On Tuesday we thought we were pretty much done. I was even looking forward to finally having some time to reply to at least some of the many, many beautiful messages I receive every day.
Ha ha! When will I learn?!? Divine Mother was far from “done” with us! 😄
As you’ll recall, we were discharged from the outpatient AIM clinic on Tuesday. On Wednesday we slept in (oh joy!), had breakfast, then went to get the car washed (finally!). Although I was taking it very easy (I thought) after we got home, I noticed a slight shortness of breath. “No big deal,” I thought.
But when Ramesha checked my pulse a little later, he reported it was quite irregular. “Well, I’ll be able to get it back to normal like I did before,” I thought. Then a bit of denial must have kicked in because I continued to feel slightly short of breath and a little funny, but somehow convinced myself it was okay.
Our big project of the day was shaving the rest of my hair; large patches of my scalp were already bald, so it was time. We actually had a lovely time, with Ramesha using a variety of razors to accomplish the goal.
So, it wasn’t until the late afternoon that I casually asked him to check my pulse again because I thought it was maybe still irregular. And at that point he took over like the caregiver supreme that he is, having me try different techniques to see if they would help while he called the AIM clinic.
Our nurse friend Michael had a few suggestions, but because we were already discharged from AIM, he urged us to call our BMT coordinator, Lauren. By now it was 5:00pm, so I was even surprised to find her still in the office and I felt bad for bothering her with this at the end of her day (again, when will I learn? 🤦♀️).
She checked in with the doctors then called back to explain that they didn’t want to take any chances with it developing into lightheadedness or passing out, so she had already called the Emergency Department to arrange for us to go in and get it checked out.
And thus began our Big Adventure!
The short version is that we spent nine hours in the UC Davis Emergency Department, with the end result being that I am fine but now take hydration and potassium way more seriously than ever before. Read on if you want the details.
- An initial EKG confirmed that I was in atrial fibrillation. I was brought to a room and after I had changed into a hospital gown, they hooked me up to a monitor. It kept shifting into an obnoxiously loud beeping because of the AFib; at some point the heart also started greatly speeding up, same as on Sunday. At one point a doctor asked questions to clarify how long it had been going on; in the moment that he confirmed it had been happening for at least five hours is when I began to understand just how foolish had been my resistance to acknowledging what was going on and reaching out for assistance.
- After some initial confusion, our “angel nurse” Maria came on the scene and took charge of getting fluids in me. I figured it would be the usual IV drip, but no! She wrapped something around the bag of fluid and pumped it up, which applied pressure on the liquid within. Ramesha told me that rather than a drip it was a waterfall of fluid pouring into me. In fact, within about a minute I got cold and started shivering uncontrollably due to the coldness of the liquid plus the rapidity of the changes inside my body. All the fluid was administered in about five minutes and after another couple of minutes I stopped shivering again. I’ve never experienced anything like it. The good news is that my heart also responded right away, settling down into a regular rhythm and pace.
- Although it seemed likely that lack of hydration was what triggered the AFib, the remaining eight or so hours were about the medical team ruling out any other possible causes. That meant multiple blood tests, a CT scan, and an X-ray in order to rule out infections, blood clots, issues with the catheter in my chest, or any actual damage to the heart. Unfortunately, it required lots of waiting, since any life-threatening trauma emergencies would (of course!) jump to the front of the queue.
- Equally unfortunately, we didn’t bring any food (except one protein bar that happened to be in Ramesha’s backpack) because we would never have imagined being there so long. It also turned out that I wasn’t allowed to eat in case they discovered anything serious that would need immediate surgery or some other intervention.
- At first, we just had a laugh with Divine Mother; I mean, we’d spent fifteen days showing up at 7:30 every morning, which naturally resulted in going to bed earlier and earlier. Anyone who knows me at all would have been amazed to see me in bed with lights out by 9:00 or 9:30 every night! Then the night of the very day that routine ended we find ourselves awake in the hospital until 3:00am, instead of waking up at 3:30 or 4:00am. Though I’m afraid we weren’t laughing so much by hours six or seven. 😕
- There were blessings throughout, of course. The amazing medical personnel. Ramesha being able to complete his (modified) sadhana even in the ED. Being so desperate to pass the time (and forget our hunger) that we started singing together (quietly). Lessons learned. And, as always, feeling the prayer support of friends and family around the world.
- Epilogue: This morning we had an appointment to get the catheter in my chest removed (It’s been in for a full month, so you can imagine how ready I am to have it out). We knew it would be a short night but figured we’d do the appointment then come home and sleep. Well, we had one more surprise coming. Just as we were heading out the door for the appointment Lauren (our BMT coordinator) called to say that my doctor wants me to keep the catheter in for now so that I can continue receiving additional hydration in the coming days. Yet another instance of soooo looking forward to something expected, only to be disappointed when things change.
Needless to say, it’s been a slow day of nothing but resting, eating, napping, sitting in the sun, eating again, reading, and finally finding the energy to share our big adventure with all of you.
Love,
Sharon & Fabio (aka Bhagavati & Ramesha)
