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.

ER adventure

I ended up at the ER on Saturday night after trying to put some weight on my foot and having it cause LOTS of pain. By the time I got out of the house and to the car, hopping on one foot, it was about 7:45pm or so. Night in the ER was long, yet sort of an adventure. Roommate took me for rides up and down the hall. On my gurney. We were there until after midnight. I now have a soft splint and crutches and have stayed home from work today. This loss of freedom and independent movement sucks.

A quick recap our adventure (my first time being the patient in a big city ER):

• As I limped/hopped in the doors of the ER an agitated older gentleman was trying to flee his friends and family who had brought him in. And when I say agitated, I mean lots of arms waving and other wild gesturing. I tried my best to avoid him as I hopped (yes, hopped, anyone who wasn't staring at the flailing guy was watching my slow progress) over to the desk to register myself. Once they got me inside the desk area, seated in a wheelchair, the agitated man took off again, nearing knocking down Roommate, who was walking into the ER after parking the car. Like eight staffers and security people took off after the elderly gentleman. We also overheard conversations that the man's family was having with hospital staff. From this we concluded that he might've had a stroke of some sort or a diabetic blood sugar freak out and that "the martini probably didn't help things."

• Eventually they got around to officially registering me., ordered X-rays and then they told me that I couldn't eat until X-rays were done. Bastards! I mean how could this possibly effect the outcome of my X-rays?
  

• Roomie went out to get food at the only place open in that area- Au Bon Pain. Thankfully he soon returned with a corn muffin and croissant. Mediocre pastries never smelled so good! Any business that is located near the Beth Israel ER could make a killing by staying open late, especially on weekends. I don't know why more don't.
  

• No room at the inn- this means that I got put on a gurney in the hallway. Busy hallway too. I was like a curiosity in a museum.
  

• I did get to observe the goings-on in my unit. Like the agitated elderly woman waiting for her nursing home to pick her up. They came to claim her around midnight. Turns out she's 90! This woman didn't look a day over 80 and, except for her agitation, seemed kind of clearheaded. She only wanted to stand and wait by the nurses station. They would not let her, as they have to keep patient privacy a priority.

• A student at a local college had gotten trampled at a free punk show of some kind. That had to suck. She also messed up her ankle.
  

• Nurses seemed nice and competent. It took forever to see a doc and when a guy came to transport me to X-ray, I insisted upon going even without having seen a doc yet. I'd been told by a nurse that ankle X-rays had already been ordered by someone. This set of X-rays was for my ankle.
  

• By the time our area of the ER (the Blue area) was pretty empty, no one seemed to care what you do. This would be when Roomie was taking me for gurney rides up and down the hallway. We also tried to see how high the gurney could go and I had almost touched the ceiling when a nice young man came to get me for my second set of X-rays.

• Second set of X-rays: the head resident seemed to think that I might've broken a bone in my foot and they needed slightly different angles to see. Oy vey! More contorting of my body and swollen foot. Just what I wanted after being there for over four hours.

• Doctors were probably younger than me (I'm 27). Kind of a scary thing, as it took 3 of them to get the splint formed and on my foot. That hurt. Roommate's girlfriend was nice and held my hand through it.

After they finally finished putting my splint on, it was 1:30am. Where does one find food in Boston at that time? IHOP. Wow, was that place ever a melting pot at 2am. Eurotrash, students, urban youths, bikers. You'll find them all eating pancakes and bacon at the IHOP in Brighton.

I hope this is all coherent. The pain pills are making me a bit silly and sleepy. Much thanks to Roomate and girlfriend for coming with me and keeping me sane.

Tags: ER, hospital, pain, X-ray, Beth Israel, doctor, nurse, medicine, health, sprain