What a day!

At 8:30 Jim asked me to go with him to his 9:00am test at the hospital. OMG!  It is good I went. He says no one told him he’d need a driver but…. First he was admitted as an out patient; off with the clothes (all!) and on with a gown. He was then hooked up to a monitor for all his vitals. Then they tried to put in an IV!  No success after three tries. The doctor tried and ended up using an ultrasound to guide his way. Success. Then!  The story. His heart beat was too high so they were going to give him a drug to slow his heart rate drastically.  “You’ll feel like your are dying, but only for a few seconds” (to quote). They hooked him up to the machine, turned on print and injected him. He let out a loud gasp as his heart rate dropped from over 135 to 40 and then only seconds later they got their reading and his heart rate rose again. The slow down in heart let the print out slow down and they could see what was happening. Good news they said…… it is A-Fib (?). We can deal with that now. It can be medication or a shock. Hydro is cheaper so….  So, they told him they would sedate him (knock him out) for a few minutes and shock him. If he weren’t knocked out it would “hurt like hell”. They had a “ fill in” anesthesiologist from Winnipeg who had a different method. Hence, Jim had 4 doctors and 2 nurses in the room to watch. The only word I understood was ketamine. (Oh goodie!  Special K… a street drug). Anyway, it was some sort of metered injection that would only knock him out for a few minutes. The doctors were laughing, saying they wanted to rate his “flop” when he got shocked, and were disappointed they didn’t think of numbered cards to rate the anesthesiologist!!  Kept the tension light since Jim’s BP had risen to 199/123 (or so). So, Jim was unconscious and they were ready. There was a pharmacy student shadowing the doctor and he let her give Jim the shock. (“Don’t be gentle.. push the button firmly”). She pushed it, Jim “flopped” and she said “I did it!”  Jim did flop, and his legs got stiff and kept jerking!  It was scary, and yet fascinating!  His heart rate dropped to between 90 and 100 and then minutes later he was awake!  Because of his blood thinners all the failed IVs were still bleeding lightly so he had bandages everywhere. Then it was get dressed and let us know when you leave. But, they turned to me and “ you are driving of course”.   So, my plans for the day were obviously not completed. Plus we had meat delivered today and since Jim was still a bit “off” I got to load all the meat myself. Fortunately not a lot, but heavy. And the order was screwed up. Instead of 4 kg of pork chops they sent over 20kg (in 6 bags). Fortunately the guy that ordered it bought his order and then another 4 bags as Christmas presents for his 4 kids. And then Brent took the other bag, so we weren’t stuck. But, what a day!!!♥️