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Last Saturday I awoke with a slight pain in my calf. I thought it was just a pulled muscle or general muscle soreness. On Sunday the pain got a bit worse. On Monday, it hadn't got any better, so my wife called my surgeon's patient care coordinator, who suggested taking a trip to the ER. Great I thought. Here goes a good part of the day. Little did I know.
I got to the ER and the Triage Nurse took my recent AVR history and ask why I was there. I told her about the calf pain. She took my blood pressure and pulse. My pulse was 156. "Well that gets you in back right now". The ER doc seemed most concerned about my pulse. The nurse put in a IV, which was the most painful I've ever had. OUCH. The ER doc first tried a low dose of adenosine, which she said would result in a warming sensation, followed my brief chest pain. Sounded great.
That didn't work so they upped the dose. Still didn't work. They then put me esmolo (sp?) drip, thinking that would work. Time to check for pulmonary embolism. (Blood clots in my lungs).
Went to X-RAY to and had an MRI. Luckily no blood clots in the lungs. The cardiac folks finally showed up and thought I should be admitted. Overnight? They said I was in A-flutter. I remembered thinking that I would probably be inconvinced for a few hours in the ER. Oh what a fond memory that was turning out to be.
The cardiac folks finally had a room available in the CCU unit about 4 pm. I had showed up at the ER around 9 am, and hadn't eaten anything. Man was I getting hungry. I finally eat a muffin my wife bought at the gift store around 5:00. The first test was to see if I had clots in my legs. Bingo. I had 3 clots in my calf, although they said that the vessels where not blocked and were still circulating. That night, my heart rate was still up, so they tried a different IV, Diltiazem. That brought my heart rate down overnight while I slept, but in the morning when I woke, it went back up to 150-160. Also that morning, I had an echo done, the first since my AVR on 3/15. The good news was that my new valve was not leaking at all. YEAH. They also put me on a heparin drip.
The cardiac resident came in on Tuesday, (day 2) and told me that due to what was going on, I would probably have to stay in the hospital until at least Saturday (6 days) or Sunday (7 days). That was depressing. I reminded the resident that I had OHS two weeks earlier and they got me out of the hospital in 4 days.
On Wednesday, my heart rate stayed down in the 100-110 range for most of the day. I also got to get out of the CCU and get into a regular cardiac room. My heart rate converted into a sinus rhythm Wednesday night. The cardiac resident knew I wanted out of the hospital, and came by and talked about possibly letting me out if I was willing to give myself injections of Lovonox. That would allow my blood to be thinner while the Coumadin they were prescribing would get up to therapeutic levels. I said sure, anything to get out.
Finally I was released on Thursday, 4 days. They changed my prescription from taking Metoprolol to taking Diltiazem in pill form. I should probably have to take coumadin for a short period of time, 1 month or so.
It's just great to be home.
I got to the ER and the Triage Nurse took my recent AVR history and ask why I was there. I told her about the calf pain. She took my blood pressure and pulse. My pulse was 156. "Well that gets you in back right now". The ER doc seemed most concerned about my pulse. The nurse put in a IV, which was the most painful I've ever had. OUCH. The ER doc first tried a low dose of adenosine, which she said would result in a warming sensation, followed my brief chest pain. Sounded great.
That didn't work so they upped the dose. Still didn't work. They then put me esmolo (sp?) drip, thinking that would work. Time to check for pulmonary embolism. (Blood clots in my lungs).Went to X-RAY to and had an MRI. Luckily no blood clots in the lungs. The cardiac folks finally showed up and thought I should be admitted. Overnight? They said I was in A-flutter. I remembered thinking that I would probably be inconvinced for a few hours in the ER. Oh what a fond memory that was turning out to be.
The cardiac folks finally had a room available in the CCU unit about 4 pm. I had showed up at the ER around 9 am, and hadn't eaten anything. Man was I getting hungry. I finally eat a muffin my wife bought at the gift store around 5:00. The first test was to see if I had clots in my legs. Bingo. I had 3 clots in my calf, although they said that the vessels where not blocked and were still circulating. That night, my heart rate was still up, so they tried a different IV, Diltiazem. That brought my heart rate down overnight while I slept, but in the morning when I woke, it went back up to 150-160. Also that morning, I had an echo done, the first since my AVR on 3/15. The good news was that my new valve was not leaking at all. YEAH. They also put me on a heparin drip.
The cardiac resident came in on Tuesday, (day 2) and told me that due to what was going on, I would probably have to stay in the hospital until at least Saturday (6 days) or Sunday (7 days). That was depressing. I reminded the resident that I had OHS two weeks earlier and they got me out of the hospital in 4 days.
On Wednesday, my heart rate stayed down in the 100-110 range for most of the day. I also got to get out of the CCU and get into a regular cardiac room. My heart rate converted into a sinus rhythm Wednesday night. The cardiac resident knew I wanted out of the hospital, and came by and talked about possibly letting me out if I was willing to give myself injections of Lovonox. That would allow my blood to be thinner while the Coumadin they were prescribing would get up to therapeutic levels. I said sure, anything to get out.
Finally I was released on Thursday, 4 days. They changed my prescription from taking Metoprolol to taking Diltiazem in pill form. I should probably have to take coumadin for a short period of time, 1 month or so.
It's just great to be home.
