For a couple months now I've been off and on sick and I finally realized/decided it was time to make a doctor appointment. So in the hopes of making an Urgent Care apt on Friday afternoon I got on the phone with an advice nurse. I was asked questions about my symptoms, what I'm experiences, etc.

In the process of explaining how I'm feeling somehow things got convoluted as I was explaining the congestion and heaviness in my chest the nurse started asking me odd questions about chest pain. Was I experiencing any pain in my jaw, my arms, or back?

She continues to ask me a bunch of other stuff but then all of a sudden she asked " Have you taken any cocaine or amphetamines in the last 6 hours?" Um, what?!! My brain stops and takes in the question I was just asked.... ummm, I have a cold not a coke problem.... how crazy is that?!?

After the nurse on the phone scheduled my appointment I put the whole odd conversation out of my mind.... until I ended up at the actual appointment and there was an EKG machine in the room. Seriously, there it was! Not that I knew at first, since I'd never had an EKG before, but when the nurse told me she needed to run the test I realized that this was the end result of my phone conversation with the advice nurse.

It was so surreal as she puts all these electrodes on me and I felt like I was observing the process in an out-of-body kind of way. Well, I've now had my first EKG and I guess I can add it on to the list of other medical stuff I've experienced.

Going forward I think I have to be more conservative with the way that I answer chest pain/discomfort questions over the phone with an advice nurse.