Update

Good Morning Family, I had a real scare yesterday and it is not totally over yet. As many of you know, I developed atrial fibrillation after WLS and was cardio-verted in November, 2004. With my pulmonary hypertension I am never supposed to lift anything over 5 lbs. Yesterday morning I was watching my year old granddaughter and picked her up. She's quite dainty but definitely weighs more than 5 lbs. I became short of breath--this is normal for someone with PH. The shortness of breath did not go away and it felt like racehorses were charging through my chest. Like many of us, I went ahead with my daily activities, but did call my pulmonologist. He told me to go to the ER and get an EKG posthaste. Yes, the bending over and lifting my granddaughter caused me to revert to atrial fibrillation. My heart rate was 150-160 with lots of irregularities. Each beat is not pumping the blood through effectively. We have a very small hospital here and the ER doc was the same one I saw with my GI bleed who did not treat that aggressively. So naturally he did not treat this aggressively. He did not do anything, but have blood drawn for labs and have an IV started until he talked to a cardiologist (glad I wasn't having a heart attack). I'm scheduled to see my cardiologist at the end of this month, so it was decided to try to chemically cardovert me with IV Diltiazem. It lowered my heartrate for about 5 minutes, but did nothing for the irregularity. So after 6 hours in the ER I came home with a prescription for a medication to slow my heart. I am to use that until I see my regular cardiologist. This morning my heartrate is somewhat slower--down to the 90-100's, but I am still short of breath (my oxygen saturation is absolutely normal) and I can feel periods of racing. I will have to deal with this for 2 weeks. I am exhausted. I am not to exercise at all until I see my doc on the 28th and that sucks. I am retaining fluids because my heart is not working right so I have to be really careful to monitor my lungs (thank goodness I ma an RN and can listen to my lungs and tell whether the are "wet" or not). On a good note, however. I only had a banana yesterday morning and I did not get anything to eat at the hospital until 4:30, but I was not hungry and did not even think of food. Normally, that's all I would have thought about. Monna

Hi Monna, That is scary! My goodness, I'm glad that you are doing better than yesterday. I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers. Take Care, Teah

Hi Monna, What a frightening experience! Hope they can manage to get this under control for you. Even though I would give anything to have a day where I only eat a banana, this is definately going to the extreme to reduce your food intake!! Please keep us posted, and take care of yourself! Gail D.

I hope everything ends up just fine and dandy for you. Take care of yourself!

Monna, I'm really sorry that you're having this trouble. Go easy on yourself, and take care. I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers that this passes quickly. I'm sure you must be exhausted and worried. Hang in there. Irene

Oh Monna - I'm so sorry you're going through this! I'll be keeping you in my thoughts and prayers for sure! Be easy on yourself and take good care!! Hugs, Nancy

Monna! Please take good care of yourself. I'm glad you're a nurse and know firsthand what to do. You're in my prayers. Please keep us posted and above all... take it easy!!! Hugs! Denise

Sweet Monna, I am so sorry to hear about your ordeal. Please take care of yourself. I will be keeping you in my thoughts and prayers. Mary

Dear Monna, So sorry to hear about your situation. PLEASE take good care of yourself, and do keep us posted on your progress. You have been such a trooper through everything, I'm positive you can lick this ordeal no problem. You're in our thoughts and prayers. All the love, Jeff