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They put me on a heart monitor at 3:30pm or so. You could see that my heart was beating pretty fast, between 140-170 bpm. It took a while for them to get my medicine started via IV, but they got my IV set up and drew blood for labs from it. I would guess that I was given Cardizem about 5:30 or 6:00. By 7:00 by heart rate was going under 100, which was our target.
Dad Sidebotham visited and while he was here we chatted and noticed that my heart rate was settling in the 80s. I felt way better.
Overnight I was on the IV and my heart rate continued to drop into 70s. I was wearing a cuff for automatic test of BP because the medication can also cause BP to go too low. Sometime during the night my BP got a bit on the low side and they took me off of the drip. So far, I've been off the medicine for a few hours and things are normal. My pulse pattern on the EKG has a normal sinus, which means the spikes are all regular and the right shape and frequency.
Today I have to have an echocardiogram and hear from the cardiologist (I haven't seen one yet). The nurses seem to be able to handle this type of situation pretty well, kind of routine, maybe. I asked if I'd be going home later today and the nurse was not totally sure, but thought I would be sent home with oral medication and be done.
I don't like having my blood taken that much, and since I've been here they have taken my blood 3 times in addition to having me on an IV. They said they are checking my blood for heart enzymes every six hours. I'm guessing they'll be taking more too.You can get used to anything?
Oh, yes, diabetes... it's pretty bland. My glucose levels have been normal the whole time. The nurses come in and ask me what my BGs are every six hours and I tell them. The lab ran an a1C and they said it was 6.8. Still room for improvement, but I just had a month+ of mysterious rises every PM. I think with the antibiotics I'm taking, that's all taken care of.
Yeah, trying to sleep in a hospital is a joke.
ReplyDeletehi Nathan... Hope you are doing well now. My husband has vagally mediated afib and has been treated both inpatient and outpatient. We are learning to treat at home. He is now only admitted for events that extend beyond 24 hours. He finds that he is exhausted for days after episodes.noble are u now? Best of healing wishes to u! J.
ReplyDeleteHope everything goes OK, Nathan. Wishes your way.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind comments. It's working itself out, and I'm learning more about the condition and medications. I think I can stay out of the hospital in the future, which is huge.
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