{"id":11607,"date":"2016-09-16T22:20:15","date_gmt":"2016-09-16T21:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/?p=11607"},"modified":"2016-09-19T15:31:58","modified_gmt":"2016-09-19T14:31:58","slug":"sheer-heart-attack-background","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/?p=11607","title":{"rendered":"Sheer Heart Attack: Background"},"content":{"rendered":"

This true story starts a few days ago, but is retrospectively included here for context<\/p>\n

Thursday 15th September: 3am<\/strong>
\nThe fire klaxon in my hotel room bangs me out of a peaceful state of sleep with such aggression that I find myself running around the hotel bedroom in circles, not knowing where I am.<\/p>\n

The noise is so intense that I barely know who I am.<\/p>\n

Heart pumping as if I’d just completed a massive sporting achievement, my brain begins to kick in.<\/p>\n

I’m in Hothorpe House Hotel<\/a>, on the second day of a course.<\/p>\n

No, I don’t know why the fire klaxon is going off.<\/p>\n

And why is it going off in my room?<\/p>\n

And why is it SO FUCKING LOUD?<\/p>\n

Despite the near debilitating assault on my ears, I pull some of my things together and throw on some clothes.<\/p>\n

Outside it’s foggy.<\/p>\n

I say it’s foggy because it is 3am on an English autumn morning, obv.<\/p>\n

There is no smell of smoke in the air.<\/p>\n

So it’s fog.<\/p>\n

There are no fire marshalls either.<\/p>\n

No people in friendly HiVis jackets.<\/p>\n

Just a couple of other hotel guest-stragglers, wandering about.<\/p>\n

Eventually someone appears, makes apologies, and we return to our rooms.<\/p>\n

I’m still hyped up by the noise, and unable to sleep.<\/p>\n

At breakfast at 7.30 my colleagues and I discuss the very shocking awakening.<\/p>\n

The fire klaxon in every bedroom had gone off.<\/p>\n

We wondered why there had to be a fire klaxon in every room when the fire klaxons were so debilitatingly loud.<\/p>\n

Many hours later the course finishes and I drive home.<\/p>\n

I feel unwell.<\/p>\n

Nothing I can put my finger on.<\/p>\n

And, let’s face it, I’m not exactly a sickly child.<\/p>\n

I just know that I’m not right.<\/p>\n

I go to bed early.<\/p>\n

Friday 16th September:<\/strong>
\nThe next morning I wake at the normal time.<\/p>\n

I feel sick.<\/p>\n

Nauseous.<\/p>\n

And I’m cold\/clammy and sweaty.<\/p>\n

I make it in to the bathroom but I don’t actually vomit.<\/p>\n

Things settle down.<\/p>\n

The nausea passes.<\/p>\n

The world returns to normal.<\/p>\n

I do the usual bathroom duties, but as I get dressed I start to experience a pain.<\/p>\n

In my chest.<\/p>\n

It’s not a sharp stabbing pain.<\/p>\n

It’s a pressure inside me.<\/p>\n

It builds and fades.<\/p>\n

I feel a little short of breath.<\/p>\n

The pressure builds again and my arms hurt.<\/p>\n

Bizarrely, the little fingers on both hands tingle.<\/p>\n

I sit on the bed for a moment, and the symptoms all pass to nothing.<\/p>\n

I finish getting dressed.<\/p>\n

A few hours later at work, the pressure builds again.<\/p>\n

My arms hurt again.<\/p>\n

My little fingers tingle again.<\/p>\n

This amuses me.<\/p>\n

The shortness of breath returns again.<\/p>\n

There is an unwritten law that one should never google symptoms.<\/p>\n

I google my symptoms.<\/p>\n

I text Sam that I appear to be having a heart attack, and go in to a Very Important Meeting.<\/p>\n

An hour later I check my phones.<\/p>\n

Sam’s gone nuts with worry.<\/p>\n

I take a minute to tell my Director that I’m not feeling well.<\/p>\n

I’m deliberately vague about symptoms and my suspicions because it might not actually be that serious.<\/p>\n

I just say I’m not feeling well and I’m going home.<\/p>\n

At home Sam has left work at lunchtime.<\/p>\n

I leave my car at the house, and she drives me to hospital.<\/p>\n

An hour later I’ve been poked, prodded, had blood extracted, and I have been admitted to Nottingham’s QMC, as I seem to be actually having a heart attack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This true story starts a few days ago, but is retrospectively included here for context Thursday 15th September: 3am The fire klaxon in my hotel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stuff","two-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11607\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}