Tag Archives: Heart rate monitor

Nightmare at the Hospital

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Today you will get a break from my writing. I am so tired and I feel like I can only write once today.                                                                                                                                            Blue_candlealvin

We all have at one time witnessed or been a  part of someone in great pain and maybe even dying. It is a horrendous time to go through, but we look at the end of the rainbow. We know this too shall pass. They will either get better or be pain-free in heaven.

Yesterday evening about 11pm I received a phone call from Al‘s facility. He had been suffering from chest pains. They gave him three Nitrates but it didn’t help. They were letting me know they were sending him to the ER.

I was shook up a little but sad to say I am getting used to the late night phone calls. I got dressed and went to the hospital. I beat the EMS by about five minutes.

I want to say to never get comfortable in your situation. Whether you hit the lottery, or you are barely making it, or as in Al’s case repeated trips to the ER should not be taken lightly. Life does change and when you think you got it all going on , things change.

I had never seen Al like this in my life. This pain was worse than any pain he suffers from the Parkinson’s Disease. He grabbed his chest I don’t know how many times. He cried and he kept crying out to any nurse that walked by saying, help me, help me, I am not going to make it.

He would be lying down and then all of a sudden jump up into a sitting situation. His eyes would be popping out pretty much and he would scream in pain. He was yelling my neck hurts, my chest hurts and my arms feel funny. The heart monitor went nuts. His heart was showing a heart rate at 300 many times.

They did many tests on him but the heart enzyme test came back negative. So thankfully he didn’t have  a heart attack. But in some ways I wish he would have because quite a few times people can have surgery to repair a damaged heart.

No this wasn’t going to be so simple. I was explained that there are muscles lining the heart and muscles throughout the rib cage. The Parkinson’s is fully engaged in his chest wall.

The nurse kept saying to me, his blood pressure and heart can’t take much more of this.

I was sick, not physically but mentally. My stomach hurt and burned. I couldn’t even cry I was so worried about him. To stand there holding his hand and have him tell me he wasn’t going to make it this time broke me up bad.

They couldn’t do anything for him until all the tests came back. This time period was four hours. After the doctor got the clear he gave Al an IV with morphine.  In less than five minutes he was out. The monitor calmed down and he was resting peacefully.

I looked at his gray nails and his pale face and I could not deny any longer this was serious. It was as if the Doctor read my mind. He came in and took me out in the hall. He said, Al can’t take much more of this. Although he is not having a heart attack, every time he has tremors in his chest cavity his heart is trying to adjust to the speed of the tremors. If you are planning on taking him home as you stated earlier, I suggest you get him home.

They kept Al another hour to make sure he was going to be alright from the IV. Along with his powerful pain patch, three nitrates and four baby aspirin and all the other medications in him, he had to be watched carefully.

I went outside and got in my car. It was so dark with a three-quarter moon, but yet so quiet and still. I felt funny inside and then I broke down. The problem with release was it didn’t come. Only a few tears fell and then I drove up to the front door and got Al in the car. I took him back to the facility.

I got home about five am this morning and slept for a few hours when the phone rang. It was the doctor’s office. They told me that they have increased the dosage of Al’s pain patch and have put him on another pain med.

Al seems to live on pain medications more and more and there is no hope or thought anymore that he may become addicted. I did say in an earlier post that I just wanted him as pain-free as possible and this is what the doctors are doing.

Please remember even one dollar adds up. Major credit cards accepted. If you use Pay Pal please make sure you mark it as a gift so you are not charged.

http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/too-much-pain-and-too-little-money/55964

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If I Was Younger I Would Become a Neurologist

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Tremors (TV series)

I am exhausted. I didn’t do any work today and this is why I am so tired. Instead at the crack of dawn I answered the phone. It was the nurse saying Al didn’t feel well. He was cold and clammy and was having chest pains.

Did I want to send him to the ER? Um, let me open my eyes and get my brain thought process going. What do you think? Do you think he needs to be sent in?

I really received no satisfaction so I asked her to ask Al if he wanted me to come in to see him and he said yes. I hurried and got dressed and grabbed my medicine to take with me. I figured I would just take it with a glass of water at the facility and find something to nibble on somewhere.

When I got there Al did not look good. His face was pale. He told me he felt light-headed. He also said he didn’t eat supper last night because he didn’t feel good. Then he changed it to a little bit he ate but not much, so not sure on the supper deal. The nurse didn’t seem to know anything about this.

He stated his heart was beating really fast. He was cold and clammy and his BP was 172/90. Not extreme but a big enough signal for me to ask Al if he wanted to go to the ER and he said yes.

The EMS came and got him and I left first sneaking into the gas station to buy a bottle of water and a nasty pre-packaged turkey sandwich. I ignored the tough bread and ate the turkey out of it.

Off I went to the hospital. The EMS and I met each other there. I watched them carry Al inside and then I popped my body in the waiting area. They made me wait until they got him comfortable. That is a new word for me. I don’t remember Al being comfortable for at least a year or so, but nice thought.

The nurses and doctors were disagreeing about what was wrong with him. Some said his heart, others said it was the tremors mimicking a heart attack. As before when I was there, the machine was all over the place.

Two or three nurses would come in at a time and check the sounding alarm and say, “Don’t worry, it is just his tremors.” When I told the doctor that we were here two weeks ago and the heart monitor showed his heart going clear up to 250 he told me that was impossible. I said, ” I saw it with my own eyes.”

“He would be dead if his heart beat went that high.”

“I don’t know, I am not the doctor. I just know what the numbers were saying.”

They did a Cat Scan on him to make sure his fall hadn’t damaged his head in some way. Seeing the band aid over his eye and forehead from the rug burn he acquired in the bathroom on the tile floor. It is a doozy too, let me tell you. Nice and long and looks like a rug burn for sure.

Al went from clammy to soaking wet and each time he did this his chest would hurt. The staff seemed to be stumped. They said it wasn’t his heart but they gave him baby aspirin and admitted him.

Now he is staying over nite and they are documenting and monitoring his heart. They gave him some more baby aspirin. He continued to get clammy and soaked from sweat up until I left.

His heart doctor is to be there in the morning and they are going to see if his neurologist will come in also. I don’t know what is going on. The last doctor I talked to was the admitting doctor. My grandmother was just nuts about him. I remember her speaking so highly of him for many years

He told me,” It may not be his heart causing the great fluctuation but it sure is wearing his heart down. We need to see if there is some way to calm his body down of those tremors. His heart will be exhausted at this stage of the disease.”

I had argued this point with the ER doctors before when I questioned them about the wear and tear on his heart from the massive tremors. They always stated that it was not his heart. But here is a doctor that says it is making the heart work so much harder trying to cope with the tremors. Since he is a heart patient it is going to make the heart tired.

I was exhausted so when Al wanted to go to sleep I came home. I told them to call me for anything, because I love him. Call me even in the middle of the night. They told me Al was one lucky guy to have such a loving sister. I said, “He is my brother, I could react in no other way.” They smiled and I came home and napped.

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