Adenosine patient

[blacknurse30]

Hello nurses...im a new diagnosed SVT patient and i recently rushed to my doctor office as a walk in thinking i was having a panic attack but 10x worse than a panic attack. As a approached the receptionist in a frantic i told her i need to see my doctor because im about to die, she asked if i were having a panic attack i said yes but this feel worse than a panic attack. As they brought me to the back my heart rate was 245...they did a EKG and i was rushed to the ER..In the ER the i told the Dr. That i was having thevworse panic attack EVER. To make a long story short, after hooking me up to the monitors this was not a panic attack i was in SVT. They brought the crash cart in started IVs and i thought surely i was on my way to see JESUS. They pushed adenosine three times in total 24mg IV plus gave me IV metroprolol in order to get me to covert and im telling u as a patient IT does feel like an out of body experience, i literally felt my heart stop working and i thought to myself is this what people feel when they die...it felt like my spirit lifted straight out of me, my hearing left but my eyes were still open but i couldnt talk..IT WAS BRIEF like 10 sec...only the patient can tell u EXACTLY what it feel like to them to get adenosine IV, its a scary feeling.for sure...

[hyltonjean]

I like the way you tell the patient t-hat you're rebooting their heart. This is how my ER Dr. explained it to me. My heart rate varied between 180-210. Have to admit I was startled by this though. I had just been admitted for pneumonia obviously therewere other under lying problems. He told me that my chest may fill 'full' or 'tight' and the nurse told me to just breathe through it. It just seemed surreal to me.

[GatorKatie2485]

I had adenosine before because I have POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome) and didn't know it at the time. I went to an an urgent center because I couldn't kick bronchitis, which was an unrelated thing, but my heart rate was about 180-190.They called am ambulance and the fire rescue people came and administered adenosine to me. One of the rescue guys told me "we are going to stop your heart now and it will feel like a horse is sitting on your chest". I felt a ton of pressure for maybe five seconds. Then the sensation left. My HR went down to the 130s and I was transported to the ER. I would say that I don't feel its best to tell patients that you are " stopping their heart". I believe this description is inaccurate, and to be honest this statement scared me so much more than the actual sensation. I would tell patients " we are going to give you a medication to re set your heart rate. When your sinus node resets, you might feel a strong sensation of pressure, but this is completely normal and will go away after a few seconds.