Water Water Everywhere Nor Any Drop to Drink

Long story short, I ended up in the ER around midnight Wednesday.

After 15 minutes on the treadmill, 5 minutes on the cross trainer, an additional 10 minutes on the treadmill that morning, I pulled out the yoga mat for a cool down stretch and suddenly felt lightheaded/dizzy when I got into the downward facing dog position.

Not all that unusual. Despite staying hydrated with copious amounts of water and a little Pedialyte (which btw tastes awful), I frequently feel lightheaded these days.

So, brushing the sensation off, I lay in the corpse position —flat on my back, and relaxed until I felt good to go.

Some time during that same day, I became aware of being a little wobbly on my feet and began feeling a sharp pain radiating down my left arm.

Some days are better than others, work through it, I said to myself.

Along about bedtime, pain in the left arm now killing me, a rapid BP rise, something told me to Google "heart attack in women".

Pressure, squeezing, or fullness in the chest — NO
Pain that radiates to the arm, back, neck, or jaw — YES
Shortness of breath — YES and NO
Nausea or vomiting — NO
Fatigue — YES and NO
Dizziness or lightheadedness — YES
Sweating — NO
Indigestion — NO
Anxiety — NO
Palpitations — NOT SURE WHAT THAT WOULD FEEL LIKE

Erring on the side of caution, I called Twin 1 (who lives in the adult building next door to the complex) and, when she answered said, "Don’t panic, stay calm, I need you to come get me, take me to emergency. I think I’m showing signs of a heart attack".

I was fast tracked at the medical center and the EKG showed that, inspite of my hard as nails exterior, I do still have a heart and it was "fine".

That being the case, I was ready to head back home, but Twin 2 wheeled me into a chest x-ray ("wheeled", because BP was up to 163 by now, causing me to feel wobbly on my feet).

After that, I was wheeled over to wait for blood draw but, heart attack was my only concern, and having been told it wasn’t that, I was ready to leave.

So, against her will, I made Twin 2 drive me home, close to 2 a.m., where I went to bed knowing I wasn’t likely to die in my sleep from a heart attack, even though I still had that pain in the arm.

Twin 2 thinks it's dehydration yet again and, on Thursday, had Instacart deliver electrolyte sports drinks to my door.

Water Water Everywhere Nor Any Drop to Drink, because, not only do I not have space to store all this water but, after researching the drinks, I learned I’d be curing one problem by creating a worse one — the mother of all gut episodes, because the "natural fruit" ingredient in the 2 mango flavored Electrolit, 2 fruit punch flavored Electrolit, 4 grape flavored Powerade Zero, 7 grape flavored Powerade Zero are not fodmap safe.

Water Water Everywhere Nor Any Drop to Drink, except the 8-gallons of Pure Life distilled electrolyte is listed as safe.

Twin 2 meant well, went through quite a bit of expense, and I hate to tell her I couldn’t and didn’t drink any of the flavored ones. In fact, if she doesn’t ask, I’m not saying, but what to do with the drinks?

I texted head of the High Table — the Baker, "I’ve been gifted with quite a lot of flavored sports electrolyte drinks that my sensitive gut won’t allow me to drink. Do you think they can serve as prizes on the bingo table?"

"Yes, I bet they will love them".

Bingo is today, so I snuck them down to the bingo table just a little while ago, before the room got all peopley.

Today, I'm feeling a little tired, like I'm not getting enough sleep, which I'm probably not what with staying up late watching chinese dramas in bed on the laptop, but the pain in the arm has finally subsided, so today is business as usual.