A Bit of Drama and Now Back to My Regular Program

February 12, 2026

I had planned to write a post on Monday about setting up my IKEA pantry.

I woke up on Saturday to the worst case of heartburn I have ever had. It felt like a line of fire across the inside of the middle of my chest. It seemed odd to me; I haven’t had heartburn since I had a LINX device implanted. Even worse, later in the day, my right side of my belly started hurting. I have a fatty liver and it sometimes flares up.

I was miserable. I took a pain pill I was prescribed for the liver pain. I raised the head of the bed and took a nap. Sunday, my belly wasn’t hurting as much, but the line of fire continued to remain the same. I felt well enough to start assembling the IKEA pantry with Bruce.

On Monday, the line of fire in my chest was still there and just as painful.

We took Nox to the vet to get an arthritis shot. We hadn’t heard from the facility that was supposed to do a sonogram of Nox’s heart. Nox has been coughing a lot.

In talking to the vet about getting Nox a sonogram for her heart, I remembered reading something about women’s heart attack symptoms were very often different than men’s.

We got home from the vet and were walking Nox around the backyard. My right side was hurting again.

I looked up the symptoms of a woman having a heart attack. Both my symptoms could be a woman having a heart attack.

I told Bruce and he said, “Let’s go.” He drove me to the closest hospital. They ran tests and didn’t think it was a heart attack. It was a smaller hospital and they didn’t have a cardiac unit. I was given some horrible nasty pasty liquid to try and stop the heartburn. It didn’t stop the heartburn at all. The X-ray showed an abnormality. The ER doctor was consulting with a cardiologist from a larger hospital. Since I was in a lot of pain, they gave me a shot of morphine. Oh the relief! They decided to keep me for observation and send me to the larger hospital when a bed opened up. I was told it would be in the morning. My symptoms could still be some type of heart problem.

Bruce and I decided it would be fine for him to go home and take care of Nox. I told him he needed to eat something. We hadn’t eaten breakfast and then we spent most of the day in the ER. I wasn’t allowed to eat anything. I was given ice chips once. I told Bruce that he should stay home since nothing was happening until tomorrow morning.

I was starting to worry my LINX device had a catastrophic failure.

At 11:00 PM, the ER doctor told me a bed had opened up at the bigger hospital. An ambulance was on the way to pick me up. I texted Bruce to let him know what was happening.

I rode in the ambulance to the larger hospital. I was rolled into the ER and placed in a room. A new set of test commenced. My vitals continued to look good. The ER was incredibly noisy. Beeping, announcements, the blood pressure cuff, and loud voices made it hard to sleep. I managed to drift off when a nurse came in and woke me up. “We are moving you to a different room. I don’t know why.”

She pulled the bed out of the room and under the bright hall lights, pushed me to a new room in the ER.

Tuesday morning, Bruce tracked me down and stayed in the ER with me. I was in the ER most of Tuesday while they did various tests. I had a sonogram. It was really cool to see my heart beating. They kept taking blood to test. After a few hours had passed, Bruce went home to take care of Nox and to get something to eat. I was not allowed food most of the day.

One of the times Bruce was gone, the nurse said I was allowed to eat. I asked when dinner was coming. It was 6:30 PM. She realized dinner had already been served, so she was kind enough to bring me a sandwich and a ginger ale. Getting to drink something felt wonderful. Even though it was a premade turkey and cheese sandwich, it tasted amazing. I knew I was very hungry since normally I would’ve considered that sandwich less than good.

I was hoping to go home when Bruce got back. Instead, I was told I was getting a room upstairs. Bruce made it back before I was moved to the new room. They sent him to the room while they stopped to do a CT scan on me. They wanted to check the LINX device and for gallstones. Then they pushed my bed to the new room. The upstairs was so quiet. It was a pleasure after the ER din. We were told I hadn’t had a heart attack. Good news finally!

Bruce helped me shower. I really needed a shower after being in the ER for 31 hours. I had an IV needle in both elbows, so it wasn’t fun to bend my arms.

Bruce headed home for the night. After Bruce left, I was too keyed up to get to sleep right away. I read for a bit, then drifted off. I was woken up twice to get vitals and once when a cup of water was replaced with another cup. The vital checks, I can understand. The water cup replacement, why? I drifted back to sleep almost as soon as the door closed.

On Wednesday, I was served breakfast. The oatmeal with granola and ripe raspberries was delicious. The pint of milk tasted a little bit sour to me. Bruce arrived and ate the eggs and drank the coffee. The doctor came in and talked to me. I did not have gallstones and the LINX device looked fine. The doctor said no one at the hospital was familiar with a LINX device and an appointment with a GI specialist had been set up. The hospital set up appointments with various doctors to see after I went home. He also said I could go home. Yay!!!

A physical therapist came and had me walk to the end of the hall. She decided my balance was good.

The nurse came and gave me medication in the IV and the a shot in my belly. The belly shot started hurting like a bad sting after the needle was pulled out. Bruce said if it hadn’t been at an angle, the needle would have gone through me!

It took until 11:00 AM before I could leave. As I was waiting for the wheelchair, the team that checks vitals was rolling in their machine. I laughed and said I was being released. Bruce had my bag of stuff when I sat in the wheelchair to be rolled out. When we got into the elevator, I realized I didn’t see the bag of stuff. I asked him if it was still in the room. Yes, yes, it was. He had put it down to check his phone. Bruce went back to get the bag.

I was rolled to the ER Exit and Bruce drove the car around. I got into the car and Bruce drove us home. I was so happy to be home. Nox was so happy to see me. Bruce said she cried and looked for me every time he came home.

While I was in the hospital, the doctors and nurses were fascinated by the LINX device. They hadn’t heard of anything like it. I explained how it worked several times. One nurse thought a LINX device could help her husband.

The medicine I was given at the hospital significantly reduced the pain in the center of my chest.