Ah, lovely day today, 25degC, gentle breeze. A week of mid-20s coming.

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Well, I had another ride in the ambulance last Tuesday evening. I got up from the couch at around 10pm, with a big effort needed, and felt a kind of thump in the middle of my chest, with a burning pain. I went to the sink to take my tablets and felt W³ — weak, wobbly and woozy.

I went to bed but felt sick. I got up and took a full aspririn and a full beta blocker. Sat at the computer for a while but at midnight felt I had to call 000.

The guys were here within 10 minutes. I have a small shopping bag packed these days with the things I need, so it was off to Joondalup. Unfortunately I forgot to put some shorts on and pick up my phone, but too bad. You literally go to the head of the queue in the emergency dept, so it wasn’t long before I was on a bed in a bay. That started the l-o-o-ong waits to be seen. It was probably 2am before a doctor came andfrom then on I had to lie there on a hard bed with no food allowed and only a small amount of water. My restless legs were in full force. It was torture! Also, although I had brought my CPAP machine, I didn’t set it up because I didn’t think I’d be there that long. Big mistake. I wanted to sleep, but kept choking without the CPAP. If I’d known …

I lay there all day Wednesday, writhing around, bored witless, nothing to do, nothing to read, no-one to talk to. They finally let me have a couple of sandwiches. They want you fasting and dry in case they need to operate. I was nearly ready to discharge myself and walk out. Nice people, and busy, but …

The blood tests finally came back and showed troponin readings of 30 and 61, which indicates a mild heart attack, but not severe. Mainly tachycardia, I think.

They got onto my cardiologist and he wanted me in the Mount Hospital, which is fine with me, so at 7pm they took me in an ambulance for the 45 min drive. Good trip, talking to an ex-army guy about nashos and so on.

I’ve been to The Mount several times before, and it’s like a 5 star hotel. I like it. Great bed, incredibly adjustable. TV, good food. I was so tired that I slept pretty well that night (Wednesday).

So it was Thursday and more waiting, waiting. Again, good food. As I told them, when you live alone, airline food and hospital food are great! But that night, restless legs and bloody alarms going off all night! I couldn’t move without an ecg alarm going off. One nurse came into the room around 2am with an attitude that said, “What’s yer problem, mate?” When I complained about the alarms going off all the time, she said, “It’s monitoring your heart. It’s hospital, love.” Bloody poor attitude. She was the only one though – all the other nurses were great.

(Btw, the nurse’s name was Kendall, and the label on the soap dispenser in the bathroom was Gojo – if you’ve watched Succession, these are two major names.)

So finally the cardiologist saw me Friday morning, doubled my beta blocker dose and said I could go home. No need for another angiogram. Hooray. I stayed for lunch, then went to the lobby and called an Uber. Six minutes away, it said on the app. So I waited, and waited and waited. Two bloody hours later about 4pm, my ride finally showed up. Not happy! But we had a good chat on the way home and I got here about 5pm. $59.35.

BUT! about 1.10am Saturday morning, I was awoken by another bout of brrrrrrrrr fast heart rate and a bit of chest pain. Again, aspirin and beta blocker, but it slowly subsided. Couldn’t face going back to Joondalup and that hard bed again. Felt OK after that. Tired yesterday but OK.

So, excitement? Not too much of that, thanks. Cost? All covered by Medicare and HBF. The Uber fare home at $59 was a bit steep, but … It’s certainly better than USA costs.

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One good thing about the hospital – their pharmacy had stock of Ozempic, so I was able to restart it. The benefit is immediate. My blood sugar immediately started going down and I lost a kilo of weight. Of course, not having any beer to drink might have had a bit to do with it.

One pen is a month’s worth, so that covers November, but I still have to wait through December before it becomes available again. I asked for another pen, but they wouldn’t play ball. I used a full 1mg dose and wow, it gave me quite an upset stomach. I might reduce the next week’s injection.

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Restless legs! It’s driving me up the wall! Can’t get to sleep at night. My sleep is shifting from night-time to day-time because of this. Combined with severe diabetic neuropathic foot pain, I’m in despair at times. Yelling out! It’s so bad that at times, if I were offered a heavy drug (a narcotic), I’d be tempted to take the offer. When you’re desperate.