The 111 service, the paramedics and the hospital were fantastic, As you know I suffer with anxiety and all the symptoms I was getting pointed to pericarditis. Hubby checked the NHS website for the symptoms I was having and to be honest I was terrified. We called 111 and they came to the same conclusion from my list of symptoms and sent the ambulance. Although my heart rate was different in both arms (although not overly worrying) it was normal. I still ended up in hospital for x-rays, blood and urine tests. Going to hospital now is terrifying, I had to go alone leaving hubby and the kids. Thankfully the paramedics were great dealing with my anxiety, they made sure the hospital was fully aware and they got me in a private cubical where I had one nurse (Cyril, he was lovely) and just one doctor and she relayed information to the head doctor so I did not have to keep seeing lots of people.
It turns out I have a pulsating muscle under a rib on my left, which goes nuts when I lie down or breath in too deep or relax too much, giving the same symptoms of the more serious condition. This has been brought on (they think) by the arthritic pain I have been suffering for a couple of weeks. The odd thing was my blood test showing markers for a virus I was recovering from. What, they did not say, but I have not been poorly since before Christmas which has us again wondering if the flu we had before Christmas was this virus.
I am absolutely devastated about Rosie, I feel guilty now for not speaking up, but a gut feeling with no symptoms is hard to persuade a vet to take seriously. I also feel guilty about showering and going straight to bed when I got home, but I had been given some wonderful painkillers and had not been asleep. I slept for two hours and woke with a start again my gut telling me to check on Rosie and that is when I found her lying on her side just about breathing. I kissed her head, told her I was OK as I stroked her and said she could go now and one last breath and she went.
Raven was a star, although she terrified the paramedics to start with (they were wearing masks, something she has no experienced so she told them with a volly of woofs), they allowed her to come back in to comfort me, because of social distancing hubby had to stay in the kitchen. She gave them and their equipment a good sniff then decided they were her new best mates and went all loopy and rolled over for a belly rub. However getting her to not climb in the ambulance with us was another matter, she howled, cried and paced the house for the 5 hours I was gone, but so did hubby.