On Emergency Rooms

[Guest guest]

First, thanks to all who responded yesterday. I'm now looking forward to a nice

boring flight. (Except for the thunderstorms predicted on landing...of course)

Someone said yesterday that they thought that I had a particular kind of

toughness because I didn't go into the ER with the pulse rate that I had. I

know that this thread has been done before and there's even a poll up on the

site. It may be worth revisiting, though.

I've pretty well reached the point that a standard brand fib episode, no matter

what its severity, won't send me to the ER. In my experience a trip to the ER

means 6-12 hours hooked up to monitors with a final output of " You know that

thing that you had? Well, you've got it again. " Uh, I could have told them that

-- and usually have.

Now the hesitancy to take any action may flow from the fact that my cardio has a

reputation as a prima Donna who kicks butt if anyone screws up his patients.

But in my limited experience, that's part of the job description of

cardiologists. They're the medical equivalents of Top Guns. I think that there

are other factors, though. The folks in the ER have a limited range of options.

They can medicate, but when I go into ER, I already have a drug regimen in

place. That reduces their options further. They can cardiovert but there's

often a reluctance to do that when there's already a history of having it done.

It's a short term fix to a long term problem. (And I've usually eaten before I

go in, meaning that they like to wait 8-12 hours before cardioverting.)

So I stay out of the ER, trying to be as normal as possible. If it's an

isolated instance (yesterday was my first verifiable episode in four of five

months), I phone the doc. If the fib has been high frequency, I usually don't

even do that. (Another instance of " You know that stuff you had?... " ) Some of

the instances are harder, some are easier. But the old bottom line keeps

surfacing: " Fib won't kill you. " And I find ERs bad enough that I try to save

them for things that will -- or kidney stones, but that's another forum.

BTW, Kathleen, I'm convinced that the depression (if it walks like a duck...) is

a part of the Fib itself. Extended episodes, or even extended periods with lots

of episodes, tend to put me in the dumper. I haven't used traditional

antidepressants (I'm not sure how much of the depression fits into the seratonin

model.

SPECULATION ALERT

I'm not a doctor, but at an intuitive level, the suppression of blood flow and

consequently oxygen to the brain feels like a more likely culprit. (It would be

an interesting study for someone to do -- even more interesting if the oxygen

level were tested at a constant normal level, at a constant low level and at a

randomly varying level. My guess would be that the last one would be the one

with the nastiest effect on mental state.)

Bill Manson

" Wouldn't you hate it if the future weren't the best thing you ever did? " --

Rauschenberg

[Guest guest]

I use to get very tired and depressed. The depression was put down to mental

problems but it was then explained that you heart when in AF only worked at 75

of its capacity. So all the good stuff that should be pumped around your body

was not. I think you can draw your own conclusions on this one.

C Uk

[Guest guest]

I use to get very tired and depressed. The depression was put down to mental

problems but it was then explained that you heart when in AF only worked at 75

of its capacity. So all the good stuff that should be pumped around your body

was not. I think you can draw your own conclusions on this one.

C Uk

[Guest guest]

I use to get very tired and depressed. The depression was put down to mental

problems but it was then explained that you heart when in AF only worked at 75

of its capacity. So all the good stuff that should be pumped around your body

was not. I think you can draw your own conclusions on this one.

C Uk