Heart attack

[natalie_ca]

I'm home, but exhausted.  When I came home I did some dishes. I had left dishes soaking last week before I went out on Thursday. Needless to say the water was stale and smelled so bad today.  I also took out all of the spoiled food from in the fridge and bagged it up.  I washed the cat's water fountain, and their food bowl and filled it with their usual amount. My neighbour was filling it to the top and Spencer is a piggy and will eat it all.  So they're back down to rations.  Then I had a nap and cuddled with Abby and Katie.  Spencer was unsure and didn't come see me.

My brother and his wife took me grocery shopping today and to pick up my medications which I needed to take this evening.  She came up and changed my bedding and took out my trash too.  Now I'm about to have something to eat and go to bed. I"m sooooooo tired.

 

[angels mommy]

  Yaaay!  So glad your home!!  Now you can really get some rest, & some much needed "Kitty therapy."  

   

 

[AbbysMom]

Do try to take it easy and get some rest.

 

[cocheezie]

You might exhaust easily for awhile. Take it slow. You're all set up now. No need to push yourself.

 

[yoohoora]

Feel better soon. 

 

[natalie_ca]

Just an update.

I got home on Tuesday and since then have been doing ok.  I've taken nitro spray a few times because I can't determine if the pain/discomfort I am getting in my back is actually chest pain, or if it's actually back pain/discomfort.  Once or twice the nitro has helped, so in those cases it was some chest pain.

I managed to get out yesterday to the vet's office to pick up some cat food.  I'm not supposed to carry more than 5 pounds for 3 weeks; the bag was 8 pounds.  But I took it slow and stopped and put the bag down frequently.  Managed well doing that.  I also got into the spare bedroom and gave the cat's area a good cleaning.  Scooped the boxes, vacuumed the rug (while sitting in my office chair) and replaced the puppy pads that I use under the boxes.   I was pretty tired after doing that and needed a nap.

I've also been sticking to my diabetic diet. I don't know if I've lost more weight or not because unfortunately I weigh more than the max weight on my scale. I'll be someplace on Friday where I can weigh myself and see.

This Thursday homecare is coming over to assess my needs for cleaning.  I was paying someone to come in, but when I went off work on disability last August I had to stop, and I haven't been managing all that well because of back pain.

Then Friday I go to one of our Wellness Centres for an information session for a Cardiac Rehab Program. It's supervised exercise by a physiotherapist, dietician support, heart smart cooking classes and overall assessments and supervision by a registered nurse.  They will also do exercise tolerance stress tests, monitor my weight and blood pressure and adjust my exercises accordingly.   I did attend this already back in 2008 when I squeaked in on a technicality so that I could get some physiotherapy so I could return to my job, which I eventually did at the end of that year. 

I absolutely loved going to the Wellness Centre.  Unfortunately my circumstances are different this time; I won't have free reign to exercise and they won't let me use the therapy pool (warm water), or the sauna or hot tub.  But I'm going to sneak in at least the therapy pool because I want to do aqua fit. I found that I absolutely LOVED LOVED that the last time. I used to do it everyday, sometimes 2 classes (45 minutes each), back to back.

One thing I've noticed since the angiogram is that I'm not as short of breath when I walk as I used to be.  Before the angiogram, by the time I walked from my apartment to the elevator, I was sweating buckets and panting.   Yesterday I was still short of breath (asthma), but no where near as bad as it used to be, and my forehead had a few beads of sweat, but nothing like before where it looked like someone threw water in my face.   I have to confess, that over the last few years when I noticed increased sweating and shortness of breath, heart issues did cross my mind, but I was too afraid to go and get it investigated. I'm one of these people who would rather not know.

 

[cocheezie]

You might want to ask if you qualify for one of those emergency distress buttons/necklaces. Just for peace of mind.

 

[natalie_ca]

When I started this thread I was using a small notebook computer and not able to type very well. Now that I'm home, feeling a bit stronger and on a regular sized keyboard, I'm going to tell you how this all started!

What started out as a lovely evening with a friend on January 15th, turned into really bad back pain which in turn became crushing pain from the middle of my back through to the middle of my sternum, easily 12/10 on a pain scale. We had gone to dinner at a Chinese buffet, then to Michael's crafts  to sign up for their cake decorating classes. I've already taken them but they have some new content and the classes were on sale for $10 each instead of $25. Plus my friend was interested in going with me.

My upper back and shoulders had been bothering me for a couple of days. Tightness and a headache. This is nothing new for me. I have a large chest, so there is a lot of strain on my upper back.  Anyway, we got to Michael's and the first thing my friend sees is a section of clearance Christmas items.  She spent 1/2 an hour looking at absolutely everything, digging through boxes and bins.  I can't stand for very long because of lower back pain, so I kept propping the cart against something solid and leaning over it to give my lower back some relief.

When we finally got to the check out, the pain had spread. Now not only did I have my usual tired lower back pain, but the upper back and shoulder pain, and something new.  An intense discomfort between my shoulder blades that wouldn't go away no matter what I did. I flopped over a counter, over a cart, touched my toes.  The pain rapidly increased and instead of just being on the exterior of my back between my shoulder blades, it felt like someone was digging their fist into my back and the pain was tunneling from the back right through to the front between my boobs.  I started to sweat buckets and buckets and buckets. I felt nauseated but not to the point of throwing up. And I felt light headed. I asked for a chair, but sitting didn't help.  This was about 8:50 PM.

At this point I still thought it was just intense back pain or indigestion from dinner.  We got back to her car. She turned on the heated seats. I couldn't get comfortable. We reclined my seat but that didn't help.  I took Alleve and some Tylenol #3.  By this time we were driving.  We got a few blocks and I told her that she needed to take me to the ER.  There was a hospital closer to where we were, but I wanted to be at the one near my house because it's the cardiac sciences hospital and they specialize in all things heart!  If I was having a heart attack, I wanted to be at that hospital. The pain pretty much remained the same intensity and the nausea would come and go.  I told her to try and get as many green lights as she could, and to not stop for the amber ones.  At one point I almost had her stop at the side of the road to call 911, but we were almost there by that time.

We got to the ER at 9:25 PM. I told them that my pain was 10/10, and all the symptoms that I had had and was still having. They did my blood pressure, gave me a baby aspirin, did bloodwork and an EKG, then sat me back in the waiting room!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   I kept asking for something for the pain, but they wouldn't give me anything until the doctor saw me.  I never did get anything for the pain even after the doctor saw me.

At 10:30 PM, the pain had started to go away. I figured the Tylenol and Alleve were finally kicking in.  By 10:50 PM, the intense pain was pretty much gone but I still had that deep discomfort between my shoulder blades.

I was finally taken to the back at midnight, over 2 1/2 hours after I first arrived.  I was connected to telemetry to monitor my heart. I was told a doctor would be in shortly to see me.  More bloodwork, an EKG and a chest xray were done at 2:30 AM.   The doctor FINALLY came to see me at 3:15 AM. He told me that I had a "cardiac event", likely a "non ischemic MI" because my blood work was elevated, but my EKG was the same.
 

Suddenly after 6 hours of them doing NOTHING, they were starting IV's, slapping on patches, shoving pills down my throat. I was having a heart attack for 6 hours while they did absolutely nothing to intervene! Now suddenly it was all urgency and was now on bed rest with constant telemetry. Until then they were allowing me to be disconnected from the machine and walk to the bathroom. Now I had to stay connected and use a commode beside the stretcher.

I have sleep apnea and told them that as soon as they took me to the back and put me on a stretcher. When I lay down or recline too much I have a hard time breathing.  When I fall asleep I wake up choking and gasping for air.  So I use a CPAP machine when I'm in bed. 

I started asking for a CPAP or a BIPAP machine around 1:00 AM because I was really tired and kept nodding off and waking up choking. I was exhausted but couldn't sleep because of that.  At 3:00 AM they still hadn't called respiratory about getting me a CPAP or BIPAP machine.  I saw the nurses were really busy. There were a lot of confused elderly people climbing out of their stretchers.  I asked the nurse for some oxygen until they could get me a machine.  Back when I worked cardiac the first thing we did was slap on oxygen when a patient said they had chest pain. I didn't get any until I asked for it.

At 4:15 AM I was so tired that I was fit to be tied. I had been up since 7:00 AM the day before.  The nurse tried telling me that they called Respiratory and was told that they don't have those machines. I know differently!! I used to work there!  I told her to tell Respiratory that if they didn't bring me at least a BIPAP machine until I could get my brother to bring me in my own CPAP machine, that I was going to call the nursing supervisor. Respiratory came down at 4:30 AM with a BIPAP machine! Amazing how that worked!

They did another EKG and more bloodwork at 7:00 AM. This time the EKG was still normal, and my bloodwork enzymes were going down instead of up. 

I was admitted to the cardiology ward at 1:00 PM on the 16th. When I got to cardiology and the nurse heard that I still had a mild deep discomfort between my shoulder blades, she gave me 2 sprays of nitro and the pain went away completely.

The rest you know.

I was surprised, disgusted and downright upset that I came into the ER with crushing chest pain and was made to wait in the waiting room for 2 1/2 hours and that the doctor didn't see me for 6 hours!  Chest pain is supposed to be #1 priority over everything else.  Once I'm feeling stronger I am calling the hospital and or governing hospital body and lodging a complaint.  I was having a heart attack for 6 hours before anything was done for me.  And angina pain for 14 hours before I was given nitro spray.


 

 

[natalie_ca]

 
You might want to ask if you qualify for one of those emergency distress buttons/necklaces. Just for peace of mind.

I've been thinking of looking into that for a long time already.  I'm a big girl and have a hard time getting up off the floor.  I fainted several years ago in my apartment, and broke my ankle and had a heck of a time getting to the couch. I have bad knees and can't crawl.  It was definitely a time I would have used an emergency button.

 

[mservant]

@cocheezie  's suggestion sounds very sensible from what you describe here.  The hospital care in ER sounds terrible and definitely worth contacting them about.  Very scary.

 

[denice]

I don't know about the ER but in this area it has become routine for ambulances with a patient possibly having a heart attack to be directed to go directly to the cath lab rather than the emergency room.

 

[cocheezie]

I agree. You should have been put on monitors then directly to the cath lab. The one time I witnessed a heart attack (already in the ER, thank goodness), treatment was immediate. Once stabilized, a code stem was called and the person went straight to the cath lab. From walking into the hospital to actual stopped berating/CPR/charge! heart attack (20 minutes); heart attack to ICU after cath lab - 1.30 hours. A CPAP was offered, but the person decided they rather have their own because she couldn't remember the calibration and the husband ran home and brought it back to the hospital. And all this was in the middle of the night. You might ask the hospital exactly what the general protocol and procedure currently is before you compose your letter.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

That sounds a lot like how I remember my Grandfather's heart attack going.  It started when he was in my father's truck and he had Dad turn around and bring him home; where my cousin and I were spending the night.  It was pretty scary for us; since we were about 9 years old I think.  I don't remember all the details; except that some friends came to drive him to the hospital.  He first changed and got into bed.  I think they realized at that point it wasn't some passing illness.  Things have come so far since then; he had to go to a hospital several hours away to have bypass surgery.  

I do think it's worth looking into what the procedure is supposed to be and then speaking to someone about it.  You never know if that will save another person's life down the road.

 

[stephjane91]

Wishing you a speedy recovery and hope you are taken good care of! X

 

[nurseangel]

Linda, I'm just reading this.  I hope you get well very soon.