From the heart
Today, I discovered that the heart monitor that I'd put in the internal mail system on October 25th was still sitting in the mail room, because the mail collection/pre-sort company wouldn't take it. I'll be getting it back tomorrow, now they know it was me that put it there, and I can take it to the post office personally. That will save the $672 that the monitor company wanted to charge me because it hadn't yet been returned.
I suppose that means I should explain why I had a heart monitor.
There I was, heading off to work along highway 364 (aka the Page Extension, a relatively new road with a bridge over the Missouri river from Saint Louis to Saint Charles, easing the traffic on I-70), when a police car started following me, with flashing lights. *sigh* I got a ticket for going a little fast. And, of course, as anyone would in that situation, I had that "heart-in-the-throat" nervous feeling.
I trundled off to work, and didn't really give it another thought, except I was still feeling the same feeling a couple of hours later. When it got to lunch time, and I was still feeling funny, I took my pulse, and discovered that it was irregular.
So, I called my doctor, told her the symptoms and was told "Um... we'd like to see you... now..."
I leave work, and drive to the doctor. The technician fits me to an EKG machine and take some readings. I'm panicking - my dad has had heart problems resulting in a quadruple bypass in January 2001. The doctor takes a look at the graph, and then comes in and tells me I have Atrial Fibrillation but without telling me what that is. I'm told they are going to see if a local cardiologist can fit me in, and she leaves to make that arrangement.
While I'm in the examination room, the door is open, and I can hear what's going on outside... I hear "If he can't fit him in, we'll emergency him". That's a great thing to hear when you're already panicking.
Anyway, the cardiologist says he can fit me in, so while they are aking the final arrangements, I call work to let them know I'm not coming back today, and I also call the temp agency to let them know too. However, my cell phone battery is low, so I have to keep my calls short. While I'm on the phone to the temp agency I say "I'm at the doctor, I can't stay on the phone long as my cell phone battery is dying, they already know at [my assignment] that I'm not coming back today." However, I realise, afterwards, with the low battery and poor signal, it's entirely possible the person at the temp agency heard "I'm at the doctor... dying..." I also called my wife. I learnt that the words "I don't want to you to worry, but..." are not very good at preventing worry.
I drive to the cardiologist, not far from my doctor, and I get another EKG. Then my cardiologist comes to see me. ["My cardiologist" is a phrase I didn't think I'd need for a long time to come...] He asks me lots of questions about my symptoms. ["Do you know when it started?" "Yes at 7:17 this morning" "7:17?!" "yeah, well, that's the time on my speeding ticket..."] He explains what A-Fib is, and tells me that, subject to a couple of blood tests to confirm, I have none of the risk factors. I then head out to have an ultrasound of my heart, and it's really weird seeing my heart on the monitor with all its bits moving! I then return to the first room, and have yet another EKG. Apparently, my A-fib has stopped and my heart has returned to normal ("sinus") rhythm. If it hadn't, the cardiologist would have had me back the next day to give me an electric shock to get it back into sinus rhythm.
The cardiologist also told me that in and of itself, a-fib is not life threatening, but with the heart not pumping blood properly, the blood can pool, and if it's stagnant, it can clot. Clots can then cause strokes or heart attacks. Therefore, it's important to get an episode of a-fib treated promptly. He puts me on some medication, and a heart monitor for a month.
When I saw him again, he said that all my bloodwork came back negative, that there were no episodes recorded on my monitor (I'd had a few extra beats, but nothing to worry about), so I have none of the risk factors. I simply have to have one aspirin a day, and just be aware of if I get symptoms again. So, I'm essentially OK.
I did find out though that my visit to him had completely wiped out my health insurance deductible for the year (and when choosing our deductible last year, we'd decided that as we were both in good health, and finding finances tight, that we'd go for a higher deductible and lower payment. *sigh*) so I was going to ask their administrative staff if we could work something out. However, I was beaten to the punch - they offered to work things out with me before I could ask!
So, that's why I had a heart monitor, which will be winging its way back to where it belongs very soon now... because I can't afford for it not to.
I suppose that means I should explain why I had a heart monitor.
There I was, heading off to work along highway 364 (aka the Page Extension, a relatively new road with a bridge over the Missouri river from Saint Louis to Saint Charles, easing the traffic on I-70), when a police car started following me, with flashing lights. *sigh* I got a ticket for going a little fast. And, of course, as anyone would in that situation, I had that "heart-in-the-throat" nervous feeling.
I trundled off to work, and didn't really give it another thought, except I was still feeling the same feeling a couple of hours later. When it got to lunch time, and I was still feeling funny, I took my pulse, and discovered that it was irregular.
So, I called my doctor, told her the symptoms and was told "Um... we'd like to see you... now..."
I leave work, and drive to the doctor. The technician fits me to an EKG machine and take some readings. I'm panicking - my dad has had heart problems resulting in a quadruple bypass in January 2001. The doctor takes a look at the graph, and then comes in and tells me I have Atrial Fibrillation but without telling me what that is. I'm told they are going to see if a local cardiologist can fit me in, and she leaves to make that arrangement.
While I'm in the examination room, the door is open, and I can hear what's going on outside... I hear "If he can't fit him in, we'll emergency him". That's a great thing to hear when you're already panicking.
Anyway, the cardiologist says he can fit me in, so while they are aking the final arrangements, I call work to let them know I'm not coming back today, and I also call the temp agency to let them know too. However, my cell phone battery is low, so I have to keep my calls short. While I'm on the phone to the temp agency I say "I'm at the doctor, I can't stay on the phone long as my cell phone battery is dying, they already know at [my assignment] that I'm not coming back today." However, I realise, afterwards, with the low battery and poor signal, it's entirely possible the person at the temp agency heard "I'm at the doctor... dying..." I also called my wife. I learnt that the words "I don't want to you to worry, but..." are not very good at preventing worry.
I drive to the cardiologist, not far from my doctor, and I get another EKG. Then my cardiologist comes to see me. ["My cardiologist" is a phrase I didn't think I'd need for a long time to come...] He asks me lots of questions about my symptoms. ["Do you know when it started?" "Yes at 7:17 this morning" "7:17?!" "yeah, well, that's the time on my speeding ticket..."] He explains what A-Fib is, and tells me that, subject to a couple of blood tests to confirm, I have none of the risk factors. I then head out to have an ultrasound of my heart, and it's really weird seeing my heart on the monitor with all its bits moving! I then return to the first room, and have yet another EKG. Apparently, my A-fib has stopped and my heart has returned to normal ("sinus") rhythm. If it hadn't, the cardiologist would have had me back the next day to give me an electric shock to get it back into sinus rhythm.
The cardiologist also told me that in and of itself, a-fib is not life threatening, but with the heart not pumping blood properly, the blood can pool, and if it's stagnant, it can clot. Clots can then cause strokes or heart attacks. Therefore, it's important to get an episode of a-fib treated promptly. He puts me on some medication, and a heart monitor for a month.
When I saw him again, he said that all my bloodwork came back negative, that there were no episodes recorded on my monitor (I'd had a few extra beats, but nothing to worry about), so I have none of the risk factors. I simply have to have one aspirin a day, and just be aware of if I get symptoms again. So, I'm essentially OK.
I did find out though that my visit to him had completely wiped out my health insurance deductible for the year (and when choosing our deductible last year, we'd decided that as we were both in good health, and finding finances tight, that we'd go for a higher deductible and lower payment. *sigh*) so I was going to ask their administrative staff if we could work something out. However, I was beaten to the punch - they offered to work things out with me before I could ask!
So, that's why I had a heart monitor, which will be winging its way back to where it belongs very soon now... because I can't afford for it not to.
posted by Timotab @ 11:25 PM
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