Posted on Friday, 4th January 2008 by Bull
So I haven’t been working for the past almost three weeks now. Been on Short Term Disability and I return to work tomorrow, Saturday. Nice calm day to return.
On December 16th, right before I was supposed to start work, I had some heart attack-like symptoms. I kept having these strange hot flashes and dizziness and I just very strange. Not wanting to take any chances, I had a supervisor call an ambulance for me. Paramedics came pretty quickly, and right on the spot they hooked me up to a field EKG machine. Nothing on the machine showed up anything relevant. They put me on a gurney and pushed to the Ambulance where they began to ask me all sorts of fact-finding questions.
I was a bit miffed by the fact that they had such a hard time poking me in a vain to get some fluid into me. But I came to the conclusion that it really wasn’t their fault. Ever since I began taking my beta blocker medicine, Atenelol, my blood pressure is VERY low. Which also means I barely have any veins to show on my hands or inner arms. So ensued the poking and prodding. The EMT finally poked me in the arm and said “Yep, that looks good” and began the drip. From having worked in a hospital before, I noticed that the liquid wasn’t really moving, and I didn’t dare say anything lest the paramedic started using me as a pincushion again. It was just a saline solution anyway.
When I got to the hospital, I naturally told them about the faulty poke the guy had given me, and after three nurses unsuccessfully poked me, the doctor who would be seeing me did it herself, after a few tries. What I don’t understand, is why they insert the needle, then try to wiggle it around inside trying to find the vein. Insert, miss, pull out. But oh well. I then had to sign a bunch of paperwork, and then a male nurse took a few vials of blood for testing. In the meantime I had calmed down and my side effects were gone. I was rather feeling somewhat normal. They came back later and said that the tests were negative and they would take more blood in a few hours.
As I carry a “man purse”, I always have my camera with me, so I took this poor shot:
So then I took a little snooze and waited, then they drew more blood. A few times through my stay in the ER, I occasionally felt some discomfort, but nothing to worry about. And again the tests were negative. This is then when I asked the doctor what could cause me to have these symptoms, if it was really a false alarm? To which she couldn’t give me an exact answer. I had to rephrase my query three times, but all in all she “didn’t know”.
Around eight o’clock I was released with a paper saying “Nonspecific chest pain.” So once again no real answers. The next day I called into MetLife insurance company and filed for Short Term Disability, and I called the Heart Institute of New Mexico to get the earliest appointment for a cardiologist; which would be on January 9th.
I guess I’ll find out someday whats actually wrong with me.
Bull signing off.
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (4)
February 19th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Bull,
I hate to hear you’re having troubles, dude. But you did the right thing by calling for help ASAP. I do hope you’ll follow up and maybe get a stress test or whatever. I had a wierd thing happen where I went in for a routine checkup, and the nurse did an EKG. Well, she kinda freaked and ran to get the doctor. She (the doctor) said the EKG indicated I had ALREADY HAD a heart attack. So, she had me go to a cardiologist right away. To make a long story short, I was diagnosed with having PVC–Premature Ventricular Contractions. It’s apparently something that’s fairly common, an irregular heartbeat that, in my case anyway, goes away when I do anything that gets my heart rate up. But, it was enough to scare me half to death.
Once I was diagnosed, I remembered a few times I’d felt short of breath at times when I shouldn’t. Once (this was when I was in my 30s) I was just lying in bed doing nothing and thought my heart was racing and my breathing felt funny. And I thought i could hear the blood rushing through my veins–a funny sound, like, inside my ears (not coming INTO my ears). Nothing severe, but just noticable. I actually went to a (young) doctor and he didn’t know what to make of it. I think he thought I had imagined it. I guess those events were related to my PVC.
So, I hope and pray everything works out as well for you.
Kelly Carter
February 19th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
@Kelly
What isn’t written here, is that in November of ‘06, I did suffer a minor heart attack. This was when I had gone to the top of Sandia Peak here in Albuquerque. The thin air (10,000ft), plus my smoking didn’t help and thats when it happened. It only lasted for maybe five minutes, and I was alone at the peak since it was still early. And besides, there were no medical facilities way up there, what could they do?
I didn’t go see a doctor right away since I didn’t have insurance at the time. But I began to have problems. I had palpitations quite a bit. These would happen quite a few times throughout a week.
When I started my job at Verizon Wireless, my new medical insurance started right away and I went to the ER to get some answers. Of course, my problem wasn’t evident at the time, and they just chuckled thinking there couldn’t be anything wrong with me.
It wasn’t until April, that I truly had to go to the ER. My heart had slipped into Atrial Fibrillation, and boy was it rough! My heart wouldn’t stop skipping, and it would race, and then crawl. It changed so quickly that I knew this had to be life threatening, and it was scary. I immediately called 911 and the ambulance came in a relatively short time to come get me. Once I was in the back of the meat wagon, I was in a relatively OK mood, while they checked my vitals. The EKG was off the charts, so to speak.
When they put me in a room in the ER they immediately did all these tests on me. One of which was the most interesting. An echo cardiogram, or ultra sound, on my heart.
Being able to see your valves in your heart beat an unsteady rhythm, is even scarier. I hope not to see that again. After all tests were done they injected me with some special fluid, that I like to call “liquid shock”, as it did just that. After about 10 minutes, my heart returned to a normal sinus rhythm and all was OK.
After some more observation by the staff, I was free to go, with a sheet that said I was diagnosed with Atrial Fibrillation. Ooooh. It’s official now?
A follow up with a cardiologist next door from the ER, revealed no abnormalities with the nuclear stress test at all. They also performed an ultra sound on all my arteries, yet nothing was revealed. They said I was “healthy”.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
February 19th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Bull,
Well, you’re one tough hombre to have been through all that. Especially stranded on a mountain top. I wonder if you’re a good candidate for a pacemaker. I used to work as a test engineer in pacemaker manufacture. The technology is flat amazing, especially nowadays. And the surgery to implant one isn’t considered major. My son, who has a seizure disorder, had a similar device implanted in him. It stimulates a nerve leading to his brain rather than stimulating the heart, but it’s the same principle. The surgery was quite simple even for a kid. If you have a choice with your insurance, I wouldn’t hesitate. Well, take care of yourself and keep me informed. I believe in the power of prayer, so I’ll pray for you. Try it yourself, if you don’t already. You might be surprised at the result.
Kelly
February 19th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
Thank you Kelly
I appreciate that.