“Are you still awake? Can you accompany me to the hospital?”
One day in the late fall of last year at 3:00 in the morning, I propped up the bed with one hand and sat crooked under the quilt, while the other hand trembled and sent this message.
Eight hours ago, I was striding around the Gemdale Plaza.
First night
It was a Thursday, and I finished work uncharacteristically early. It’s hard to make an appointment with a meal friend, and the thought of going out for a meal after get off work early makes me feel light.
Ramen, grilled meat, hot pot, Southeast Asian dishes… I started gluttonous eating, eating up to the wall as soon as I was excited, and finally I had a big glass of Hong Kong style milk tea.
I started having stomach pains late at night.
Around 12, I tucked into the quilt and wrapped my body. In mid-November, it was very cold, and I planned to fall asleep in this position. But it didn’t die. Under the thick quilt, my stomach hurt.
I too have had diarrhea for over 20 years. As soon as this energy came up, I knew: well, I must have provoked it today. So skillfully sit up, put on shoes, turn on the light, and go to the toilet.
People with diarrhea hate the lights in the bathroom at midnight. Sleepy, cold, sore, numb, and sweating a little, then the bright light hits down from the top of the head, like sitting in an interrogation room. But I still have to go all out with it.
I was like the picture above | Stills from “No War in Peiping”
Strength.
Strength.
Strength.
Ten minutes passed and the toilet was empty, and I rolled back on the bed in confusion. About five minutes later, the toilet door was opened by me again.
I tried this five or six times, but not only did it not work, but I also more and more nauseated and vomited. I don’t have much patience left, I can only get angry at shit: you don’t have seizures for a long day, and you only come now? Still so reserved? I’ll be at work tomorrow morning!
Laying back on the bed and closing my eyes, my left chest became heavy. Every time the heart thumped violently, the person sank into the bed again, shaking all over.
During high school, I had heart palpitations from time to time because of the pressure of my studies. When it comes to college, the number of times of challenging myself (staying up late to watch dramas and games) increases, and the mental exhaustion becomes more and more frequent. After graduation, if there is no dormitory to turn on the switch, of course, it will be released.
Ah, it looks like my retribution for staying up late for so many years has finally come.
My mind is flying. The words I said in the daytime, the brain holes that I opened up before, what old love hurts under the Five Elements Mountains five hundred years ago… They all hit the head and the face, and they can’t make sense, let alone stop. It was the early morning of the second day, and I used the little remaining lucid consciousness to calculate how long I could sleep, and I felt even more nauseous.
No, I can’t sleep at all.
Seek medical attention
No matter how stupid people are, they should realize that it is not a coincidence that stomach pain and heart palpitations occur together. One hour after I failed to fall asleep, the symptoms of “diarrhea” gradually subsided, and I finally realized: I didn’t eat badly, but palpitations were the more serious ones.
Would you like to go to the hospital?
If I can fall asleep next, I should be fine. Although there are only a few hours before dawn, as long as you can sleep, it is easy to say whether the next day will be a sabbatical or a sick leave. But the point is, this wave of tossing has made me suspicious, especially at night, the panic is more serious. After all, I have been dying since I was a child, although it was only heart palpitations before, who knew that my heart was not secretly working hard?
“Dong Dong—”
I struggled to get out my phone to check it. The keywords [heart palpitations], [diarrhea], [diarrhea], and [heart disease] were arranged and combined, but no results were obtained. More cranky than I was before. In this way, sitting and thinking in a place with medical equipment is obviously better than thinking blindly in the corner…
“Dong Dong—”
I quickly thought about my familiar night owl colleagues. There are a few close by. I message them one by one.
“Are you still awake? That…I don’t feel well in my heart. Can you accompany me to the hospital?”
Darkness, silence, the faint phone screen went dark, and the person didn’t hear back. I grabbed my chest and sent it to the next person.
“Can you accompany me to the hospital?”
Being knocked out of the body | 82 edition of “Journey to the West”
It took about half an hour and no one responded. It seems that it is really too late, and even the people who live until dawn are sleeping. I climbed from the bed to the chair, put on my sweater, trousers and jacket, took out my phone and prepared to call a car.
At this time, the following questions quickly ran through my mind:
1. Who is closer to me in the top three?
2. Which hospitals near me are good at solving heart problems?
3. There are still 5-6 hours before my colleagues wake up one after another, can I wait until then? Who should be contacted?
“Dong Dong—”
It’s too awkward to leave a message on WeChat, so I just called a friend who might have experience.
“Sorry, the user you dialed is off.”
Open the map and check the official websites of the surrounding hospitals. The homepages have very little useful information.
“Dong Dong Dong—”
At this time, I saw that on the map, there were two top three very sticky close to each other, just 20 minutes away from me by car. One is not good, there is another, the probability is higher, right?
Twenty minutes later, I sat in the emergency room, clutching my chest. “Doctor, my heart is uncomfortable, palpitations, and I can’t sleep until now.” The doctor took his pulse and replied: Everything is normal.
I’m dying, is this normal? I put on the most difficult face in my life, and described my condition to the doctor again. The subtext was: Even if I look normal now, it’s hard to say if something will happen when I go back, right? Doctor, do you want to give me a medicine?
He confirmed the symptoms again, prescribed a bottle of atenolol for me, and told me not to take more, half a tablet when I was uncomfortable.
My colleagues told me later that there are a large number of beta1 receptors in the myocardium, and when beta1 receptors are excited, it will cause the heart rate and myocardial contractility to increase. Atenolol is a beta-blocker that slows the heart rate and is also used to treat high blood pressure.
Toss all night and see a doctor for two minutes.
Many people fell asleep in the corridor of the emergency room, some in the waiting area, some in wheelchairs, all covered with large quilts. I looped around the legs of these people and walked out slowly, hesitating to stay and observe. Walking like this, I walked out of the hall, into the cold wind outside, and didn’t have the strength to go next door.
I ended up going back.
The next day
I opened my eyes until dawn.
In a blur, the walls hummed and shook. The bed rails, the floor, the ceiling, my teeth, all resonate, my sleepless brain being rubbed back and forth by the invisible chainsaw. I looked at the time, and it wasn’t even 8 o’clock, so I didn’t know which neighbor started the decoration.
“Dong Dong—”
For now, the only plan is to go to work.
As soon as I arrived at the office, I was pressed on the sofa next to me like a national treasure, and then orange hot water and other items were handed over one by one, and colleagues who saw the news rushed over. Condolences. Knowing this, I want to get sick every day (no). So this day, my task became to lie down and sleep…
It’s no wonder you can fall asleep. It was so awkward to hold my chest all the time and act like I was sick, and I was forced to pick up my phone and join in the small talk. In this chat, when it comes to what I ate last night, the truth emerges.
Sun Gulu turned back and returned to more than eight o’clock the night before. Holding my stomach, I walked to and fro in the mall. Then, I stopped in front of the milk tea shop.
“Would you like to try Hong Kong-style milk tea?” a fan friend asked me.
I have forgotten whether that cup of milk tea is good or not, and after this night, I have no chance to go back to verify. All I remember is that it was cold, I drank it as I walked, and drank it all the way.
Now that I think about it, diarrhea, heart palpitations, and inability to sleep are the same as drinking coffee before! I’m clearly because of that cup of milk tea, too much caffeine!
“Most half of the cups of xx milk tea are old black tea.” My colleague explained sadly.
No wonder the doctor said I was fine, hahaha. Thinking back, I used to have a stomachache when I drank coffee, and I also had heart palpitations from drinking milk and tribute tea, haha. It looks like I’m going to say goodbye to a lot of drinks. See you all by chance, ha.
But anyway, I know the reason, so I don’t need to guess. For the next few hours, I kept drinking water – going to the toilet – drinking water – going to the toilet, trying to metabolize the caffeine in my body as soon as possible. At night, although the heart is still blocked and the whole body is empty, the worst time has passed.
2nd night & 3rd day
My goal is to fall asleep. The thought of going back home and spending the night by myself makes my heart numb. After thinking about it, I brought a close friend to accompany me.
After 11pm, my tiredness and sleepiness became less noticeable. Staying up all night is indeed like this. The previous few times after getting up early and staying up late, it was the hardest in the morning, and it would return blood at night. But I know that this brief mental head is just an illusion. I haven’t slept for nearly 40 hours. I can’t do it, and I must never do it.
Facing the wall, I was back in the same position where I tossed and turned the night before.
After turning off the lights, I started chatting with my friend habitually, and after a few words, she ignored me again. I had to shut up and go to sleep. Hey, to be honest, the bed is 1.2 meters a bit crowded, hey, and I have been uncomfortable with people panting around me. But the situation is special, no matter how unaccustomed it is, it is better than no one to call an ambulance for you… Thank you, it’s too late, why do you want a bicycle!
So I faced the wall and held back my drowsiness, and I actually, really fell asleep.
When I woke up again, it was noon. The winter sun is low and the sun shines in through the gaps in the curtains.
“How are you?” asked a friend who had already washed up sitting next to him.
I lowered my head, felt the position of my heart, and felt it hard. Eh……? never mind! Wait a minute, it’s calm. I almost jumped for joy, but I was afraid of triggering the remaining forces in my body, so I sat down with a smirk. Just as Auntie can make people miss the dry days, before this ups and downs, how could I know that I can sleep so happily.
Excitedly, we took a few breaths and ordered our lunch.
“There’s “Justice League” in the afternoon, can you watch it?”
“I think… it works!” So I bought the movie tickets.
After all, I slept too much and wasn’t hungry, so I only ordered a rice bowl for lunch. After eating, I haven’t put away the lunch box-
“Dong Dong—”
He said a few times, and the strength of the living person in his chest was “drained” in an instant. Before I could react, the man then went limp and fell back on the bed.
“Fuck you, aren’t you?” The friend who pushed the door back was a little startled.
“That…” With my face buried in the quilt, I answered feebly, “Maybe it’s too much to eat… Let’s go to the movie first…”
Ashen face | “Story of Yanxi Palace”
I never got out of bed again until she left.
My heart palpitations did not end up on day four. I was really fine that afternoon, and I caught up with that movie.
Ten months have passed, how am I doing after this is over? That’s about it:
Watching colleagues go to make coffee in the morning, and then sitting in the room full of aroma of coffee to work;
In the afternoon, watch them collect orders in the milk tea group of hundreds of people, and then share the milk tea;
In the evening, watch the roommates unpack the newly brought tea leaves, and boil them with hot water to make a cup;
…
And I can’t take a sip.
However, last week I picked up a few more packs of super cheap instant milk tea at the supermarket. Should be fine, right?
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