Saturday, May 30, 2009

A fib sucks.

Apparently, Dolly has been having episodes of atrial fibrillation for a couple of years or so. Last night at Spaulding, they were monitoring her heart rate, and ultimately decided to let her stay the night after her heart got into somewhat of a steady rhythm. This morning, however, they decided to ambulance her back to Brigham and Women's. Her heart rate was all over the place, even confusing the machine that she was hooked up to. Spaulding is not equipped to deal with this problem.

Kathy and I spent the better part of today in the emergency room with mom. They took some tests and by 4pm they decided to move her into a room on the internal medicine floor where they deal with these issues more than any other floor. Her new doctors were amazed at what this lady has already had to deal with, and they are going to try to get her back to Spaulding as soon as possible. Dr. Robert thinks they will be able to get her heart rate manageable and move her back to Spaulding within 48 hours. They are using small doses of a drug I cannot remember the name of. It has some side effects, but they usually don't surface before 20 - 30 years of use. So, taking her age into consideration, they feel this is the best treatment. Let's hope it works.

The best news we have had all day, is that Spaulding is expecting her to return, she is still a patient of theirs. I just hope that during this 48 hour time frame, they don't give her bed away to someone else.

2 comments:

  1. I have been thinking of you all often. The bead bracelets are so great. Dolly is one special lady. Sisters rock.

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  2. Ah, this news is hopeful. I'll be sending along prayers that she's back at Spaulding ASAP.

    Thanks for keeping us posted!

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