Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2012/07/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]The only wisdom I can offer, if your doctor is not a cardiologist, is to have a cardiologist evaluate an EKG. From everything I've read, skipped heartbeats can be trivial (usually) but also can be dangerous. Herb >Hope that gets the job done. My father had one for many years. My >heart has been skipping beats, too. I actually have had this most >of my life, but the last month or so it has been very frequent. At >times on the order similar to yours - every few beats it skips. EKG >showed PVC's and my doctor said not life threatening. Just darn >annoying at times. I have opted not to take any medication. He >said if the annoyingness get to me to let him know and he'll give me >something. It is subsiding the last few weeks. but still >noticeable at times. It goes away when I exercise, and shows up >again when I am sitting still. No pain at all. Hope he is right, >after hearing your story. > >Aram > > >-------------------------------------------------- >From: "Herbert Kanner" <kanner at acm.org> >Sent: Saturday, July 14, 2012 1:54 PM >To: "Leica Users Group" <lug at leica-users.org> >Subject: [Leica] OT My night and three days in the hospital > >>Sorry, no photographs. I am the proud owner of a brand new >>pacemaker. Here is the story: >> >>Ever since April, I have been having some bad days where walking a >>block was a problem; I'd get painfully out of breath. The evening >>that I met Richard Man at a gallery was the third of three >>consecutive days when this problem got severe--I barely managed to >>stagger from my car a block to the gallery, though by the time I >>had been there for a few minutes, I felt fully ok. >> >>The following Monday morning, I saw my pulmonologist on a scheduled >>appointment. (Now I have to decide whether to fire him for extreme >>inattention to a possibly dangerous situation.) I described the >>increase in my symptoms in detail. One of them was missed >>heartbeats. It started months before, when I noticed that after >>activity, I would lose one heartbeat out of ten. I had already >>mentioned this to the cardiologist and got no reaction; an internet >>search indicated that if not accompanied by chest pains, not to >>worry. But it had worsened to where, after any moving around, it >>got to where, after two beats it would skip one, then maybe after a >>bit, three beats then skip one. >> >>Well, especially since it could very well have been partially due >>to a side effect from a new drug he had prescribed, he wrote out an >>order for blood tests and for me to come back the next morning. >>When I took the order to a lab, they pointed out that he had >>forgotten to put his name on it (!!!!!) and they had to call him on >>his cell phone to get authorization. >> >>The next morning, July 10, he looked it over, saw anemia--again yet >>another one of the myriad side effects of this drug--suggested >>stopping it for two weeks and seeing him them. What bothers me is >>that he was not in the least alarmed. >> >>I had a standing appointment for an annual physical that very >>afternoon, did not feel up to it and phoned to cancel it. About an >>hour or so after that, I decided that I was getting scared, called >>back, told what was going on, and the doctor's nurse said to come >>in--that they'd fit me in and would do an EKG. >> >>I cooled my heels for a while after the EKG. The doctor was not >>happy with it and took it to a cardiologist, came back and told me >>that sending me home was too risky and that she had arranged for me >>to go right to the emergency room. I phoned my wife, who had a bit >>of trouble absorbing this startling info in a hurry over the >>telephone, but eventually got it and ferried me there--I had an ok >>on leaving my own car at the doctor's parking lot. >> >>After a relatively short time, considering that it was an emergency >>room at Stanford Hospital, they told me that they were admitting me >>to the hospital. That was Tuesday night. All day Wednesday, the >>electro-cardiologists were trying to make up there mind whether or >>not I should get a pacemaker. I wound up making the decision for >>them. Around noon on Wednesday, my wife was visiting while I was >>eating lunch--hospital food has sure improved--and just as I leaned >>forward to pick up a shrimp by the tail and bring it to my mouth, I >>felt dizzy for just two or three seconds. Thought nothing of it. >>Didn't even remember that I was supposed to tell the nurse if I got >>dizzy--got mildly chewed out for it later. Early that evening a >>cardiologist walked in with a printout in his hand, asked: "Were >>you dizzy today?" showed me a monitor printout that indicated that >>my heart had stopped for about six seconds. He said: "You need a >>pacemaker". >> >>One was installed the very next morning. The amazing thing is that >>it's all done with local anesthetics and extremely mild sedation. >>The procedure took about an hour. I didn't get out until late the >>next afternoon because it took all day to arrange a couple of ten >>minute procedures: an x-ray to make sure the pacemaker wires were >>where they should be, and a session where an expert >>nurse-practitioner who tested and reprogrammed the thing by >>inductive coupling to a specialized computer program. >> >>That's how I spent a week. No photography. >>-- >>Herbert Kanner >>kanner at acm.org >>650-326-8204 >> >>Question authority and the authorities will question you. >> >> > >_______________________________________________ >Leica Users Group. >See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information -- Herbert Kanner kanner at acm.org 650-326-8204 Question authority and the authorities will question you.