I had high heart palpitations for 6 hours before being admitted to hospital on Thursday. My heart rate was 195?!! Usually it would go down on its own but this time it didn't... A&E doctors had to inject me with a drug to slow down the heart rate. The effect was pretty immediate - it actually had the feeling of my heart stopping... and then I became slightly breathless, similar to the feeling you get when you're running for the bus haha. It slowed down to around 110/min, but with my medical conditions they decided to keep me for observation.
The blood test also showed that my potassium level was slightly lower, so the doctor decided to have me on potassium chloride via the IV drip line. IT WAS THE MOST PAINFUL EXPERIENCE EVER. I would like to think that my tolerance for pain is pretty high... But this potassium drug was really no joke. It was so bad I cried twice through the night and tried to beg the nurses to take it off. But the only thing they could do was to lower the infiltration speed. It felt like the drug was burning my veins :'( so terrible!!
It was such a relief when the bag of potassium was fully deflated and finished... Until the nurses told me there was one more. Utter despair. But this second one was inserted through the PICC line instead of the IV drip line... And it was SO MUCH better! No pain at all?! Turns out that the PICC line is a central line that is connected to the bigger vein to the heart, while the IV drip line was a peripheral line. Faints they could have done that earlier!!!
So far they've taken me off the tele machine (a device that measures my heart conditions 24/7) and even allowed me to go for a walk! Both very good signs that I can go home tomorrow yay.
Sidenote: My "walk" also involved having a flat white while my mom ate her sandwich hehe
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