I don't think that any of us that didn't have an experience like you did can ever really understand how you felt.
The closest I came to it was when I discovered a hard mass behind my knee and for weeks before I could see a doctor I was afraid it might be cancerous tumor. It really makes you think of your mortality and meaning of things...
The not knowing is the worst part of the waiting, because the head makes up all kinds of scenarios and it might be worse now, because of all the possibility to search for what it might be.