Spent a few hours in the ER last night

Everything is fine though.

DH and I were lying in bed watching a DVD last night, and I noticed my heart rate seemed pretty fast. After the DVD finished I tried to take my pulse, but it was too fast and a bit over the place, so I grabbed the blood pressure monitor instead. My heart beat was all over the place, and it said my pulse was 160 . I did it 2 more times, and they both said 153.

So I called the cardiology doc on call, and she said just to go to the ER so they could do an EKG and check it out. It was already late, so it was midnight by the time we got to the hospital.

The EKG was all over the place, so they got me a bed. They hooked me up to everything, and it was fascinating watching my heart rate. It was bouncing all over the place - it wouldn't stay the same for more than half a second. It was bouncing between about 95 and 160, so definitely irregular!

They gave me some beta blocker drugs by IV, and that settled things down within about 5-10 minutes. They took blood and an x-ray, then we had to wait until all the blood test results came back.

Everything was fine, so I was released about 3am. I have to go see my cardiologist this week again, but I daresay they'll tell me to try taking extra oral beta blockers if it happens again, then go back to the ER if it continues.

The doctors last night were surprised that an aorta replacement could affect anything that had to with the bits that control the electrical impulses of the heart. So they looked at the surgery notes and apparently when they did my surgery, they had to detach, then "reimplant" the right coronary artery, which apparently CAN affect the electrical impulses. So I may have this happen again. Basically the heart is getting irritated by something (funnily enough, it's not too happy after heart surgery...), and this is causing the whacky heartbeat.

So there you go. That was my fun night

That is not good, take extra good care of yourself

That sounds scary!! I'm glad your home though. Do they know if this is temporary or if it might be something you have to watch forever?

Yikes! Thats scary - take care of yourself Sarah!

That is SO scary Sarah!

I am so glad that you are okay!

Oh Sarah, that is sooo scarry I'm glad you are ok now. Try to just take it easy and keep a close watch on your heart rate

Originally Posted by snosrap5

That sounds scary!! I'm glad your home though. Do they know if this is temporary or if it might be something you have to watch forever?

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I believe they expect it to be temporary. I certainly hope so, it wipes me out!

It's interesting being in the ER (first and hopefully last time there). The guy next to me had spent a heap of time in hospital last year with pneumonia, and had a bit of a cough and a fever, so his doctor said to go straight to the ER to get chest x-rays to make sure it wasn't pneumonia again. His son sounded like he drove him (and his mum) in, and was really peeved at being at hospital for over 4 hours in the middle of the night. Granted, the father didn't sound very sick, but I can imagine you'd be a little paranoid about it. So they were having a big family fight...

Then there was a guy down the corridor snoring SO loudly. And another guy was just yelling out in pain for ages. I felt like yelling out to him to be a man and deal with it

Then as we were getting ready to leave, they put over the pager system that there was 2 adult trauma patients coming in 15 minutes. They had just got there as we were leaving, and one of the guys was just like one big bruise, with a neck brace on, and not conscious.

They paged again saying there was another trauma patient coming in, and that helicopter was landing as we were leaving.

Scary place. I'd hate to work in the ER.

Oh my! How scary! that it is temporary and doesn't happen again!

Oh goodness, I'm glad you're ok.

Wow, that is scary! Glad to hear you're ok!

Originally Posted by snosrap5

That sounds scary!! I'm glad your home though.

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... ............you at home! ...

for you my friend! ...

It was actually more annoying than scary... I knew it wasn't life threatening or anything, but I knew it should be looked at sooner rather than later, since beating like that makes it impossible to sleep, and wears the heart out, then affects oxygen levels and blah blah blah.

Take care of yourself and keep us updated!! I'll be praying for you!

Yikes! That is scary...but so glad your ok!!

My goodness Sarah! I am so glad you are okay after that.. I would be ..

Please stay safe

What a tiring night! I really hope this doesn't happen again.

I'm glad you'll be all right! I had my own scare last night when I had to call 911 b/c my s/o was throwing up blood. He's still in the hospital till they can determine what's wrong with him..

I hope you'll be okay!

~KK~

Many vibes for you to feel better! That had to have been a scary experience! And I hate hospitals, too.

Continued good coming that way.

I'm glad it stopped and I hope that's the last of it for you!

I felt so nosy when I took my Mom to the ER a few weeks back! I kept listening to everything going on (more interesting than listening to Mom snore) and I could see the main entrance for the patients that arrived by ambulance. It was a pretty quiet night for them though. The most fun was listening to the cop talk to the parents of the teenager in the next 'room' over about how the kid hit someone's house. (It had snowed the day before and I guess he was going too fast) I don't think he did much damage to the house and he seemed OK too. Hope he learned to slow down there.