Thursday, January 10, 2008

My 5.5 hours in the hospital

I posted this on the family blog, but some of you don't check that one, so I'm posting it here to cover all my bases. Yesterday, everything was going fine until I was feeding Eddie on the couch. I was doing nothing strenuous and I was watching cartoons with Tommy when I started to feel dizzy and realized that my heart had begun to race. I quickly put Eddie to bed and began trying to get my heart rate to go down by doing deep breathing and relaxation techniques but NOTHING helped. My heart would race, then slow down and skip a beat or two, then begin to race again. I realized that something was really wrong, so I hopped into the shower and quickly got ready to go. I drove to the hospital with Eddie and Tommy and called Danny when I got there. He quickly left school (it was 1:45) and came and got the kids. When I was called into triage my heart rate was still elevated and my BP was way high. 3 hours later I was able to get a bed in the ER and they did lots of blood work, an EKG, chest X-Ray and had me hooked up to a heart monitor. My blood work was great, my chest X-Ray was perfect, my heart rate had stabilized and my BP was great, but my EKG showed a suspicious dip that shouldn't be there. They were able to rule out A-fib, but they couldn't diagnose the problem in the ER so I am being sent to a Cardiologist. I will see him at the beginning of next week, and most likely I will be put on a 24-hour heart monitor to try to catch what's going on. My heart has occasionally skipped a beat, but it was nothing regular until after I had Eddie, and it got more persistent. Stress and lack of a good night's rest have probably not helped me at all. I will keep everyone posted on my condition, and let you know as soon as there's a diagnosis.

11 comments:

Missy said...

That's scary, Melinda! I hope you are doing better today and that they can figure out what's wrong and be able to stabilize it. We'll keep you in our prayers!

And if you want me to make you a blog header just send me some pics and I'll work on it. You deserve it!

Gabby said...

Eep, scary! We'll pray that everything turns out okay! *hugs*

Unknown said...

We love you Linna and will pray that they figure it out and are able to fix/regualte whatever is wrong.

If you need my help let me know!

Unknown said...

We love you Linna and will pray that they figure it out and are able to fix/regualte whatever is wrong.

If you need my help let me know!

Unknown said...

We love you Linna and will pray that they figure it out and are able to fix/regualte whatever is wrong.

If you need my help let me know!

Unknown said...

We love you Linna and will pray that they figure it out and are able to fix/regualte whatever is wrong.

If you need my help let me know!

Unknown said...

I must have really meant it cause I sent it three times......

Jennifer said...

Wow Melinda. I hope you're feeling better today and that they find out what's going on soon.

James and I will be passing throught the area on Saturday if you need anything. And I can make up a reason to be in the area any other time if you need anything.

Jennifer said...

Obviously there is no such thing as throught...that would be through...sorry.

Missy said...

Four times, actually, Mandie! ;)

Rebecca said...

Holly crap Melinda. I hope you can get some answers soon. Keep us updated, ok? You're in my thoughts and prayers.