Sinus Tachycardia (by alaric)
Sarah had an appointment with the GP on Monday, during which he noticed her pulse was a bit high so asked her to come in again Tuesday.
So we went out for lunch on Tuesday, then I accompanied her to the GP afterwards (it's near a place of eating), and her pulse was still high so he suggested she go to A&E for an ECG.
So we took a bus down, and they wired her up to the thing, did a printout, and went "Whoa!" and whooshed her into the resuscitation room!
Thing is, I wasn't allowed into 'resus', so I was shunted into a waiting room full of crestfallen looking people... and I was still holding Sarah's bra from when she'd had to take it off for the electrodes. And when a nurse came in asking for "Mr. Snell's partner" (yes, our surname is Snell-Pym, and Sarah is female), I think everyone must have thought I was pretty odd.
I was led into the room with Sarah in, where she was looking quite unhappy, on a beeping heart monitor and with one of those little valves stuck into her elbow-pit from which doctors were drawing lots of blood samples. There was much discussion between doctors, whereupon they decided she should go into a labour ward, presumably since if she had a heart attack they could perform a quick Caesarean section and save the baby, or because they were specialists in pregnancy complications, or something along those lines.
We sat for some time until an ambulance could come and take us away to the labour unit, which was in another hospital. The ambulance came, and Sarah was transferred to a trolley, and wheeled into the vehicle. When we arrived at Harold Wood, however, the labour ward staff had not been told we were coming, and said this was even the wrong place; the labour ward at King George hospital had a High Dependency Unit for looking after pregnant women who weren't doing well.
So they phoned the King George to tell them we were coming, and we set off again.
When we arrived at the labour ward at the King George... the staff said they hadn't been told we were coming. So Sarah was initially wheeled into a delivery room rather than the High Dependency Unit, and had to be transferred. The poor ambulance crew had to spend their time carrying us around Havering and waiting while people argued about who should have rung who, when they could have been out saving lives, and Sarah was having a pretty uncomfortable time of it all.
But King George was the right place to be, even if they weren't expecting us, so they took Sarah in and I ended up spending the night sleeping in a chair in the High Dependency Unit, with her on all sorts of machinery measuring her heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen levels, and the baby's heart rate and blood flow, while they took strings of blood and urine samples and stuff.
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Thu 23rd Jun 2005 11:22 am 5 Comments
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By Lionel, Thu 23rd Jun 2005 @ 2:45 pm
So glad it worked out - all those tests at least confirm that all else is well.
Hope the worry did not get Sarah down - she was very brave to make it all the way to Courthope Road. It was lovely to see you both and I hope the "sitting machine" is still helping.
By Barbara, Fri 24th Jun 2005 @ 10:06 am
Dear Sarah and Alaric, The rain has come at last so I can stay in and look at an e.mail it sounded very sinister the "cardiac" bit and just didn't dare to look last night. I thought perhaps it was something to do with your father. The photo of you in bed is very graphic but I'm greatrly releivced to know they have let you out and say it's all OK but what a worry for you both. I hope I'm doing the right thing filling in this comment. I will make contact again on Monday after the BT chap has been. Lots of love to you both, B
By AndyB, Sun 26th Jun 2005 @ 8:46 pm
Hi,
Happy 1st anniversary! Hope everything is going well.
By ella, Mon 27th Jun 2005 @ 6:26 pm
Bloody hell! Glad nothing was wrong.
By stuart bradin, Sat 4th Nov 2006 @ 2:41 pm
was wondering if I can have your permission to use copy of EKG in an article on tachycardia in Air Medical journal. No names / information involved, image would be illustrative of tachycardia. Thank you Stuart Bradin, DO, FAAO, FACEP Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine University of Michigan Health System Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109