My Adventure in the Durham VA Medical Center CCU

A lot of veterans complain about the services of the veteran's hospitals in this country, but I just had a good experience at the Durham VA Hospital in North Carolina.

Early last week I had some bad chest pain after eating. The pain was in the middle of my chest and radiated down both my arms and up into my neck. I thought ut oh, what is this? But I was too scared to go to the hospital right away so I just put Scamper's bag of cat food out, just in case something happened to me in the middle of the night, and then I went to bed until the pain subsided. It just goes to show that I think more of the cat than I do myself!

Then a couple of nights later I had the grand daddy of all apnea attacks, and I gasped for air all night long. Feeling rough around the edges the next day, I thought I had better drive myself to the VA hospital while I could still drive. I didn't want to go out of this cabin feet first, bypassing the doctor, and going directly to the undertaker.

When I arrived at the hospital, I was ushered directly into the emergency room and hooked up to a heart moniter. Then the fun began with the blood tests and an IV inserted into my arm. But within about one half hour, I found myself in the CCU.

The physical plant of the unit was state of the art. Everything looked modern and new. There were private rooms for the patients, and every patient had a very attentive nurse looking after him or her. And the nurses were wonderful. They were prompt when called and very kind. They were gentle when giving shots and compassionate in their demeanor. And they were all from different countries including Mexico, India and Nigeria. But they treated us old veterans with more respect than most Americans do.

The only problem was: they wouldn't give me any soft drinks, and I was dying for a Diet Coke. Does any here know how to spell addiction?

After spending the night, the very next day they gave me a stress test on the tread mill to test my heart. And hey, I just can't believe that some people do that kind of exercise in their living rooms everyday. It is no fun! But I passed; it was the most important test of my life, more important than any of my college finals, and I passed.

In spite of a myriad of risk factors including age, diabetes, family history, and a lifelong, lost battle with obesity, I have a healthy heart. This is worth about a million dollars in medical co-payments. Health is wealth.

So the doctors just sent me home with a bottle of anti-acids and I'm going to get one of those awful c-pap machines so I can breathe at night. Joy. Joy.

This is a miracle. Isn't God good.

Oh by the way, the hospital gets an A.