Geek Habitat

Justin and I spent Friday evening in the Emergency Room (ER) of a local hospital. No, the cats didn’t injure us while staging a mutiny — the visit was for Justin and his ongoing chest pain. We went to the hospital nearest our home, which was a good choice except for one caveat — the Emergency Room signage was placed so far from vehicle and pedestrian traffic flows as to be useless. By the time you saw the towering “EMERGENCY” sign of the actual entrance, you’d already circumnavigated the hospital either on foot or by vehicle. Wouldn’t the most important usability test for any hospital be how easily its Emergency Room can be located and entered, particularly from a major intersection?

The good news is we were nearly the only people in the ER at that hour (11:30 PM) and they took Justin back within 10 to 15 minutes of checking in. Then he spent the next 40 or so minutes getting examined and treated. The good news? It’s not his heart. After a chest x-ray, (another) EKG, cardiac enzyme readings, blood pressure monitoring and a special “cocktail” they fed him, they ruled out the pericarditis. GOOD news.

What’s the cocktail? I don’t know what they really call it, but it’s a numbing agent they had Justin drink. It numbs your tongue and esophagus down to your stomach. If you’re having heart-induced pain such as from pericarditis, the numbing agent won’t alleviate your pain and doctors can move on to treating that diagnosis. If, such as in Justin’s case, the numbing agent in fact removes all traces of your pain momentarily, voila — it’s esophagitis.

Now before every meal, Justin has various liquid medications to take that coat the lining of his throat, as well as a daily prescription stomach acid reducer. Why not just prescribe a formulation of the numbing agent, since it does such a good job of eliminating the pain? First off, it lasts for a very short time — minutes, not hours, and it makes the act of swallowing difficult. Thus, it’s only useful for diagnostic purposes.

Anyway, the ER visit was for peace of mind. When you’re having unrelenting, powerful pain exactly where your heart is and the medications you’ve been prescribed are doing nothing to help, it’s time for another doctor visit… even if timing means that’s a visit to the Emergency Room.

If Justin’s still experiencing the same level of pain in a week, he may have to get an endoscopy so doctors can actually see what the lining of his esophagus looks like, inspecting it for erosions or ulcers.

So, this is what being a “Thirty-Something” is like, eh?