G
Guest
Everything overall with my recovery is going well. My appetitite is picking up, I'm using less vicodin, my incision looks great, the sterry strips are starting to fall off, bruises are healing, I'm walking almost every day, and I'm only getting up about 3 times a night rather than 6.
My heart rate started taking off in spurts Thanksgiving day, return to normal and nothing more. Yesterday, we went to the mall to get my walk in because it was cold out and I felt fine. After being home about an hour, I was talking with my neighbor and my heart took off, lasted about a minute, came back a few minutes later, then disappeared. About 1:00 a.m., it woke me up from sleep and would not stop. Very irregular, flopping all over my chest, and uncomfortable. I had no shortness of breath or chest pain. Called the on call cardio at 1:15 a.m., explained what was going on and he told me to increase my beta blocker, if it did not stop, call my cardio in the morning and let him know, he may need to see me. I fell back to sleep after a couple hours only to wake again about 3:00 a.m. and I was up the rest of the night.
I had my INR test this a.m. at the same place my cardio had my echos done. I had to wait for the office phones to open and called at 8:00 a.m. His nurse said he was at this location doing stress tests this a.m. and she would call him, tell him what was going on and call me back on my cell. Sure enough 10 minutes later she called and said he will see me at 9:15 a.m. When they hooked me up to the EKG, my heart rate was initally at 165, BP 102/70. My cardio came in and said my heart rate was now up to 188, this happens to about 50% of valve replacement patients, the atrium becomes irritated from the surgery, atrial fib, he ran the strip, spoke with a cardiac rythm doc and was sending me downstairs to the ER, since the manuever we tried did not slow down the rate, they were going to give me a drug intraveneously to slow my heart rate.
Wouldn't you know it, by the time I got to the ER downstairs, undressed, hooked up to another EKG, and IV placed, my heart was settling down, though still going about 102 bpm. They did blood work, my potassium was low again, otherwise all looked good. I stayed there for several hours then the alarms went off and another 166 or so heart rate. I've been prescribed Flecainide, 50 mg twice a day to take in addition to my betablocker, will have a repeat EKG next Monday, and follow up with the rythm cardio 1 month later.
My chest xray showed some fluid on the left lung which is common with heart surgery so they were not concerned. I am using my spirometer every day.
I came home late this afternoon, took a nap, woke up and ate dinner.
The good news of the day: MY INR IS AT 2.7
Dang Dick Cheney, trying to steal my thunder today with his a-fib.
My heart rate started taking off in spurts Thanksgiving day, return to normal and nothing more. Yesterday, we went to the mall to get my walk in because it was cold out and I felt fine. After being home about an hour, I was talking with my neighbor and my heart took off, lasted about a minute, came back a few minutes later, then disappeared. About 1:00 a.m., it woke me up from sleep and would not stop. Very irregular, flopping all over my chest, and uncomfortable. I had no shortness of breath or chest pain. Called the on call cardio at 1:15 a.m., explained what was going on and he told me to increase my beta blocker, if it did not stop, call my cardio in the morning and let him know, he may need to see me. I fell back to sleep after a couple hours only to wake again about 3:00 a.m. and I was up the rest of the night.
I had my INR test this a.m. at the same place my cardio had my echos done. I had to wait for the office phones to open and called at 8:00 a.m. His nurse said he was at this location doing stress tests this a.m. and she would call him, tell him what was going on and call me back on my cell. Sure enough 10 minutes later she called and said he will see me at 9:15 a.m. When they hooked me up to the EKG, my heart rate was initally at 165, BP 102/70. My cardio came in and said my heart rate was now up to 188, this happens to about 50% of valve replacement patients, the atrium becomes irritated from the surgery, atrial fib, he ran the strip, spoke with a cardiac rythm doc and was sending me downstairs to the ER, since the manuever we tried did not slow down the rate, they were going to give me a drug intraveneously to slow my heart rate.
Wouldn't you know it, by the time I got to the ER downstairs, undressed, hooked up to another EKG, and IV placed, my heart was settling down, though still going about 102 bpm. They did blood work, my potassium was low again, otherwise all looked good. I stayed there for several hours then the alarms went off and another 166 or so heart rate. I've been prescribed Flecainide, 50 mg twice a day to take in addition to my betablocker, will have a repeat EKG next Monday, and follow up with the rythm cardio 1 month later.
My chest xray showed some fluid on the left lung which is common with heart surgery so they were not concerned. I am using my spirometer every day.
I came home late this afternoon, took a nap, woke up and ate dinner.
The good news of the day: MY INR IS AT 2.7
Dang Dick Cheney, trying to steal my thunder today with his a-fib.
