Hacker News Reader

Comment by chrissnell | Hacker News Reader

I can’t speak for others but I had appendicitis about 10 years ago and ended up spending almost 8 hours in the ER waiting room suffering immensely. I distinctly remember towards the latter half of my wait that I began to feel a strange sensation of impending doom. I can’t describe it exactly but I feared that I might actually die if I wasn’t called back soon. I later heard that this sensation is supposedly one of the symptoms of appendicitis.

In case anybody was wondering, I was eventually taken into the ER. They started me on morphine and was in surgery a few hours later.

View on HN

Feelings of impending doom are also a symptom of adenosine injection. [1] Interestingly, caffeine is an adenosine receptor antagonist.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adenosine#Side_effects

Had it done to me twice, 2 of the worst experiences in my life. They did the first one and did not push enough. The doc said do you want the good news or the bad news. I choose the good, apparently there is a significant portion of people who's heart does not restart after adenosine, and they have to use the paddles to get it started again. The good news was that mine restarted so it will always restart when given the medicine. The bad news was they did not push enough to stop the SVT so they had to do it again. That was bad news it's a horrible experience. All of the symptoms of a heart attack with the exception of the pain. Can't breath, tingling, darkening vision. You think you are going to die when you feel you heart stop.

I've never really considered it a feeling of doom. It only lasts a partial second or two and you don't really have time to feel anything.

I mean, it literally can take your heart going 400 beats a minute, stop it, and instantly start going 72. It feels fucking crazy but I never have time to feel "doom" specifically.

I do know that the paramedics love administering it though haha.

Considering that a bad trip on magic mushrooms can also be pretty effective at the impending doom thing, it seems to me more a question of particular chemistry production than the setting.

A sense of impending doom is listed in first aid books as a potential sign of a heart attack.

Absolutely. As a paramedic, in a good instance of the number of SCDs I have attended where the family have said "y'know they said they just really didn't feel right/had a sense of something dark/impending doom, all day long".

In the setting of chest or upper abdominal pain or pressure, especially over 35 years, any pain that radiates to shoulder or jaw, especially that cannot be relieved and doesn't appear exertion-related (but even then) should be considered something serious until shown otherwise, in general, and coupled with the above.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com