"We think you're having migraines..."

Mercedes and I arrived at the ER at the University of Utah Hospital around 7 p.m. that Sunday.  I had worked myself up (again thinking I was having mini-strokes) to the point I could barely talk for crying.  They did some quick tests to see if I was having a stroke, I obviously passed because it turns out I wasn't having a stroke, go figure!

With Mercedes and Skipper in September 2012 for ESTC12 in Monterey, CA

Mike, the EMT/waiter at one of my favorite SLC restaurants Eggs in the City, escorted us to a room to wait until I could see one of the ER doctors.  It seemed like there were a slew of people coming and going and it was hard for me to keep track of everyone.  I do remember that most of the nurses and the EMT's seemed to have great senses of humor and kept Mercedes and me entertained while we waited.  Both the attending and the resident who checked on me and gave me "stroke tests" (I don't know what else to call them) thought that I was having migraines but told me they needed to conduct tests before they could say for sure.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I hate having my blood pressure measured, tested, whatever you call it!  Well, they hooked me up to this cuff that was set to check my blood pressure periodically.  The nurse, Hailey, came and checked it.  Five minutes later it started again!  I think this is a serious flaw with the system.  If you have it set to 30 minute increments, then logically, shouldn't the machine realize when you take a measure and then start counting the 30 minute increment?????  You would think so!!  Sorry, I digress...

So I'm hooked up to this machine, Hailey checks my blood pressure, the machine checks it 5 minutes after that, and THEN 15 minutes later the machine starts checking it again.  Three blood pressure checks in less than 30 minutes!! Does that seem ridiculous to anyone else?? Anyone in the medical profession, can you explain the rationale behind this to me?!?  The reason I'm making such a big deal about this is because the **Bleepin'** blood pressure cuff and my ensuing panic set off Wilbur for the sixth time that day!

I'm in tears when this thing starts up again, I press the nurse call button and by the time the nurse answers, I'm in the middle of an episode and can't form the words to tell her what's going on!  All I can manage is "Blah" as me trying to say blood pressure cuff.  Mercedes can't think of what to call it either because she's concerned about my panic, so she just steps outside to tell the nurse to get in the room.  Once they get the stupid thing off of me, the resident comes in to administer the stroke tests again.  While he's using his iPhone to give me speech tests, Mercedes and I are still in a panic and I can tell that once again my speech is really off!  It took an hour after the last episode of the day for my speech to return to normal.