Tracy's heart rate is down now to the mid 80's pretty much stable there since
3:10 am. It had been around 190. It was kind of interesting that the pulse and
the heart rate were not matching up and both were really jumping around and did
so all night long. It was gradually going down but almost magically at 3 10 it
went down to close to the normal range and both the pulse and heart rate were
the same . So the night nurse thinks we are out of the woods. But where did we
end up on the other side of the woods is what I want to know. The cardiologist
that we saw is the same one when Tracy had his pericarditis episode. He is from
India I think and the first time I met him I thought that he had a shaving
accident with his mustache as one side was really heavy and the other side was
really light. It was the same this time so I guess he likes it like that. That
is just a fun fact.
I don't know that I handled any of this right. I wish I were more like mom who
seems to be better equipped when it comes to crisis. I should have also been
more aware of what was going on. There were signs. Tracy has prescriptions for
oxycontin and oxycodone that I think he was taking too much of. I have since
confiscated them at dispense as written, but the last few nights he was up most
of the night agitated and confused. He was getting angry at me and asking why I
was not helping him and when I asked what exactly he needed he wanted to know
things like what the meaning of life was and what he was made of. I do not have
these answers or not the ones that he wanted. I got really frustrated because I
just really wanted to sleep, to wake up on my own time which I have not done for
months. Another fun fact...none of the lung treatments work for Tracy except
for caffeine. So of all of the advances in medications what works best is
simple coffee. The downside is that he wants coffee right when he wakes up and
that is usually at 5 am. So I was tired and not wanting to be awoken to discuss
that what he was made of and then for him to get annoyed when I thought he meant
his character and not his muscles, bones etc. The confusion has been coming and
going for awhile, but I attributed it to the drugs that he is on. The doctors
everywhere however knew that his pulse was high and even though we asked several
times if we should see a cardiologist no one thought that was necessary. I
sometimes wonder if we have too many doctors or not enough doctors.
Last fact.....the electronic devices that measure heart rate, blood pressure and
pulse are not so great for atrial fibrillation because the screwiness of the
illness causes the electronic devices to not read correctly and it appeared both
at home and at the local PCP that nothing was too far off. To initially
diagnose atrial fibrillation one should do a manual pulse. Heart rate and pulse
rate are generally the same but when the heart is beating wildly out of control
they freqeuntly will not be. Doctors do not like to touch people anymore though.
Not that I am thinking of lawyering up or anything but I do think doctors do
best with uncomplicated cases. Broke bones and the like.
Anyway, now I am just rambling.
o2 sats 100 percent
respiration 23
blood pressure 98/62 ( a little low but that is due to the cardioaversion
medication)
pulse rate and heart rate 82
