A Not So Ordinary Week

Mom called me at work Monday afternoon to say, "How high does your heart rate have to get before it is considered dangerous?"  I knew that couldn't be good.  So Monday night we did this...

And because you can never be too safe in the hospital, we did this too...

Since it is such a busy flu season, the hospital is full and Dad had to stay in the Emergency Department for 16 hours while we waited for a bed to open up.

We arrived in the Emergency Department at 9:00 pm Monday night and finally moved into a room on the cardiac floor around 2:00 pm the next day.  

Dad's heart is out of rhythm; he is in Afib. He also is having atrial flutters.  At one point yesterday they told him he wasn't allowed to lift a finger without asking them.  He had gotten up to comb his hair and the Rapid Response Team came flying into the room to see what was going on.  His heart rate had gotten so high that his monitor (wireless) was setting off alarms at the nurse's station.  It took me a moment to realize why everyone was running into the room because, thankfully, we don't hear the monitor.  

I'm SO thankful to be in a room where we don't have to see or hear the monitor.  When we were in the Emergency Department, we had to listen to constant alarms from his blood pressure being so high and his heart being out of rhythm.  Not knowing anything about how to read one, listening to the alarms were torture.  The scrolling lines were going haywire.  At one point, I was watching one of the lines go flat.  I thought, "He's dying".  But, then I realized he was talking and laughing so I decided that I would no longer look at the screen.  

Dad is being his usual sweet and funny self.  He loves to tease with the nurses and the food staff.  So many of the staff have popped in to see how he is doing.  They remember him from last fall when, well, you know.  

The Electrophsyiologist (yes, I learned a new term) is thinking that they may shock his heart tomorrow to try to get it back into rhythm.  I'll keep you posted.