Main problem now - severe insomnia

[Tovah]

Thank you for all your thoughtful replies.

I guess that the reason that I'm mainly worried is because in the rehab hospital, he hit his finger on the edge of a metal object which then became quite infected. We did go into the er and they prescribed antibiotics. His finger in that spot is still quite red. Could the infection have reached his heart?

Please...any help now.

 

[Greg a]

My cardioogist just had me attend a sleep clinic for a sleep study for sleep apnea that he feels is causing my daytime fatigue

 

[Ruth]

I had severe insomnia during the post op phase when I was in a fib. I would get up and read. Often I couldn't sleep until 5am! I'm one of those "out by midnight" people naturally. It also may have been linked to my taking amioderone which made me jittery (but never fixed the afib). Insomnia made me sooooo frustrated but like all the other bumps it did pass with time. Do call the doc....

Best, Ruth

 

[Tovah]

Thank you!

 

[dcc617]

I had insomnia as well. The other issue I had was (for lack of a better term) tension. My body would tense up and I felt anxious. It seems to be better. But it was really nerve racking for a few weeks.

 

[Bryan B]

Bryan, I'm so sorry for all you went through, however, why would it take them 4 months to figure it out? Wouldn't they do the blood tests, or whatever the first line of treatment is, first? Was that before or after your VSD repair?

Tovah,

At the time I wasn't seeing a cardiologist. I had moved from NC to TN for a job and I neglected to find a cardiologist for regular followups because I was down to visits every 3 years (my condition was very stable). It was my general practitioner who was treating me and he did do white count blood tests that were elevated but not that far out of "normal", but he didn't have a baseline for what my normal was. Normal is considered 5-10 and I was at 11. I found out later by looking at my old medical records that "my normal" is 7. Then as I got worse it kept creeping up (either 13 or 15 when admitted I don't remember exactly). I also had sub-acute endocarditis so it was a gradual worsening. Like I have said a lot of the symptoms mimic other less serious illnesses and most general practitioners rarely see cases of endocarditis. After a few months it actually dawned on me that it might be endocarditis and suggested it to him. A couple of weeks later he did blood cultures that came back positive in less than 24 hours and then an echo confirmed it. This happened before my VSD repair. The VSD was also causing one of my aortic leaflets to prolapse so it was a setup for the "perfect storm".