countessmouse (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
countessmouse) wrote2007-10-20 07:35 pm
countessmouse) wrote2007-10-20 07:35 pm
The Part Where I Get the *&^% Scared Out of Me
After Gunthar makes a few posts on LJ and to our household list about his blood pressure issues, a few friends make inquiries with EMTs and physicians and report back to me. He is told he can go to fighter practice, but he cannot put on armor and fight. Then I talk to my Dad, who told me that if the diastolic blood pressure gets to 100, take him to the ER immediately and that his doctor appointment cannot wait until Friday. I make plans to find another physician in the morning and Gunthar comes home about 11:15pm to announce that his latest reading is 168/107. We "debate" whether or not to head to the ER, but I cave, noting that he doesn't have a headache and generally feels okay. And I worry about it all night.
Friday morning, I head to work, still worrying about the issue and decide (1) that he's getting an appointment for no later than Tuesday and (2) that we're probably going to make a visit to the ER that night anyway. We didn't get that far. Sometime after 11:30am, after an earlier e-mail exchange when he informed me that he stopped and checked his blood pressure on the way to work and it was 169/97 and I wanted to take him to the ER but he said no, he sends me an e-mail that his chest hurts, his left arm hurts and is tingly, and he'll just drive himself to the ER on his lunch break. I sent him an e-mail back saying I was on my way and made it over to his office in less that 15 minutes. In fact, I was waiting for him when he walked out the door.
Gunthar was breathless just walking to the car. When they got him back to triage (which was very quickly after we arrived because of the hospital's chest pain protocol) his chest pain had stopped but his blood pressure was 178/109. I nearly freaked. After an EKG (normal), chest x-rays (normal), and blood work (within normal limits), the ER doctor decides to bring in a cardiologist, order a stress test, and tells Gunthar he has to stay in the hospital overnight for observation and that the test will be in the morning. Needless to say, he protested but was overrulled by a greater authority -- me. We waited quite a while for an available bed in the CDU, but during that time, his blood pressure responded wonderfully to the meds.
This morning, he had his stress test, which went very well. The cardiologist put him on a temporary blood pressure medicine and asked us to call Monday morning to set up an appointment for the end of next week. By then, he will have had a chance to review all of the test results and readings and develop a treatment plan. Dr. Fyfe knows that our goal is to have Gunthar back fighting as soon as possible and will make that his own.
While I have some difficulty appreciating it at present, some good came out of this: it got Gunthar to a physician sooner than we could have by calling around to the doctors on his health plan. I do not know if the FP he was originally scheduled to see did not understand the urgency or if Gunthar didn't communicate the issues clearly, but I do plan on calling them and letting them know what happened and that we are going to bypass him and his nurse practitioner and see the specialist.
The other good thing? Gunthar's blood pressure taken at CVS while we waited for his presciption to be filled was 138/78. Thank God.
Friday morning, I head to work, still worrying about the issue and decide (1) that he's getting an appointment for no later than Tuesday and (2) that we're probably going to make a visit to the ER that night anyway. We didn't get that far. Sometime after 11:30am, after an earlier e-mail exchange when he informed me that he stopped and checked his blood pressure on the way to work and it was 169/97 and I wanted to take him to the ER but he said no, he sends me an e-mail that his chest hurts, his left arm hurts and is tingly, and he'll just drive himself to the ER on his lunch break. I sent him an e-mail back saying I was on my way and made it over to his office in less that 15 minutes. In fact, I was waiting for him when he walked out the door.
Gunthar was breathless just walking to the car. When they got him back to triage (which was very quickly after we arrived because of the hospital's chest pain protocol) his chest pain had stopped but his blood pressure was 178/109. I nearly freaked. After an EKG (normal), chest x-rays (normal), and blood work (within normal limits), the ER doctor decides to bring in a cardiologist, order a stress test, and tells Gunthar he has to stay in the hospital overnight for observation and that the test will be in the morning. Needless to say, he protested but was overrulled by a greater authority -- me. We waited quite a while for an available bed in the CDU, but during that time, his blood pressure responded wonderfully to the meds.
This morning, he had his stress test, which went very well. The cardiologist put him on a temporary blood pressure medicine and asked us to call Monday morning to set up an appointment for the end of next week. By then, he will have had a chance to review all of the test results and readings and develop a treatment plan. Dr. Fyfe knows that our goal is to have Gunthar back fighting as soon as possible and will make that his own.
While I have some difficulty appreciating it at present, some good came out of this: it got Gunthar to a physician sooner than we could have by calling around to the doctors on his health plan. I do not know if the FP he was originally scheduled to see did not understand the urgency or if Gunthar didn't communicate the issues clearly, but I do plan on calling them and letting them know what happened and that we are going to bypass him and his nurse practitioner and see the specialist.
The other good thing? Gunthar's blood pressure taken at CVS while we waited for his presciption to be filled was 138/78. Thank God.
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SO glad things are 'better'.
Glad you did it
Love you both!
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BTW, so sorry that I missed your button class. I was really looking forward to it, but I had so much house stuff that I just couldn't justify taking the evening off. :-(
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I'll let you know when the class is rescheduled.