My night in the ER.

[Christina]

My husband and I spend last night in the emergency, and didn't get home until 6AM this morning. I had been feeling fine all day yesterday and did a lot of things. My daughter and I walked an exercise track 5 times in the afternoon and I felt fine doing that. There was a little bit of a chilly breeze but we just ignored that. I don't think it had anything to do with what I am about to tell you.
I started feeling bad around 7PM, and after that it went from bad to worse. About 9PM I couldn't stand it anymore and we decided to head to the emergency and find out what the trouble was. We didn't want to take any chances. I was afraid I was having a heart attack or that something was wrong with the valve.
They triaged me and did an ECG right there. The pain I was feeling then was about a 6, 10 being the worst. I think the ECG must have been normal because after sending me back to the lobby and waiting another 3 hours, they finally called me in.
I was having excruciating cramping pains in the chest and upper body by then and moving around was extremely difficult. The pain was so bad that I started to hyperventilate. Pain level had increased to a 9 by then, 10 being the worst. They put me on oxygen shortly after that, because my breathing was labored. That helped quite a bit. The pains were squeezing chest muscle spasms and it affected my whole upper body. I just felt horrible!
Well, they did the usual things like blood work and my INR came back quite high (5.7). I had just checked it last Monday and my results were 3.7, but as most of you well know with Coumadin anything can happen and everything interferes with that medication . So I have to be careful and keep my vitamin K intake the same every day.
They also did another ECG, X-rays and a Ct-scan. After waiting for many hours again for all these results to come back, they told me that everything came back normal. That made me feel better. But why was I having these terrible pains in the chest?
Want to hear this one?
My regular PCP asked me a few weeks ago to try out "Actonel" for Osteoporosis. I have a bit of Osteoporosis in the spine. He gave me two samples to try and this medicine needs to be taken once a day (5mg) or once a week (35mg). He gave me the once a week. I took it a week ago Saturday and this past Saturday on an empty stomach, as was stated. You know what one of the side effects was? Chest pains. The doctor did not come right out and tell me that this medicine caused all this, but I know better. Everything came back normal, so it had to be the medicine.
See, my point is, you have to be so careful when taking medicines. They can be very powerful and make you very sick.
I am doing okay today. Am taking it easy and am not going to work all week. Pain is not completely gone and when breathing it hurts, but far not as bad as it was last night.
Needless to say, I am not going to fill the prescription of Actonel that was given to me. For the people that are not familiar with these meds, Actonel is a close relative of Fosamax.

 

[fyrfytr]

Hey Christina,
I was surprised to read your post, as you sounded fine at chat yesterday. I am sorry to hear you had to spend the night in the ER but sounded like they made sure they covered everything and that you are doing OK.
It is amazing how different meds will give us different side effects.
Again, I am glad to hear you are doing OK.
Take Care

 

[Nancy]

Wow, Christina--

What a scare! I'm glad you are feeling better.

It puzzles me as to what the mechanism for this medication is that causes people to have chest pains. Sounds like it really does something strange to the system, or is it that it causes muscle spasms. That's can't be good for your heart since it's a muscle.

Gosh, there's always some kind of price to pay.

 

[Marge]

Wow. When you got the sample, SOMEBODY should have told you what the possible side-effects are -- because it looks like chest pain is a not-uncommon side-effect of "fosamax." It's related, apparently to a "digestive reaction" some people have to the drug.
Looking up the product information for fosamax, I found this:
<< Some patients may develop severe digestive reactions including irritation, inflammation or ulceration (occasionally severe and/or with bleeding) of the esophagus (the tube that connects your mouth with your stomach). These reactions can cause chest pain , heartburn or difficulty or pain upon swallowing. .... >>
More at
http://www.fosamax.com/fosamax/cns/product_info/ppi_weekly/ppi_weekly.html

 

[LUVMyBirman]

Hi C,

I am so sorry to hear it. But happy you are ok.
As you are aware..Fosamax is very powerful. So much so that if you have even the slightest bit of GERD it can exasperate to the level you were at.

Ended up in the ER once with the symptoms you were describing. Thought I was having a heart attack. Every test came back normal. Few weeks later went for an upper GI. DX with GERD, i.e. acid reflux. They put me on Prevacid for awhile. Came off that and I do struggle with the symptoms from time to time. Keep a nice cool bottle of Riopan Plus in my refrigerator to help with the acid and gas. Lately it been borderline unmanageable. It may be time to go back on the Prevacid.

Hope you are doing much better.

 

[Karlynn]

Christina,
I'm really glad everything turned out fine. Thanks for the heads up on the medication issue. The next time you do something exciting, make sure it's fun too.

 

[Tony]

Christina,

I hope you continue to feel better!

Could the 35 mg dosage, once a week, be inappropriate?

 

[tommy]

A bit of a scare, huh? Glad it turned around. Medicine interaction is a huge consideration. Hope you bounce back quickly.

 

[Johnny Stephens]

1. Glad your heart is OK!
2. Yikes! Having had OHS I tend to freeze with anxiety everytime I get even the slightest twinge/tickle/ouch in my chest or arms. I imagine this must have been a very stressful ordeal to go through. Excellent advise to us all about being careful.

Glad you're feeling better.

 

[Kevin M]

That must have been terrifying.
Glad you feel better now.
The symptoms are similar to an anxiety attack also. I've had that before. It's just as frightening as anything other medical thing I've ever dealt with, right down to the numbness in the arms from hyperventilating.

I'm happy that you may have pinpointed the cause. Medicine is scary sometimes.
Kev

 

[djacq]

Oh Christina,

Wow, had me scared reading about your trip to the ER. Did they really make you wait with chest pains??

Have you gotten over the scare yet? That was awful.

I have taken Fosomax for a year now with great results and few side effects.

So glad you are ok.

Donna

 

[Bill Hall]

Christina - Sorry you had such a bad night. I can't believe you had to spend three hours before they started helping you. I wonder how they knew it was not a heart attack. They must've known, or they had some significant emergencies. At Reston hospital they talk to you immediately to make sure there is no danger, then make you wait the endless hours. Anyway, glad you are OK and resting at home.

 

[LUVMyBirman]

Have gone to the ER twice with chest pain. Two different hospitals. One had a special unit for cardiac patients. The other was a decent hospital but I was not seen for an hour. If I was having a heart attack......would have been a gonner.

What concerns me is that my GERD mimicks heart attack symptoms. If I ever do have an event.how am I going to know Another thing...did not have any of these issues prior to surgery. Either it was surgery or all of the medications I take daily. Which honestly, my vitamins are by choice since my diet with the Coumadin is kind of limited. I just can't consistantly eat a high K diet.

 

[lance]

Good morning Christine,

It's great you have recovered from your ordeal in the ER.

I have been taking Actonel for about a year now without any complications except my Coumadin levels are bizarre. Too low or too high. Oh well, such is Coumadin.

However, I wonder if the directions your doctor gave you for taking Actonel included "remain up right for an hour after swallowing the tablets"? I cannot remember any medication advising the taker to "remain upright".

I take the seven tablets followed by 16 ounces of water before breakfast--so I am certainly upright.

Apparently Actonel is favoured for patients on Coumadin.

Stay well!

 

[Christina]

Thanks to all who responded. I only post these messages for all of us to learn that taking prescription meds can have serious side effects, and to think ahead before you agree to take them. Medicine is a business and doctors/hospitals need to make money. I find that my doctor is a major pill pusher. He's probably getting some handsome kickbacks from the pharma reps.
I agreed to take Actonel just to get him off my back because he was pushing it on me. My Osteoporosis had gotten worse again over the past year, and it is not that I wasn't doing anything, but what I was doing didn't work. Obviously the calcium I was taking was not obsorbing. I now switched to a liquid calcium Citrate to see if I can make improvements in my Dexa scan next year.

It is Tuesday morning and my upper body feels bruised. My ribs still hurt and deep breathing is still painful, but for the rest I am feeling a whole lot better. I am taking the rest of the week off to make sure I get the necessary rest.

Lance... First of all I once lived in your neck of the woods so to say. Kitchener-Waterloo to be exact.
And yes, my doctor gave me the necessary instructions over the phone. He called me to inform me that my Osteoporosis had gotten worse over the past year and that I needed to do something. He sort of pushed me into this and wanting him to leave me alone I grudgingly agreed. I remember asking him about side effects and he told me to read up on it on the Internet. I read the side effects and did not like it at all but what can you do? The first dose I took was no problem. Second dose I took last Saturday morning and Sunday night I was in major trouble.

Bill Hall...My friend, I remember you so well from our wonderful reunions. You are a great man. Bill, they first do triage here in Tucson to determine the emergency, so they do talk to you. That night they had a house full with many small children and elderly people and most if not all were taken ahead of me. We kind of knew when we got there that we had a long time ahead of us, but we just struggled through it. If we would have come later, it would have been worse, I believe.

Donna. Yes, I am over the scare. I am not sure if my husband has recovered though. He said this was a major scare for him because he saw me in so much pain and there was nothing he could do.

Tony.. My doctor thought taking the 35mg once a week was appropriate. You either take the 5mg a day or 35mg a week on a day that's most convenient for you. That's what I chose. And as I mentioned in a previous post, I read all the precautions beforehand, and knew that there were side effects. I was just hoping I was not going to suffer one of them.

 

[Heather Fisher]

Christina,

I just read your post. What a scare but I'm glad you are allright. Yes, it does serve as a reminder that all drugs have side effects and we need to be sure to monitor our reactions carefully. Thanks for the heads up and reminder.

I'll be in Tucson April 3rd through the 7th. Any chance you guys are getting together on the 6th? I'd love to see you all again!
Take care of yourself and rest!!!!
Heather

 

[ALCapshaw2]

WOW Christina !

Did you report your 'adventure' to your PCP?

I can't believe your hospital made you wait 3 hours, especially after talking with a Triage nurse.

Whenever someone presents with chest pains at our local hospital, they go to the top of the list in getting into the ER.
You may want to discuss this with your Cardiologist and Surgeon to see if they can change the ER admitting policy. One good Law Suit should get someone's attention!

'AL'

 

[Gisele]

I hope you are feeling better. I can't believe that they made you wait for three hours with chest pain..........thank goodness everything worked out OK.

Take it easy this week, and get back to normal soon.........

 

[Debrinha GT]

chest pain

chest pain

Hi Christina, I'm glad you're feeling better now and I must say that if I had been in your place, I'd probably have had a heart attack caused by the fear itself. I myself had the ambulance called to the house because of a strong episode of tachycardia on Tuesday night as a result of an argument with a neighbour who came to the door to pour abuse on me because of my dog. I got awful upset which made my husband mad. He then started shouting out in the building and well, I got even more worked up so, after that, he decided to call for an ambulance. The doctor came and said I was under a lot of stress and told me to take my propranolol and I would be OK. Well, after all that there's no way we can remain in this place among such hostile people so, we're moving out on Tuesday and to a house this time. I really do hope that from now on I can have some peace! Débora

 

[ccrawford]

Christina - Glad you are feeling better. As a general guideline, anyone who is taking Coumadin should: 1. Have in their possession several sources of material that describe the interactivity of Coumadin with other drugs, herbs, and foods. 2. Always religeously read the complete data sheet that comes with any drug they are required to take. 3. Never take the word of anyone (regardless if they may be a health care professional or not) regarding the safety of a drug and its interaction with Coumadin. 4. Always make a point to start taking a new (required) drug about a week before your next INR test as a general indication of whether or not there is an interaction. Be prepared to test more frequently when you start a new drug or heabal supplement. All of the above may seem like overkill, but I don't think it is. Even the best of physicians forget sometimes that Coumadin is a real sneaky drug. Some of the health care professionals never did learn about Coumadin. You, and only you are the final defense in the process of keeping you healthy. Pretty good sermon for a Sunday nite huh ? Amen. Chris