Unexpected hospital trip

Hi all,

Well, got through the Christmas season and had from 7 to 11 people at our house for 6 days, cooking, laundry, Wii fun and card games. The Saturday after New Year's Day I started out to go to the grocery, the bank and to stop at a fitness center to talk about a six week course that my mother in law bought me for Christmas.

Was talking about what I would be doing with my limited endurance and suddenly said "I have to sit down". Sat at a table and put my head down and the next thing I knew my husband was there and also the paramedics. My BP had plunged to 50/30 and remained there all the way to the hospital and I was lying on the floor not knowing quite where I was. They shuttled me off to the heart center saying "We don't want you to go home and go to sleep and not wake up". That convinced me I should go and be checked out.

They did blood tests including Cardiac Enzymes which were inconclusive for a heart attack. The Troponin (sp) was elevated at the second and third blood draw. They did a echo and haven't heard the results yet. They wanted me to stay a third day to have a chemical stress test which I did and then they said they couldn't do it that day and I would have to stay another. Meanwhile the money meter was running and I said I wanted to be discharged and have this done as an outpatient with my own cardio. They dismissed me Sunday and today (Monday) I am very pale and weak and SOB.

I was very unhappy about the way they handled everything. Saw three different cardios and they all disagreed on the treatment and didn't know all my background on that short a notice. I had to discontinue Lasix because of a sulfa allergy and no one Rx'd anything else.

I was in the prestigious Heart Center and didn't have my room cleaned or trash emptied for three days, had to ask for water...no one came in to check if I needed any and didn't have my Coumadin dispensed with the rest of my meds. I thought I would probably have a heart incident while waiting for someone to take charge, so got discharged and will follow up with my doctor. So far he has not received any of the lab work.

Now that all the charts are on the computer, it is easy for everyone involved to access them, but they take up a lot of time that would have been spent with the patient while they walk around like pod people with their computers on rolling stands. I felt like I was in for an oil change.

Now that I have vented, I will update this when I see the cardio's PA tomorrow. Yes, you must see him first to see if you qualify to have a real cardiologist see you. Into the computer age....yikes!

JOY