February 23, 2009
Big Red Car
We went to Riverlink shopping centre yesterday to get JP some nice
clothes to wear for her appointment with St Mary's Primary School.
Even at their ages now the girls still love to jump in the little
amusements.
$2 gets you about 1 minute on this most enjoyable ride.
February 20, 2009
Dickey Ticker (Atrial Fibrillation)
Howdy All. This post is intended to update you all on what happened to me over the two weeks from Feb 4th.
It all started on Tuesday night (3rd Feb), I could feel my heart trying to jump out of my chest, but I thougt nothing much of it. I thought it may have just been the way I was lying in bed. But it continued on throughout the night, waking me up a couple of times.
When the alarm went off the next morning, I said to NP that I was not feeling very well. But she was still half asleep and told me to make an appointment with the doctor.
After I had a shower, I walked down to the lounge room to get dressed. By the time I got there I was totally out of breath. Any way I got dressed and headed to the bus stop. By the time I got to the bus stop it was like I had run a marathon and had to sit down as I was very dizzy.
I got on the bus then transferred to the train, while I was sitting on the train, I was thinking to myself that there is just something very wrong with me. I rang NP and told her that I felt really unwell, so she told me to get in a taxi and get up to the hospital.
When I got to the hospital, I went into the emergency dept, and told the triage nurse what was going on and she looked at me like I was malingering.
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Trauma Bed"]
[/caption]
They took me into one of the treatment rooms and hooked me up to the EEG machine and as soon as the saw the print outs, (resting heart rate of 180-190 Beats per minute), faster than I could blink, they rushed me up to the trauma bay and started putting defibrilator pads on me. I started crapping myself about then.
They then told me that I was most likely in Atrial Fibrillation (AF) and the defib pads were just a precaution in case my heart stopped.
Next they decided to give me a drug called Adenosine. This was to ensure that what I was experiencing was indeed Atrial Fibrillation and not another problem called "supraventricular tachycardia" (SVT) which was showing on the monitor. Aparently AF can confuse the monitor due to how fast my heart was beating and make it seem as though I was in SVT. Adenosine is very successful in cardioverting SVT back to a normal heart rhythm.
The young doctor was trying to explain the effects the drug would have on me. This doctormust have come from Austria , as he spoke in the same accent as Arnie Schwartzenegger. SO if you can imaging Arnie telling you that this drug can make you feel like you have an impending sense of doom (You vill feel like you are haffing an impendink sense off DOOM).
SHIT !!!
WTF is an impending sense of doom !!!
I now know. What it means is that you will feel like you are dying, but you aren't. It is very hard to describe but here goes: "I felt this weird sensation like all the blood was rushing out of my limbs back towards my head and torso, my vision went very dim, i felt like i was sinking into the bed from a great weight coming down on top of me, and i felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest. As I found out afterwards this all happens as the drug acts to block all the electrical signals to the heart for about 3 -5 seconds thus stopping your heart. When it starts back up again and there is no change to the rhythm then they know that it is not SVT but AF.
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Coronary Care Unit"]
[/caption]
After confirming that it is indeed AF they gave me another drug "Amiodarone" by rapid infusion through IV (needle in the veins) to try and hopefully cardiovert me back into a normal rhythm. Didn't work. Then again another dose of "Amiodarone" by IV over 24 hrs. I was transferred to the Coronary Care Unit (CCU). After about 8-9 hours the Amidarone drip blew out my vein and was leaking into thesoft tissue in my arm. I told the Nurse at about 9pm that my arm was feeling sore but she just told me to put a pillow under it. By the next morning my arm was swollen and red and the rash kept growing for another day and a half. This is very painfully stuff if it escapes your veins aparently. Aparently !!!! It hurt like buggery. I was in CCU for four days until they could stabilise my resting heart rate.
I was then transferred to Ward 7, where I was given many more drugs to try and get my heart rate under control when I stood up and walked around. That took another 3 days.
I was then sent to Princess Alexandra Hospital to get a Trans-Oesophageal Echo cardiogram (TOE) to make sure that there were no clots in my heart and that it was safe to try electrical cardioversion the next day.
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Scorch Mark"]
[/caption]
SO on "BLACK FRIDAY" I was given the electrical cardioversion, which involves being sedated (thank god) then being given an electrical shock to my heart through the paddles placed on my chest. I had the burn mark to prove it. This shock stops the heart to enable the body to perform a reset (basically like rebooting a computer). I must say that I was not happy that this was being done on Friday the 13th.
The cardioversion worked and i am now back in what they call a sinus rhythm (normal heart rhythm). reading all the literature shows that the cardioversion has a 50% chance of effectiveness over periods of greater than 1 year. That is 50% of people will revert into AF within 1 Year. Thanks for that reading material.
The plan from here is as follows:
I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who sent their good wishes through to me in hospital. It does make a difference when you are lying in bed 24 hrs a day doing nothing.
It all started on Tuesday night (3rd Feb), I could feel my heart trying to jump out of my chest, but I thougt nothing much of it. I thought it may have just been the way I was lying in bed. But it continued on throughout the night, waking me up a couple of times.
When the alarm went off the next morning, I said to NP that I was not feeling very well. But she was still half asleep and told me to make an appointment with the doctor.
After I had a shower, I walked down to the lounge room to get dressed. By the time I got there I was totally out of breath. Any way I got dressed and headed to the bus stop. By the time I got to the bus stop it was like I had run a marathon and had to sit down as I was very dizzy.
I got on the bus then transferred to the train, while I was sitting on the train, I was thinking to myself that there is just something very wrong with me. I rang NP and told her that I felt really unwell, so she told me to get in a taxi and get up to the hospital.
When I got to the hospital, I went into the emergency dept, and told the triage nurse what was going on and she looked at me like I was malingering.
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Trauma Bed"]
[/caption]They took me into one of the treatment rooms and hooked me up to the EEG machine and as soon as the saw the print outs, (resting heart rate of 180-190 Beats per minute), faster than I could blink, they rushed me up to the trauma bay and started putting defibrilator pads on me. I started crapping myself about then.
They then told me that I was most likely in Atrial Fibrillation (AF) and the defib pads were just a precaution in case my heart stopped.
Next they decided to give me a drug called Adenosine. This was to ensure that what I was experiencing was indeed Atrial Fibrillation and not another problem called "supraventricular tachycardia" (SVT) which was showing on the monitor. Aparently AF can confuse the monitor due to how fast my heart was beating and make it seem as though I was in SVT. Adenosine is very successful in cardioverting SVT back to a normal heart rhythm.
The young doctor was trying to explain the effects the drug would have on me. This doctormust have come from Austria , as he spoke in the same accent as Arnie Schwartzenegger. SO if you can imaging Arnie telling you that this drug can make you feel like you have an impending sense of doom (You vill feel like you are haffing an impendink sense off DOOM).
SHIT !!!
WTF is an impending sense of doom !!!
I now know. What it means is that you will feel like you are dying, but you aren't. It is very hard to describe but here goes: "I felt this weird sensation like all the blood was rushing out of my limbs back towards my head and torso, my vision went very dim, i felt like i was sinking into the bed from a great weight coming down on top of me, and i felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest. As I found out afterwards this all happens as the drug acts to block all the electrical signals to the heart for about 3 -5 seconds thus stopping your heart. When it starts back up again and there is no change to the rhythm then they know that it is not SVT but AF.
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Coronary Care Unit"]
[/caption]After confirming that it is indeed AF they gave me another drug "Amiodarone" by rapid infusion through IV (needle in the veins) to try and hopefully cardiovert me back into a normal rhythm. Didn't work. Then again another dose of "Amiodarone" by IV over 24 hrs. I was transferred to the Coronary Care Unit (CCU). After about 8-9 hours the Amidarone drip blew out my vein and was leaking into thesoft tissue in my arm. I told the Nurse at about 9pm that my arm was feeling sore but she just told me to put a pillow under it. By the next morning my arm was swollen and red and the rash kept growing for another day and a half. This is very painfully stuff if it escapes your veins aparently. Aparently !!!! It hurt like buggery. I was in CCU for four days until they could stabilise my resting heart rate.
I was then transferred to Ward 7, where I was given many more drugs to try and get my heart rate under control when I stood up and walked around. That took another 3 days.
I was then sent to Princess Alexandra Hospital to get a Trans-Oesophageal Echo cardiogram (TOE) to make sure that there were no clots in my heart and that it was safe to try electrical cardioversion the next day.
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Scorch Mark"]
[/caption]SO on "BLACK FRIDAY" I was given the electrical cardioversion, which involves being sedated (thank god) then being given an electrical shock to my heart through the paddles placed on my chest. I had the burn mark to prove it. This shock stops the heart to enable the body to perform a reset (basically like rebooting a computer). I must say that I was not happy that this was being done on Friday the 13th.
The cardioversion worked and i am now back in what they call a sinus rhythm (normal heart rhythm). reading all the literature shows that the cardioversion has a 50% chance of effectiveness over periods of greater than 1 year. That is 50% of people will revert into AF within 1 Year. Thanks for that reading material.
The plan from here is as follows:
- Get Healthy
- Exercise
- Get more sleep
- Stop Stressing so much (life is too short)
- Drink more water
- Change doctors
- enjoy life
I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who sent their good wishes through to me in hospital. It does make a difference when you are lying in bed 24 hrs a day doing nothing.
February 15, 2009
Brookwater Markets
Today we went for a drive to the Brookwater Markets. There were only a handful of stalls there, but the girls favourite was the snow cones. JP had a fairy floss and bubblegum flavoured one while CB had bubblegum and slime flavour. NP found some nice tea at one of the stalls, now she can't wait to get home to try it.
February 3, 2009
CB plays with my Iphone Camera
Hey all. Just wanted to share a photo CB took with the camera only iPhone.
Pretty cool, I thought.
February 2, 2009
Arvo Tea @ Indro
At Christmas time NP and I got some Coles/Myer gift vouchers totaling about $100.
So this morning we decided to go for a drive to Indro to have a gander in Myer to see what we wanted.
We were looking at getting a decent frying pan (like Anolon, Scanpan... Etc) however after the ensuing cost induced myocardial infarction we decided against it at the moment.
We then had a look around at some heart friendly stores before we decided to go to the Coffee Club for afternoon tea (pictured). To do this however we had to go to westpac for a personal loan to fund our afternoon gastronomic adventure.
February 1, 2009
SML's Birthday
We went around to Aunty A's place for SML's Birthday Dinner.
You can see here all the fixin's for burritos and some pics of the Birthday boy.
Aunty A and NP got into a bottle of Red Wine.
We had a great night.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)