hospital stay
Last week I had a couple of episodes of seriously racing heart (145-ish) with very low o2 (80%-ish). My pulmonologist wanted me to go to the ER, so when it happened a third time, I did. That was the afternoon of Thursday the 6th. Henry drove me to Washington Hospital in Fremont, and they admitted me right away, as they always do when you show up with heart problems!
They diagnosed me with atrial fibrillation. Yay, a brand-new condition! They got my heart stabilized fairly quickly with IV amiodarone, and took chest x-rays and an echo. I had fluid built up around my lungs because my heart was inefficient, so they put gave me a diuretic, which is NOT FUN when you’re hooked up to a bunch of machines! I started out in the ICU ward, but because I was a “walky-talky” patient (mobile and alert) they moved me to a private ICU room with a bathroom, thank goodness. They kept me in the ICU because of all my other underlying conditions. For example, I needed to stay on 6 liters of oxygen even after my heart had calmed down, because of my PAH, and my BP is permanently low. The ICU nurses were great! Najib, Shaina, Karla, Joseph, and Heather. They trusted me to detach from and reattach to the monitors and machines when I needed the bathroom.
After a day on IV amiodarone, they put me on tablets and observed me for another day. At this point (Saturday) they were ready to move me to a regular room, when suddenly I had another bout of AFib. Horrible, horrible. So, back on the IV drugs (they work faster) for 24 hours, then stronger tablets for 24 hours, then observation in a regular “telemetry” room for 24 hours, with orders to walk around and see if that would trigger more AFib. In a telemetry room, you are hooked up to a small portable monitor, which beams your stats to the nurses’ station. Nice! My telemetry room nurses were Trang, Kim, and Priscilla.
They sent me home on Tuesday night. *whew*
All the doctors were great, but especially Dr. Ahmad, the intensivist. He was kind and soft-spoken and he REALLY listened to me. He kept in touch with my pulmonogist at UCSF to make sure I was getting the right care, AND he already had some experience with PAH so my meds and symptoms weren’t a mystery to him.
The worst part of the whole thing, besides the usual hospital sleep-deprivation, was that my Uptravi reactions were so terrible while I was there. Hours and hours of painful hot-face and full-body aches and crushing fatigue almost every day. I don’t know if it was worse because of the stress of being in the hospital, an interaction with one of the other meds they gave me, or if they accidentally missed giving me one dose of Uptravi (I suspect this is the case, since the reactions continue to be terrible even though I’m at home). Awful, awful, awful.
The food was pretty great. Most days I had three quite edible meals, and along with most lunches and dinners they gave me two salads and fresh pineapple at my request! I gained 8-10 pounds while I was there so I’m up to 129 and no longer severely underweight, just a little underweight.
Now I have followups with my pulmonologist, a cardiologist, and endocinologist (my thyroid levels were a bit high, which could have contributed to the whole thing). Eventually, when I’m stable, we can go back to the Remodulin plan, which has of course been postponed. Grr. But at least the nurse came and trained me and Henry on how to start an infusion site, and how to fill, attach, and program the medication pump.
Thanks, Washington Hospital in Fremont, and thanks to your great staff! Also thanks to the ACA which allowed me to buy an insurance plan which will cover all but about $500 of this whole adventure (when I went in, I was already at $3500 of my $4000 out-of-pocket max for the year, and I have no deductible.)
Category: Blog 8 comments »
April 27th, 2017 at 1:05 pm
Hey.. just heard your beautiful reading of Alice in Wonderland, came to your blog and read your hospital story. Thanks for your great reading, I hope you get well soon!
April 27th, 2017 at 1:07 pm
Hey,
thanks for your beautiful readings! I just listened to Alice in Wonderland, came to your blog and read about your hospital stay. I hope you get well soon – Gute Besserung!
Jan
April 27th, 2017 at 8:56 pm
Holy Shit: SIX liters on oxygen? That’s… rather substantial, to say the least. As to the rest: you are SERIOUSLY brave! Luck to you on recovery!
May 4th, 2017 at 5:09 am
Hi, I was listening to you reading Ordinary Jack today and wanted to listen more. So i came back here and saw you were not well. Hope you are alright now :)
Keep up the good work. And I’d love to listen to other books in the Bagthrope Saga. I listened to you reading Ordinary Jack, Absolute Zero, Bagthropes vs the World.
Love listening to you. ^_^ Take care.
May 4th, 2017 at 4:58 pm
Much love. Now I know more of the story. You are brave. What an ordeal.
January 9th, 2018 at 2:42 pm
Hello,
I stumbled across your itunes page and subscribed! I like it! One question though. I couldn’t find “This Country is Ours” part one. Does it exist somewhere I’ve not looked? I’d like to start with part one before I listen to the others.
email address is purdygood3 at yahoo dot com.
January 10th, 2018 at 8:50 am
Yup! All of my solo librivox recordings are listed here:
http://kayray.org/my-recordings/
January 20th, 2018 at 5:17 am
Wonderful orator. Truly enjoy listening to your books. Currently enjoying Our Island Story. Have listened to several other books you’ve done. Your voice always makes the book better. Be happy, be well. 😊 ðŸ‘