and lay face first on the cold tile. I was having a cold sweat and the tingle typical of a fainting spell and I did not want to faint. I waited for the fainting symptoms to subside before crawling back to my bed an on to the bed.

I sat there dizzy as could be, feeling nauseous, and my hands started to tingle. I tried to feel for my pulse in my neck but I was having a hard time feeling it. As I sat there, I felt worse and worse. I tried to lay down but that made my heart race. I waited and waited but then thought I should call Matt just in case. I asked him to bring the phone and a bowl for the nausea. It didn’t get better and I kept hearing in my mind, if you have these symptoms, don’t wait. When it didn’t go away, I told Matt I thought I was having a heart attack and he urged me to call 911. Calling that number needing medical help was really surreal.

In addition to not wanting to have to call, I was so worried about Kate seeing the ambulance from across the street at her sleepover. If she saw the ambulance and then I had to go to the hospital, she would likely see my rolled out in a stretcher and that would be terrible. I asked the operator to tell them not to use lights or sirens.

Three paramedics came and it was so bizarre to see them stick their head around my door and walk into my bedroom. It was sort of like I was watching the whole situation. They did the standard tests and everything checked out with my heart and breathing so we weren’t sure what to do. I asked them to stay until I could walk across the room. Every time I tried, I dropped from dizziness so they decided to take me to the hospital in the ambulance. The doctor said it was vertigo and gave me medication for it. I was home by 10:30 that morning.

This brings me to my assessment of the care and the comparison to the care at Presby Matthews and the care at CMC Medical center in Monroe. The long and short of it is CMC had much more caring care and Presby Matthews moved more quickly. At Presby Matthews, one of the nurse’s aids pulled my shirt right off in front of the paramedics to put leads on my chest with no regard for my privacy. Almost nobody at Presby Matthews told me what they were going to do. They just did it. The didn’t tell me what was going to happen next. The lady who came to draw blood just left the vials of blood on my bedside table until someone came about 45 minutes later and picked it up. When they wheeled me out to the waiting room, nobody wheeled me out to the car. She just left me there in the wheelchair as I waited for a ride. In the CAT Scan, my IV popped out and my blood went everywhere.

When I was at CMC Union in Monroe last year, the care was excellent. Everyone I saw said “I hope you get to feeling better”. It never seemed trite. It was very sincere and really made the level of care feel good. They told me what they were going to do and what to expect next. But, they were very slow. It seemed like any order for tests or meds took about an hour to get going and getting cleared for checkout seemed like forever.

Bottom line: CMC Union – best care. Presby Matthews – fastest medical assistance.