Hello new friends,
On April 4th at 4:00 a.m. I went into full cardiac arrest.
My wonderful husband began CPR and saved my life.
I was rushed to the ER and then flown to a bigger hospital in Birmingham, AL. They were amazing! I remained in CCU for four days while they stabilized me. Not an easy task. VERY scary!
Fast Forward......
I am just wondering how other people continue their lives. Did you take off work? I am 45 and a 6th grade teacher, so my job is very stressful. I guess you could say that I was lucky this happened at the end of the year. I only had to work one week after I got out of ccu and then had Spring Break. I worked one more week after that, but ended up taking the last two weeks of the year off.
I am now worried about going back. What does everyone else do or think?
By the way, I am on Nadolol, which seems to exhaust me. I am still running in the high 400's to low 500's.
My meds were cut down last week due to a low pulse rate (40's) and feeling like I was blacking out.
I have many other questions, but I'll try not to drive everyone crazy. Thanks
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life after sca
- By Tch4fn
- Posted June 13, 2009 at 4:48 pm · 5 replies
- In Surviving SCA
- Shared with the public
- Edited June 14, 2009 at 8:32 pm
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- By sgriggs89
- Posted June 14, 2009 at 10:33 am
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Wow! We have lots of similarities. I'm a 38-year-old library media specialist in Arab, Alabama, with 2 small kids at home. My husband was also my hero who performed CPR until our local fire & rescue guys shocked me around 5 times in our driveway. I was taken to Huntsville Hospital by helicopter from our local medical center. My SCA was March 5th, and I took off the rest of this school year. I plan on returning when we start back in August, but may have returned sooner, as you did, if I were a classroom teacher. I follow-up with my new cardiologist/electrophsiologist at the Heart Center in Huntsville (I think he was recruited from UAB!). My cardiologist found the "cause" of my ventricular fibrillation and SCA when he implanted my ICD, and he plans to perform a cardiac ablation if I experience another event. Did yours? We didn't discuss my children at my 6-week check-up, but my husband and I plan on addressing that issue at my next exam. How is your short-term memory, decision-making skills, etc.? I seem to be fine considering I was in a coma, posturing, with no deep tendon reflexes when I arrived in Huntsville. What about you? Good to hear from you!!!
- By Mary1
- Posted June 14, 2009 at 11:00 am
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Weird! Is there something about working in schools and/or with children that contribute to this!
I had my first SCA almost 3 years ago, while on summer vacation. I am a special education teacher, 5th grade. It was July and I was slated to go back to school in September. My cardiologist felt I was fine. I didn't! I had barely begun to function with day to day tasks. I would be exhausted after taking a shower!
Luckily, my therapist agreed, and she spoke with my primary care physician, who agreed to write me out until November. At that point, I went back 1/2 time, and then full time in January. Even then, it was a tough rest of the year.
Honestly, as educators, we tend to take on a whole lot, and not always take care of ourselves. PLEASE take this as a wake-up call. See what you can do to get more time off and ease back into it if you can. I know it's harder in a school, but it CAN be done.
Good luck and keep in touch!
Mary
- By Tch4fn
- Posted June 14, 2009 at 9:04 pm
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Hi sgriggs89!
Our stories are so similar! And I was told how "special" I was, lol. Our husbands saved our lives, we teach, there was one month between our "episodes", and we both live in Alabama!
I am glad that you were able to take time off from school, it was a VERY bad idea for me to try. My classes are usually very structured and disciplined, but I felt very different. It was very hard to keep them under control after they had a substitute for a week. Knowing that loud noises, etc. could be a trigger, I was actually frightened to raise my voice to get their attention and did not really know how to explain to them what had happened to me. Once I told them that it was not exactly a "heart attack" I lost them! The normal noise on our hall was horible! It was during SAT's and the students were so excited each day after testing. The bell is outside my classroom door and jolted me everytime it rang!
Trying to explain to teachers, administration, etc. was just as hard. No one has ever heard on lqt syndrome and I really wasn't told much at the hospital to be able to explain it clearly. Everytime I tried to research in the beginning, I could only read a few lines before it overwhelmed me and I would have to stop.
As for my short term memory, for some reason it has not been very good for awhile. It hasn't changed!
I am having trouble with decisions, I think that I am in some sort of shock. Questions like "What do you want to do today?" or "Where would you like to eat?" drive me insane. I really could not care less about these things anymore. Trivial things do not bother me.
My own children are being tested for lqt. My 23 year old son (teacher/coach) and my 18 year old daughter (UA student) are both clear! Thank the Lord!
My other 21 y o daughter has just returned from student teaching in Ireland and is getting tested ASAP! I am very hopeful that she will be cleared too.
Hopefully, I am just a fluke!
Sorry this turned into a LONG story, but it is hard to find someone who has dealt with something like this!
I am so glad to find this place!
- By Tch4fn
- Posted June 14, 2009 at 9:12 pm
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Hi Mary1!
Thank you for your reply. I am very lucky with the timing. I am now out until the first of August. Hopefully by then I will feel better and more comfortable with all of this!
I always knew that teaching was stressful, but this is ridiculous! Just kidding, I think+. I may be asking more questions if you don't mind. I would like to learn as much as I can from people who are actually dealing with this. Talk to you soon.
- By sgriggs89
- Posted June 19, 2009 at 9:55 pm
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Oh, I forgot to mention that. like you, I am also taking Nadolol. Well, a low dose of 20 mg each day. Can you believe some folks take over 300 mg daily?! My family would have to scrape me up off the floor! Have you experienced any symptoms you attribute to the Nadolol other than the low pulse rate? VERY low pulse rate. Has decreasing your dose done the trick as far as your pulse returning to normal and the feelings that you might black out? The Nadolol REALLY made me feel sleepy during the day at first. I started taking my daily dose at night to see if that would help. I seem to have more energy now, but I sometimes think that I'm just getting used to feeling more tired than usual.
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