Friday, August 07, 2009

Hi everyone,
Thankyou so much for asking how we are, it's funny really because I was going to tell you tonight anyway.

Geoff is doing really well now, last tuesday he had had his heart stopped and restarted (can';t remember the medical name for it).
We had to be at the hospital for 8.00a.m. as they check that you are fit enough to have this done(!!) sounds funny, doesn't it? but you know what they mean by that.
Anyway, we get there at 8.00a.m. and when we walked in there was about 5-6 people there and they were all having the same treatment as geoff.
We sat down and expected to be kept waiting for ages but in actual fact we weren't, a nurse called geoffs name and off he went into a small ward.
They checked his blood pressure and asked him a thousand questions about the tablets he was taking, which is Warfarin and beta Blockers, they asked him when he actually staid in hospital and for how long and what was said to him. Geoff gave them all the details and they seemed happy. They had everything on record and what geoff told them agreed with what they had written down.
So, they were happy with that.
He was asked to sit in the waiting room again. Time went on and some of them kept dissappearing and the never came back (!!) we then found out that it was because they had had the treatment and they had been taken down to a ward to recover (phew!)
At about 11.45 geoffs name was called and they took him to the ward ,(geoff was last on the list, of course) they took his blood pressure and said he was going to the theatre to be 'done'. That was the nurses saying that, they were so friendly and cheerful and was saying that to relax you as much as you could under those situation.LOL
At 11.50 he went down to the theatre and they put a needle into the back of his hand and he breathed through a gas mask for about 3 seconds and then that was it,he was asleep and knew nothing until he woke up in the ward and was told by the nurses he had had it done and it was successful. He was utterly amazed at how quick it was and how well he felt. It only takes 30 seconds to actually do that because they can't stop the heart for any longer, amazing, isn't it?
I was with him then and even I was surprised because he was wide awake and talking. (as bloody always!)
He tried to stand up but was a little wobbly on his legs so they insisted he must have a cup of tea and a piece of toast and then sees how he feels. This he did and after about half an hour he tried to stand again and this time he was fine. They explained to geoff he must still continue to take the Warfarin and Beta Blockers because the heart can go straight back to beating to fast again and he has to 'train' his heart to stay at the normal beat.
At 12.30 we went home.
Geoff was very tired and he slept for a while and we had a take-away which was lovely.(any excuse!) He went to bed and was fine, for the first time in 4 months we both slept all the night through.
Wednesday night, off to bed we go and then I noticed that geoff was very restless. I asked him what was wrong and he said he heart was going to slow. He even counted his heart beats.(48)
To cut a long story short, neither of us slept that night and at 3.30a.m. I was making us a cup of tea and trying to get geoff to understand that his heart is fine otherwise the doctors would not have let him out of hospital. But nothing I said relaxed geoff.
I rang in sick at work and explained what had happened with geoff the night before and that I was too tired to come to work. They know about geoffs problem and they were very understanding.
I rang our doctors and made an appointment and I actually went in with geoff to see her, and explained what had happened. The doctor listened to geoffs heart and put his mind at rest when she said there was nothing to worry about, his heart was beating perfectly normally.
She told geoff she would give him a small amount of sleeping tablets and she explained that they did NOT give these out normally because they are addictive. He was only to take one, and only when he really needed too. I think she realised that in fact he had like a panic attack on wenesday night.
After listening to his heart going so fast and irregular for months he now thought his heart was going too slow!
He's got to regain his confidence and not think something bad is going to happen to him.
He will in time.

Anyway, things are getting back to normal, slowly but surely, and I will be back blogging again,
That sounds more like a threat, doesn't it!

Anyway, thanks again for asking, it's such a comfort you know.
xxxxx

4 comments:

Bernard said...

That all sounds like good news to me.
Glad you are both OK.
I can see that with all this talk of 'hearts'...I shall have to look into my music drawers and extract suitable music...LOL

Sage said...

I am glad you and geoff are doing ok, will now admit to having a few worries when you didn't post for a couple of weeks.... tell geoff to take it easy and look after you as well xx xx

Carlito86 said...

I'm glad to hear Geoff is doing well, and you too.

xx

deb said...

So glad to hear good news. We are an interesting lot...haven't really met yet we worry about each other. Sending good thoughts and prayers your way, for both of you.