BIDMC & me

It's weird being on the other side of the gurney.

Roommate2.0 injured his hand on Sunday night, so off we went to the ER at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, because to go to any other ER would be like cheating on BIDMC. And like a fickle mistress, this visit for some banged up fingers took around 3 hours.

When they let me bring Roomie his book, I found him was stuck in a hallway, much like my first visit. Must be something special they do for sprains. (Unless it's a lonely weekday morning.) Roommate2.0 told me that he even spotted one of the nurses from my last visit, and was so bored that he thought about saying hello to her. It was a boring night. We waited for the docs to stop by, read the paper, watched the paramedics and EMT's come and go (had to wonder if one of them was the urban paramedic), and waited some more.

Anyway, we managed to escape the curse of having an ER neighbor with some sort of bodily function issue, when in rolled K_____. He appeared fast asleep (or unconscious) when they settled him in one of the curtain areas nearby. The he woke up. And minor hell broke loose.

Nurse: "Get back on the bed! What are you doing?"

K___: unintelligible grumbling answer

Nurse: "You just peed on the floor!"

K___: "That's OK"

Nurse: "No it's not! Would you pee on the floor at home?!"

K___: unintelligible grumbling answer

Nurse: "Most men use a urinal or a toilet, NOT the floor"

{a few minutes later}

Nurse: "This is a urinal. it's to pee in. NOT on the floor! If you can't handle that, we'll just have to insert a catheter."

(K___'s behavior was rewarded with a new friend to sit (guard?) at the foot of the bed - an imposing man wearing scrubs who looked like he used to be a professional boxer/defensive end/hockey player. )


Oh, and we found a runner up to Hairball Guy - We've dubbed her Exorcist Lady. Only she managed to sound scarier than Linda Blair in the Exorcist. Her "chanting" made every staffer near the central desk area perk their heads up. Then a few of them started saying something about a Psych consult not being there yet.

Modern medicine

Holy shit, modern medicine is amazing! A little over a week ago, doctors at BIDMC fixed my heart... without cracking open my chest. The only side effect- some serious bruising on my thighs where they slid some wires into the two branches of the femoral vein.

UPDATE:
Almost a year later, but I just found this blog post that does a decent job of describing what it's like to have an EP Study. (Wish I'd gotten anesthesia. And the Valium. I got a sleeping pill after puking all day in my post-op room when they decided that I needed to be observed overnight.) I have to say that I did not think that the Cath Lab at BIDMC looked dingy at all. My only complaint - it was very cold.

What is Telemetry?

Telemetry - the unit of a hospital where patients' vital signs and heart rates are closely measured

Friday's fainting spell sent me back to the Beth Israel Deaconess ER. They admitted me to the Telemetry/Cardiac Unit. Here's what was running through my mind as they wheel me in - I'm 28. Am I seriously being admitted to the Cardiac Unit? Isn't that mainly for old people? This is really scary.

For all I might bitch about in regard to the ER, this place was like a whole different hospital. Even though it was a weekend I did not feel like I got the B Team. The doctors, nurses and aides were wonderful, knowledgeable, compassionate, and professional. It was very scary for me to be there, but they did their best to make me feel as normal as possible while still hooked up to various machines.

Highlights (I'm trying to see the brighter side of things)

• They figured out what was wrong with me. On a Saturday.
  
• Getting to see an ElectroPhysiologist. Some hospitals make you wait until a weekday to see a specialist.
• Discussing world politics with one of my CNA's. She's from Nigeria. It was enlightening. Seriously.
• Being reassured by a nurse that I'm not the only person under the age of 50 to have been admitted there in the past decade. She said it's not uncommon for younger people to have cardiac issues.
  
• Unhealthy hospital food. I made it my mission to order the least healthy options available, but to always add a green salad or fresh fruit cup.Since I wasn't on a cardiac diet I had free range to order whatever I wanted. My meals included such nutritious options like chicken fingers, a side order of fries, chocolate cake, pancakes (with real syrup and real butter), grilled cheese.

They let me go home until my procedure on Wednesday. Yay! I'm not a prisoner of the hospital any longer. Not to mention that I would've gotten fat eating so many unhealthy meals.

More adventures in the Beth Israel ER

On Wednesday night serious heart palpitations sent me to the Beth Israel ER. I walked in, told the triage nurse what was wrong, she took my pulse and then all these people in scrubs swooped down on me and quickly wheeled me to a room (same room as I was in for my sprained wrist last month). Apparently, it's not every day that they see someone walk into the ER unassisted who looks totally normal but has a resting pulse rate of 190.

What comes next is what I remember among the confusion.

I was hooked up to a variety of machines while the Residents swarmed around trying to find a vein for an IV. I've got small veins and am tough to stick, even for a pro. At one point, each hand was being examined by a Resident, and I was informed that they were still looking for a spot for the IV.

Lyss: "So, you're both going to stick me at once until someone finds a vein?"
Residents: "Yes"
Lyss: "No. How about one of you tries and if that person can't get a vein then the other person gets to poke at me with needles?"

I give them credit for listening to me.

Eventually it's determined that they must give me a med called Adenosine to break my screwy heart rhythm since the usual breathing techniques have failed to stop it. This is a drug that stops your heart for a fraction of a second. "You might feel kind of nauseous, for like 10 seconds" says an ER staffer.

Nausea is not what follows as the drug is pushed into to the IV (that they finally were able to place) in my wrist. Burning. Like a fireball exploding and incinerating my body, which grows stiffer by the second. I am conscious, waiting for the peace of a blackout that never comes. Searing heat spreads and then is suddenly gone. I go limp. No nausea at all. Not an experience I'd care to repeat.

Bad news. The drug didn't lower my hear rate by much. I am at the mercy of these people in scrubs who are talking about giving me another, higher, dose. The drug is pushed again. Same searing hot pain, but it lasts longer this time. Great. This isn't stressing me out or anything.

By this time a crowd has gathered in my little curtained hellhole. I am not sure what's so interesting about me. It's a busy night in this urban ER. Don't they have a shooting or stabbing to attend to? I survey the scene. So many people in such a small space staring at me is only freaking me out more. "All these people in here is not helping my heart rate go down," I say (though 'yell' might be a more accurate term).

I can't remember too much after that, as they finally found that elusive third dose in a crash cart and gave it to me again. Pain. Fire. Stiffness. Third time's a charm. Sort of. The group has mostly dispersed. I am told that they will be giving me another drug, a beta blocker to get my heart rate down more.

They did let me go home eventually. Gave me a script for beta blockers. Told me to see my doctor the next day. I did.

However, I ended up back in the ER on Friday after passing out at work. No more Adenosine, thankfully. They admitted me, and I have to say that the Telemetry Unit was a much more positive, less scary experience. Well, for a hospital experience anyway.

The highlights (or lowlights) of my visits last week include:
*hairball guy - located right outside my curtained area was some guy making sounds I'd only heard cats make right before expelling a giant furball
*howler - interspersing my ordeal was someone screaming with the ferocity of a caged animal form somewhere else in the ER
*pukey - the guy on the stretcher next to me in triage (this was during Friday's visit after fainting at work) was handed a basin and told to vomit in there if he had to. He mad noises similar to hairball guy before they wheeled me away.
* I have yet to visit the BIDMC ER and have my next door neighbor be someone other than a patient with a bowel or bladder problem. I overheard entirely too much about the plumbing of my ER neighbors. There is no privacy here.

Accident prone

Sprained wrist = less blogging, typing

Only a 3-hour visit to the Beth Israel ER this time. Better experience than my last trip there.