i kinda feel like an idiot....

[southernbeegirl]

Last night I got home from a 16 hr shift around11pm. I smooched around on my hubby, got a snack and sat down to surf the web for a while. I started coughing, thinking "ugh these allergies suck". but the cough kept on, getting worse. it was a hacking cough. i felt like i had a mucus plug stuck in the bottom of my throat that i couldnt cough up. i started wheezing very badly and suddenly felt like i couldnt get any air. My extremities got flushed, felt like needles were pricking me and then i started having chest pain.

i use a bipap with O2 bled into it at night so being the good nurse i am i put some O2 on. I have a h/o COPD and am a smoker. the chest pain kept getting worse and so did the feeling of something stuck in my throat (but not like i was choking, more like mucus stuck there still). i was using my inhaler trying to open myself up to cough this out but the chest pain got worse.

then suddenly i got this horrible feeling of "omg i am going to die". i cant explain what it felt like but it was kinda like God was yelling in my head "go to the hospital!". (i have only been to the ER once in my life and that was a PE 2 yrs ago but this didnt feel like it did with the PE). it was the most horrible feeling i've ever had, like this impending doom that i was having a heart attack. my chest kept hurting, i was nauseated slightly and still trying to cough that out of my throat.

it freaked me out so bad that i had my husband take me to the ER. he is the sweetest man. he felt i was having a panic attack from over using my inhaler and tried to calm me but i kept saying "i really think something is horribly wrong" so he took me to the ER.

about 15 min of being there, after the EKG, stat labs, ABGs, o2 I was able to cough and it felt like that plug in my throat cleared then my chest pain went away and i was able to calm down. it was at that point i realized my husband was right, i had freaked out because i couldn't breathe well. all my symptoms completely cleared in less than an hour of being there.

thats when i started feeling like the biggest idiot that ever walked this earth. here i was, an RN for God's sake, not to mention i work with these people...and i had over reacted like an idiot.

thats when i told the nurses "omg, I'm so sorry, can i just go home?" (lol, yeah like they were going to let me just leave, lol, but i tried). they were the nicest guys! a patient couldnt have been treated better. i told them all i was sorry for wasting their time AND their trauma room. i wanted to crawl in a hole i was so embarrassed.

they had all my test results back in no time and i was there less than 3 hrs. the doc said he thought that i had panic'd and also had some muscle spasms in my chest. i think i just freaked out from the albuterol and the wheezing.

like i said, that was only my 2nd time in the ER and i really feel like a big ole drama queen today.

have yall ever done anything stoopid like that or had a patient do it? i feel like sending them a card or something, lol.

ugh.

[southernbeegirl, BSN, RN]

For anyone who wants to quit smoking....CHANTIX! I know soooooo many people who smoked for YEARS and quit easily. My mom had smoked for 50 years and quit with Chantix. I took Chantix, I had to MAKE myself smoke, but it made me feel "funny" and I just couldnt continue taking it.

i took it too but this was before they realized that certain types of people shouldnt take it. i should have never tried it with my history of addiction/depression. once i started the second week where you double the dose, i was so depressed i cried all the time and wanted to kill myself. i had no idea what was going on with me. it was the most horrible thing! it was my husband that figured out it was the chantix. i stopped it and the symptoms resolved. so a few weeks later, being the dork i am, i decided to see if it really was thechantix and i took it again. same thing happend, lol. yeah, my husband still laffs at me about that, lol.

[JB2007, ASN, RN]

can you tell me how you quit? what did you do? any advice would be much appreciated.

I took Wellbutrin to help me quit smoking. I am as mean as anyone you would want to meet when I quit smoking. I have a very addictive personality, so I had horrible withdrawal. I definatly needed something in my system before my quit to take the edge off or else someone was going to get hurt. I started taking the Wellbutrin about 2 weeks before my quit date.

Then, I joined a stop smoking support group on the web. I found a good one that was free. There was a lot of great people that are very supportive of each other at the site I joined. I also think the biggest thing was whenever I wanted to smoke I just told myself that I made it this far why do I want to start all over again.

The first two days was the worst, but you can do it if you really set your mind to it. My biggest word of advice would be to not smoke even one puff after your quit date. Not even to "just take the edge off". That is what ruinned many a stop smoking for me in the past. Believe me it will be so nice to be able to breath easier and to smell things again. You would not believe all the things that you are missing. Good Luck! Feel free to PM me if you need a supportive person to vent to because I have so been there.

[southernbeegirl, BSN, RN]

thanks jb!

my doc called me this afternoon. she called in wellbutrin for me. she told me to take it for at least a week before i stop. she said i'd be more successful at quitting that way. i took my first wellbutrin this afternoon.

thanks for all the info. i hadnt thought to find support groups online.