v-tachs and heart monitors

I spent the last 24 hours learning about v-tachs and heart monitors in emergency at Shuswap General Hospital. During a visit to the Doctor on Saturday morning, I asked him to take John's blood pressure. To everyone's amazement it was 80 over 64!! "No wonder you're feeling tired and have low energy" quipped the Doctor. "I think that I'll send you over to emergency right away."

Nurse Ken led us to a curtained area in the "new" emergency department and soon he had John in a hospital gown, swaddled in bed and hooked up to a monitor that constantly displayed his heart rate and frequently took his blood pressure. Throughout the afternoon, his heart rate dropped to below 40 beats about 50% of the time. Each time, lights flashed and bells rang. Nurse Ken finally changed the setting so that the light show only happened below 35 beats.

Technicians took blood samples, hooked him up for a cardiogram, xrayed his chest, measured his oxygen. He was poked and prodded before being left to doze in the midst of an ever changing hubbub. Patients came and went. It was interesting to overhear the number of smokers who were admitted with chest pain and breathing problems.

I finally left him with ear plugs and the hope that he could sleep.

Arriving back this morning, he told me that he'd had a v-tach in the night and everyone had come running to check on him. What the hell was a v-tach?? While I was keeping him company, he dozed off and the monitor went into another light and sound display but no one came running. I noticed that his heart rate had jumped to 86. The nurse explained later that this was another v-tach so he probably wouldn't be coming home today. They would want to monitor him for another day and night.

I left him again to research v-tachs and grab some lunch. The information that I found seemed too serious for my head to deal with. I turned off the computer and headed back to the hospital. When I arrived, the Specialist had visited and decided to send John home with a change in medications. His heart rate had returned to normal with removal of one drug over the 24 hour period and his blood pressure was good.

Still dizzy and weak, he managed to climb the stairs and fall into bed. Hopefully, he will gain strength and start to feel more normal over the next few days as the stress wears off, the fatigue disappears and the new medication kicks in.