Less than ideal birthday

[Mike Fleming]

On the 24th, I turned 65. At 2am, SWMBO woke up with her heart pounding
at 120-130bpm. It didn't slow back down over the next few minutes, so,
anticipating a five hour wait for an ambulance, I took her up to A&E
(around 20 minutes away). When we arrived, she had her pulse and BP
taken, and both were normal. Stayed with her while she was ECGed and had
her bloods taken, and while we sat in the waiting room, er, waiting, and
then at 5am she told me to go home and she'd call when she needed
picking up. At 7:30 she rang and told me to pick her up - pulse and BP
still normal, and there was an 11 hour wait to see a doctor. Got home at
0830 and we both rang jbex to tell them we wouldn't be jbexing.

She rang for a phone appointment with GP, and he rang back a bit later
and after hearing her tale, he told her to come in for a face to face.
So she went in and discussed it with him, and had a little chat too.
Apparently there's a lot of patients being unpleasant to everyone at the
practice nowadays - but to put GPs' problems in perspective, when he
started at this practice in 2008 there were 2600 patients on the books
and now there are 7000, and there are fewer GPs. Despite this, it seems
that people feel more entitled these days.

Anyroadup, SWMBO is back to normal, and will be getting a referral to a
cardiologist. Could be a one-off tachycardia event caused by stress,
could be the onset of AF, could be something else. We shall see.

[Nicholas D. Richards]

In article <jud7dh...@mid.individual.net>, Mike Fleming
<mi...@tauzero.co.uk> on Sat, 26 Nov 2022 at 01:11:12 awoke Nicholas
from his slumbers and wrote

Hopefully a one off event.

Oh, and many Happy Birthday wishes to you both.
--
0sterc@tcher -

"Oů sont les neiges d'antan?"

[Peter]

Mike Fleming <mi...@tauzero.co.uk> wrote in news:jud7dhFdjmdU1
@mid.individual.net:

> On the 24th, I turned 65. At 2am, SWMBO woke up with her heart pounding
> at 120-130bpm. It didn't slow back down over the next few minutes, so,
> anticipating a five hour wait for an ambulance, I took her up to A&E
> (around 20 minutes away). When we arrived, she had her pulse and BP
> taken, and both were normal.
>

> Anyroadup, SWMBO is back to normal, and will be getting a referral to a
> cardiologist. Could be a one-off tachycardia event caused by stress,
> could be the onset of AF, could be something else. We shall see.

Goodness. Very frightening, that sortathing. Glad she seems to be OK. Keep
us posted.

I had something similar a couple of months ago but I'm 76 so I expect stuff
like that. My chest and arms felt as if they were being squeezed almost to
the point of being painful. The next day I was OK. Blood pressure off the
scale during the episode and the next day it was very high: dropped back to
normal over the course of a few days. Pulse was normal as soon as I could
get a reading. Been fine ever since. SWMBO keeps nagging me to tell the GP
but I know he's busy - I have a telecon booked with him in a couple of
weeks about something else so I'll mention it then, if I remember.

--
Peter
-----

[RustyHinge]

+1, +1.

--
Rusty Hinge
To err is human. To really foul things up requires a computer and the BOFH.

[RustyHinge]

Do remember. I had 'events' - tachycardia, and dropouts. Ended up on
heart-slowing drugs and a pacemaker. My heart only stopped beating
enough for me to black-out once, but...

[Sam Plusnet]

Agreed. Best wishes to both, and Happy Birthday to the birthday boy.

--
Sam Plusnet

[Brian Gaff]

I have a number of female friends with AF, some are controlled by drugs but
the treatment of choice seems to be little implant, like a pacemaker but it
auto detects the onset then sends some synchronising pulses to the right
place. Apparently as we get older the conductivity of the nerves feeding the
muscles is worse.
Yes as doctors are prone to say, Its your age....
Brian

--

--:
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
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Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"Mike Fleming" <mi...@tauzero.co.uk> wrote in message
news:jud7dh...@mid.individual.net...

[Mike Fleming]

On 27/11/2022 12:35, Brian Gaff wrote:
> I have a number of female friends with AF, some are controlled by drugs but
> the treatment of choice seems to be little implant, like a pacemaker but it
> auto detects the onset then sends some synchronising pulses to the right
> place. Apparently as we get older the conductivity of the nerves feeding the
> muscles is worse.

I have AF, so I knew from first-hand experience what she was going
through and was able to talk to her about it. Mine is drug-controlled -
the alternative treatment is ablation, where a laser is used to burn an
insulating ring around where the pulmonary veins enter the heart, as
it's conflicting stimuli from them that causes the AF. My boss has had
ablation, which was successful on the second attempt (this isn't
uncommon). I'm sticking with the drugs for now.

I'm hoping that SWMBO suffered a one-off event rather than starting AF,
as, although the drugs are OK, I have to take an anti-coagulant (as it
can cause pooling of blood in the heart, which can clot and then cause
thrombosis) which in turn means I can't take aspirin which is my most
effective OTC pain-killer.

[RustyHinge]

On 28/11/2022 14:57, Mike Fleming wrote:
> On 27/11/2022 12:35, Brian Gaff wrote:
>> I have a number of female friends with AF, some are controlled by
>> drugs but
>> the treatment of choice seems to be little implant, like a pacemaker
>> but it
>> auto detects the onset then sends some synchronising pulses to the  right
>> place. Apparently as we get older the conductivity of the nerves
>> feeding the
>> muscles is worse.
>
> I have AF, so I knew from first-hand experience what she was going
> through and was able to talk to her about it. Mine is drug-controlled -
> the alternative treatment is ablation, where a laser is used to burn an
> insulating ring around where the pulmonary veins enter the heart, as
> it's conflicting stimuli from them that causes the AF. My boss has had
> ablation, which was successful on the second attempt (this isn't
> uncommon). I'm sticking with the drugs for now.

I was in the ward waiting for an ablation wearing a 'phone home to mum'
brick round my neck when they changed their mind 'cos I was getting
drop-outs, so I went home with a pacemaker.

> I'm hoping that SWMBO suffered a one-off event rather than starting AF,
> as, although the drugs are OK, I have to take an anti-coagulant (as it
> can cause pooling of blood in the heart, which can clot and then cause
> thrombosis) which in turn means I can't take aspirin which is my most
> effective OTC pain-killer.

Can't understand why that is - I was on aspirin for yearsandyears to
counter just that until I went on to rivaroxaban.

[Mike Fleming]

I was initially on low-dose aspirin, then I was switched to a more
focussed anticoagulant, and as aspirin is also an anticoagulant I am
prevented from taking it due to the possibility of internal bleeding. I
also can't take ibuprofen for the same reason, but that's no loss as it
does buggerall painkilling for me.

[Pancho]

My sis, who is also 65, was diagnosed with inappropriate tachycardia,
presumably due to a bout of Covid. I think they put her on
beta-blockers, I dunno, if she is still on them.