It has been a couple of days and I am just now getting to the point where I can write about the situation, am not sure what it is going to be like to go back to work on Saturday.
I work in a Progressive Care Cardiac Unit and while in group report on Tuesday suddenly began feeling HORRIBLE, pounding heart rate, dizzy, nauseous, the whole deal. When I left the report room I checked a quick pulse ox which showed a rate of 157 and I really started to freak out!!!! Instead I sat down for a couple of minutes and tried to convince myself that it was all just going to go away, and when that didn't work forced myself to roll over to where the charge nurse was changing over the board, and quietly let her know what was happening.
Ofcourse she rightly took my report sheets, reassigned my patients and made me go put myself on tele which showed SVT, very regular, ranging over about a 30 minute time frame from 160=130's.
Now remember that this is during change of shift, everyone is being wonderful, but it seems that all of both shifts of this very large 46 bed unit knows what is going on and I soon find myself getting a quick exam from one of the area cards docs, receiving carotid massage and trying valsalva surrounded by 10 coworkers!!!! I knew that they were all concerned but I was more than a little scared, highly symptomatic, and entirely embarrassed to be in this situation, and I ended up unfortunately snapping at a group that were there at this point out of embarrassment.
So carotid massage failed, the doc told me to keep trying to Valsalva and that if I didn't convert that I was going to have to go to the ED to "get some adenosine" which I REALLY didn't want to hear. All I could think about was that I was going to end up in a bed on my own unit, and how many days it had been since I had last shaved my legs!!!! :welcome:
I did end up going down to the ED, getting several ecg's, labs, O2, fluids and a total of 20 mg IV Cardizem to slow down my rate. My labs came back normal except for a slightly low K, which they replaced, and they sent me home on Toprol.
So now I find myself in the position of having to go back to work on Saturday and apologize to the people that I snapped at, and trying to move on. I am now considering whether I should wait to see if the Toprol controls my rate with the help of a primary care doc or just making an appointment with the nice doc that saw me the other night and who also happens to be the local top EPS guy in case this whole thing keeps happening.
By the way, this is a new thing for me, happened only twice before, both when I was at home and since September, and both times I was able to deny my way past it as it stopped on its own.
Of course, because I just finished moving to another state, changing jobs, buying a house and settling in, I hadn't yet set up a primary doc, and had been off of my bp meds for a few months, so I was correctly lectured on why nurses are often LESS compliant, despite being BETTER educated than the general public about our health. By the way, my bp was really up there although it didn't have anything to do with the rate issue since I had been on an ARB and not something that would control rate and bp.
Thank all of you who read this, and if you have any ideas of what I can do for my coworkers to thank them for their concern and apologise for having snapped at them, please let me know
I collapsed at work, (about 2 yrs ago now) walking down the unit, and bam.......next thing i know i am waking up on the floor with my co-workers, house doc, and nursing supervisor hoovering all around me.......someone was asking me what meds i was on......blah, blah, blah..........all i wanted to do was run for the hills i was sooooooooooooo mortified.
Again like yourself, i was rolled down to the E.R. labs drawn, cxr and ekg performed, blah, blah, blah.........had pain under the left breast radiating up my neck, down my arm......freaking out at this point......ekg was fine....cxr showed my diaphram was inflammed which was pusing against my rib cage.....hence the pain.....labs showed low K level, elevated bun, and low H/H......given iv fluids, some potassium...blah, blah, blah.........I was also short with the staff....worked with them on many a float night.........but my 1st night back at work......I had pizza delivered to both my home floor, and the E.R.
Nightcrawler, you so don't owe your coworkers an apology. They owe you an apology. Were all of them in there because they had to be there for your care? Probably not. Sure, they were concerned about you, which is good, but they didn't have to be crowded in there. I hope you won't beat yourself up about snapping at them. Maybe they should have been snapped at!
Specializes in Cardiothoracic Transplant Telemetry.
It is amazing how the information spread like wildfire, I mean its not as if I was swinging the tele box around by the wires or anything, but almost everyone on the floor knew what was going on within minutes. I just wanted it all to go away, and to keep it as quiet as possible, putting on the leads myself in the bathroom, having the tele tech suspend the alarms before I put the batteries in the box, ecetera.
Nightcrawler, I hope that you have recovered. don't worry about your co workers, I'm sure they understand why you were snippy, there really is no need to apologise, we all deal with patients and their families who are not at their best due to illness, embarrasment and stress. I'm sure thaty had no intention of violating your privacy and their presence echoed thier concern for you. An apology personally to the group or via a card would be fine, if it makes you feel better. if you're being super nice the 4 C's (cookies, candy, chocolate or cake) would go down a treat. Good luck, I'm sure your coworkers will just be happy to see that you're back and fit and well.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
I like Triage's idea. Bring some treats, a contrite apology and be done with it. We all lose it now and again. You feel badly, I know. But you can and will be forgiven.
Specializes in Cardiothoracic Transplant Telemetry.
Here I am staying up tonight so that I can sleep before my planned extra shift tomorrow, which will now be make up hours for Tuesday instead of overtime, and I am dreading going back to work.
This is not just about the embarrassment of having been "our" kind of sick while at work, but because this whole SVT thing is so new for me. When the doc was talking to me on Tuesday there were a lot of questions about "when this happened before", and yes it has happened before; twice. Both were within say a week of each other in early September, and happened when I was at home. The first time I had stood up suddenly from the couch, and even though the episode lasted for over a hour, I convinced myself that the pounding, racing heartrate had been triggered by some orthostasis, and I pushed some fluids. The second time it happened while I was lying in bed reading, and that scared me, because there was no way that rolling over in bed should precipitate anything close to the rates that I was feeling. Luckily this episode was over in about 5 minutes.
I didnt seek help during or after these episodes because I was afraid. I had just moved from out of state, was staying with family, had just started my new job and was on a 3 month probationary period, and was preparing to start looking to purchase my very first home. I didn't have time to be sick, and if it was something serious I could lose my job, and I would HAVE to keep staying with my sister.......
And then there were no more episodes.....until Tuesday. In the meantime I still had not set up a local primary care provider because I was in escrow on my house, and then I was decorating and moving into my house, and then I started thinking about getting a doctor,,,, and then it was Tuesday.
Now I am petrified by the idea that this could happen again, anywhere, anytime. I take the meds prescribed by the ED like clockwork. I have an appointment with a primary care on the 11th and with the cards guy on the 29th. Iam cutting back on caffeine, but heck the anxiety of waiting for another episode could cause another episode.
Sorry about the long post again, thanks for letting me vent. I am definitely getting a small taste of what my patients feel.
Now I am petrified by the idea that this could happen again, anywhere, anytime. I take the meds prescribed by the ED like clockwork. I have an appointment with a primary care on the 11th and with the cards guy on the 29th. Iam cutting back on caffeine, but heck the anxiety of waiting for another episode could cause another episode.
Sorry about the long post again, thanks for letting me vent. I am definitely getting a small taste of what my patients feel.
I can relate to that!!
No need to apologise, Nightcrawler. You've taken all the appropriate steps to prevent and you're getting follow-up. Please don't worry yourself sick about it. I think of work as the place where I'm safe because they have my history and they can fix what's wrong.
When something similar happened to me (at work of course), I was OK, I just felt sorry that my coworkers might have to Code me on the floor. Since this involved eventually picking me up, I was worried that someone might be hurt during that process.
Anyhow. I got a cell phone shortly after and programmed the phone to keep the GPS on so as to locate me in the event that I had to pull over somewhere if I got that weird sensation while driving. Friends and family were very supportive and we made a plan. It was reassuring to me to have some sort of a plan.
Hoping all goes well for you, NC! Feel free to PM me if you need to, and keep us updated.
I'm a PSVT-er, SVT-er. I was told at age 18 to take atenolol, for the rest of my life. i didn't know why. So I didnt take it. I had SVT episodes before being a nurse, but thought, "Oh, I'm skating too fast, even though I'm super-symptomatic. I didn't get treatment. Happened again during clinicals, thought it was just the new experience of seeing blood, and thought I was anxious, even though, I'm in the bathroom, stripped down, naked, laying on the cold floor, and still hot and sweaty. Well, I got to age 31 and had an attack, that made me call 911, HR was 160-180, and I had back to back episodes-3. Then more a week later, 2 back to back episodes. My heart doc put me on metroprolol, that sucked rocks. I was a bit non-compliant, thinking it was all a fluke. Nope. Got pregnant with twins, had 3 episodes while preggers (one after having a delicious cup of coffee, no one told me no caffiene w/rationale). Then I was back in arrhythmia during delivery of my twins. They kept saying, we gotta hurry and get those babies out. THANK YOU GOD, I AM STILL HERE AND ALIVE, I LOVE YOU, I AM GRATEFUL. I have always self-converted. I have never lost conscious, and I'll tell EMS, "I self-convert, I self-convert". My EPS told me if I had any more episodes in a 6 mos. post-natal period, ablation would be recommended. I have been free from SVT for 10 mos now. I take atenolol 25mg/day. It's supposed to be 25mg/BID, I'm stubborn, and still trying to let my body fix me, but I am going to start taking it twice a day. I have no other health issues, other than the regular anxiety i have because of this ailment, I have PRN ativan, valium. If i get anxious, or start getting freaked out, i have to take a pill, still coping, getting better with prayer and faith, weaning myself off the anxietolitics. I asked my doctor, was it my fault, I had this disease, fluke, whatever. She said i was born with it, i have some extra tracts, that get excited sometimes, and take over for the SA node. I was terrified of the thought of ablation, I'm glad i read, the other response, with good results at 16. I love you guys. i hope my post, helps someone else. Dont be embarrassed, be glad you were around people who care, and will look out for you.
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Jayne LPN
68 Posts
Oh I do understand,
I collapsed at work, (about 2 yrs ago now) walking down the unit, and bam.......next thing i know i am waking up on the floor with my co-workers, house doc, and nursing supervisor hoovering all around me.......someone was asking me what meds i was on......blah, blah, blah..........all i wanted to do was run for the hills i was sooooooooooooo mortified.
Again like yourself, i was rolled down to the E.R. labs drawn, cxr and ekg performed, blah, blah, blah.........had pain under the left breast radiating up my neck, down my arm......freaking out at this point......ekg was fine....cxr showed my diaphram was inflammed which was pusing against my rib cage.....hence the pain.....labs showed low K level, elevated bun, and low H/H......given iv fluids, some potassium...blah, blah, blah.........I was also short with the staff....worked with them on many a float night.........but my 1st night back at work......I had pizza delivered to both my home floor, and the E.R.
Oh and P.S. I always make sure now I am hair free