Monday, February 23, 2009
My Heart Attack - Part 3
It’s Wednesday now and late in the day when I’m transferred up to a room on the stroke wing. I guess that’s where they had a room. I ask about taking a shower and they say they’ll check. Nope! The doctor didn’t put it in the orders so I can’t take a shower. Crap!
I’m given a new portable heart monitor that first hung around my neck, and then they gave me a gown with a pocket in the front that it slips into. Ahh . . . freedom at least now I don’t have to plug and unplug whenever I get out of bed and set off an alarm.
At some point when my meds are brought in the little cup this time I’m given a printout of what they all are. I look at the meds in the cup and listen as she reads them off. “Oh great, I’ve turned into my 93 year old dad.”
I meet my roommate and she’s there having had a stroke. She lives and works near me and we get to know one another fast. One night I’m over sitting on her side of the room talking and the nurses come in for a shift change and want to know if it’s OK to discuss our cases for the changeover. We look at each other and smile and say sure. We already know everything about each other. I point to my roommate and say to the oncoming nurse, “Stroke” & then to myself, “Heart attack”.
I had two I.V.’s in the back of my right hand and this is pointed out at the change of each shift and it is noted about how one is just below my right thumb. They all remark about that one! They’re always checking them and re-taping them as no one wants to have to redo them.
Thursday morning one of the heart docs comes in and she sits by me on the bed and asks me how I’m feeling. “Well, ya know your associate said yesterday I could take a shower but since he didn’t write it in the order I couldn’t take one.” She said something about yes patients are always asking about when they can take a shower. We discuss some other things and she goes to leave and I again remind her to write it on the orders. She says that she goes camping and that after the first few days it doesn’t so much bother her about not being able to shower. “Well, this is my 5th day without one and I really want it.” Soon after she leaves I get the OK and I can finally shower!!
No tests for Thursday. So it’s just a day to hang out and rest up for my low impact treadmill stress test for Friday. Late at night my mind is racing and I’m walking the hall to try to work out the stiffness from the new bed that now sinks like a pit in the middle. (They had come in and pumped it up to firm but it didn’t seem to stay. Perhaps it’s because you’re on that pad that keeps inflating and deflating constantly to prevent bedsores.) Anyway, I ask if there is a scale anywhere and a nurse shows me to a room and I get on the scale and look at my weight. “Oh man, all that bad hospital food I didn’t eat and I still didn’t lose weight! How much does this weigh?” I say pointing to my monitor. She’s thinks this is hysterical and we’re both laughing as I walk back down the hall to my room. (I did actually lose some weight.)
Friday morning I’m to be picked up at nine to go for my treadmill test. I go into take a shower and before I know it they say they are there to take me down. Oh, no. I say I’ll be right out. I quickly finish and get dressed, I swear it was like in 5 minutes but they are gone. I don’t have to wait too long and they are back to take me down. I get wired up and try to stretch a bit before the doc comes in, now a 4th one for me to meet from the cardio group, to do my test.
I’m on the tread mill a few minutes and he asks me how I’m feeling. I say, “My legs are going to cramp up before I’m going to have a heart attack!” which they do. “Can you go 30 more seconds?” “Sure.” I make it and pass the test. I can go home!
So in the end my arteries were clear and the only thing they can figure is that an over–the-counter diet aid I had just started to take, about 5 ½ days before this happened (took less that the recommended dosage) had too much caffeine for me and maybe that was a contributing factor to all this.
I’m given a new portable heart monitor that first hung around my neck, and then they gave me a gown with a pocket in the front that it slips into. Ahh . . . freedom at least now I don’t have to plug and unplug whenever I get out of bed and set off an alarm.
At some point when my meds are brought in the little cup this time I’m given a printout of what they all are. I look at the meds in the cup and listen as she reads them off. “Oh great, I’ve turned into my 93 year old dad.”
I meet my roommate and she’s there having had a stroke. She lives and works near me and we get to know one another fast. One night I’m over sitting on her side of the room talking and the nurses come in for a shift change and want to know if it’s OK to discuss our cases for the changeover. We look at each other and smile and say sure. We already know everything about each other. I point to my roommate and say to the oncoming nurse, “Stroke” & then to myself, “Heart attack”.
I had two I.V.’s in the back of my right hand and this is pointed out at the change of each shift and it is noted about how one is just below my right thumb. They all remark about that one! They’re always checking them and re-taping them as no one wants to have to redo them.
Thursday morning one of the heart docs comes in and she sits by me on the bed and asks me how I’m feeling. “Well, ya know your associate said yesterday I could take a shower but since he didn’t write it in the order I couldn’t take one.” She said something about yes patients are always asking about when they can take a shower. We discuss some other things and she goes to leave and I again remind her to write it on the orders. She says that she goes camping and that after the first few days it doesn’t so much bother her about not being able to shower. “Well, this is my 5th day without one and I really want it.” Soon after she leaves I get the OK and I can finally shower!!
No tests for Thursday. So it’s just a day to hang out and rest up for my low impact treadmill stress test for Friday. Late at night my mind is racing and I’m walking the hall to try to work out the stiffness from the new bed that now sinks like a pit in the middle. (They had come in and pumped it up to firm but it didn’t seem to stay. Perhaps it’s because you’re on that pad that keeps inflating and deflating constantly to prevent bedsores.) Anyway, I ask if there is a scale anywhere and a nurse shows me to a room and I get on the scale and look at my weight. “Oh man, all that bad hospital food I didn’t eat and I still didn’t lose weight! How much does this weigh?” I say pointing to my monitor. She’s thinks this is hysterical and we’re both laughing as I walk back down the hall to my room. (I did actually lose some weight.)
Friday morning I’m to be picked up at nine to go for my treadmill test. I go into take a shower and before I know it they say they are there to take me down. Oh, no. I say I’ll be right out. I quickly finish and get dressed, I swear it was like in 5 minutes but they are gone. I don’t have to wait too long and they are back to take me down. I get wired up and try to stretch a bit before the doc comes in, now a 4th one for me to meet from the cardio group, to do my test.
I’m on the tread mill a few minutes and he asks me how I’m feeling. I say, “My legs are going to cramp up before I’m going to have a heart attack!” which they do. “Can you go 30 more seconds?” “Sure.” I make it and pass the test. I can go home!
So in the end my arteries were clear and the only thing they can figure is that an over–the-counter diet aid I had just started to take, about 5 ½ days before this happened (took less that the recommended dosage) had too much caffeine for me and maybe that was a contributing factor to all this.
Labels: heart attack
posted by DSL | 1:30 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home