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My turn in the ER
I spent most of last night in the ER. Around 10PM I started having all of the symptoms I have had when I had my 2 heart attacks. Tight chest, left arm hurting and tingling, but also some others (right arm same as left, numbing of right side of face, upper back pain). Because of those other symptoms I didn't really think it was another heart attack, but my BP was 189/92 with a pulse of 88. So to be on the safe side I drove to the ER to get checked out. I could have saved myself the time and money as all of the cardiac tests came back clean. They ran the tests twice with 3 hours between so I am certain my heart was OK.
I had a pretty good view of my vitals and observed things I found strange during the 5 hours laying in the ER.
My BP seemed to be all over the palace. One minute it was 135/76, then 151/56, and then 110/52. How can a BP vary so much while just laying on your back?
Most of the time my pulse was between 54 and 60 with quite a few readings of 55. A couple of times when I had dozed off I awoke to the sound of the monitor beeping. The monitor would be indicating my pulse had dropped to 48 setting it off.
The monitor also beeped a couple of times when my o2 level dropped to 92. The rest of the time it was ranging between 95 and 97. I think I dozed off before those beeps as well.
After about 3 hours in the ER the left arm pain and most of the tingling had gone away without them doing anything So I figure that this was a flare of new MS symptoms. It has now been almost 10 hours since this started and I still have the numb right side of face, tingling right arm, and tingling left hand fingers.
Dennis
I had a pretty good view of my vitals and observed things I found strange during the 5 hours laying in the ER.
My BP seemed to be all over the palace. One minute it was 135/76, then 151/56, and then 110/52. How can a BP vary so much while just laying on your back?
Most of the time my pulse was between 54 and 60 with quite a few readings of 55. A couple of times when I had dozed off I awoke to the sound of the monitor beeping. The monitor would be indicating my pulse had dropped to 48 setting it off.
The monitor also beeped a couple of times when my o2 level dropped to 92. The rest of the time it was ranging between 95 and 97. I think I dozed off before those beeps as well.
After about 3 hours in the ER the left arm pain and most of the tingling had gone away without them doing anything So I figure that this was a flare of new MS symptoms. It has now been almost 10 hours since this started and I still have the numb right side of face, tingling right arm, and tingling left hand fingers.
Dennis
I'm sorry this caused you so much time and money but sure glad it didn't cost you your life!
As for the varying vital signs Dennis, blood pressure and heart rate are dynamic rather than static. Healthy control means they increase as necessary to supply extra oxygen to your body or in preparation for emergencies but return to a lower baseline as soon as demand lessens.
Lying on a cot watching a monitor can cause ^ anxiety and ^ BP.
Changing the position of your arm in relation to your heart changes your BP.
Muscle tension around an artery alters the blood flow inside of it.
Pain will change it up.
Medications make a difference.
Becoming aware monitors are monitoring is enough to change the indicators.
Sleeping is a low demand body state that allows all vital signs to drop.
Oxygen saturation may dip lower than 92% for brief periods during sleep.
Vital signs tell a better story as a whole than when examined independently.
These are a few of the reasons they kept you so long to decide you were OK to go home. For better or worse, our bodies are very complicated yet use only a few complaints to indicate a wide variety of problems. Duration, location and severity aren’t ALWAYS a big help in determining what’s going on.
I do hope you are able to figure out the cause of your parasthesias and get them controlled soon.
Mary
As for the varying vital signs Dennis, blood pressure and heart rate are dynamic rather than static. Healthy control means they increase as necessary to supply extra oxygen to your body or in preparation for emergencies but return to a lower baseline as soon as demand lessens.
Lying on a cot watching a monitor can cause ^ anxiety and ^ BP.
Changing the position of your arm in relation to your heart changes your BP.
Muscle tension around an artery alters the blood flow inside of it.
Pain will change it up.
Medications make a difference.
Becoming aware monitors are monitoring is enough to change the indicators.
Sleeping is a low demand body state that allows all vital signs to drop.
Oxygen saturation may dip lower than 92% for brief periods during sleep.
Vital signs tell a better story as a whole than when examined independently.
These are a few of the reasons they kept you so long to decide you were OK to go home. For better or worse, our bodies are very complicated yet use only a few complaints to indicate a wide variety of problems. Duration, location and severity aren’t ALWAYS a big help in determining what’s going on.
I do hope you are able to figure out the cause of your parasthesias and get them controlled soon.
Mary
Dennis, good for you to not hesitate to go to the ER. Many people would ignore these signs and tough it out. I am glad you know better.
I can so identify with those beeping monitors as you dozed off. When I was in the hospital from my heart attack, I had trouble sleeping because the monitors kept going off. My BP and pulse drop to those "uh oh, something's wrong" levels when I sleep. Throw in a touch or two of apnea and it can be a noisy night to sleep.
Hopefully you are comfortable with contacting your VA neuro and talking this over with the staff.
I hope it is a quiet weekend for you,
Lulu
I can so identify with those beeping monitors as you dozed off. When I was in the hospital from my heart attack, I had trouble sleeping because the monitors kept going off. My BP and pulse drop to those "uh oh, something's wrong" levels when I sleep. Throw in a touch or two of apnea and it can be a noisy night to sleep.
Hopefully you are comfortable with contacting your VA neuro and talking this over with the staff.
I hope it is a quiet weekend for you,
Lulu
I just happen to have appointments with my PC and non-MS Neuro next week. So I'll be checking with both of them about this and the irregular heartbeat I got on my BP meter a little while ago. Thanks!
Dennis
Dennis
So sorry you had to deal with that, It is great that it wasn't a heart attack. As for you bp being all over the place, At rest it is lower and if you move around it is going to go up a bit.
With you pulse it would be the same, when we sleep our pulse goes to its lowest, shallow breathing causes the oxygen to go lower. When we are awake we take in deeper breaths to keep our oxygen levels up.
I hope you start feeling better soon. Have you talked with your neuro to see if he or she recommends steroids?
Take care,
Paula
With you pulse it would be the same, when we sleep our pulse goes to its lowest, shallow breathing causes the oxygen to go lower. When we are awake we take in deeper breaths to keep our oxygen levels up.
I hope you start feeling better soon. Have you talked with your neuro to see if he or she recommends steroids?
Take care,
Paula
I sure hope this doesn't continue to happen to you, You are right; it would be very difficult to know when you were having a medical emergency!
Glad you are doing better than last night, but hope you feel much better soon.
Valerie
Glad you are doing better than last night, but hope you feel much better soon.
Valerie
I slept most of today, going to throw off my schedule big time, and feel about the same as I did this morning when I posted.
One thing I noticed that I didn't mention this morning was that during part of the time the skin was hanging from my left forearm like there was no muscle at all in there. That was strange to say the least. I didn't mention it to them as it was back to normal by the time the nurse came back into the room. The only thing I can think of is that the muscle became so tight it was like a stretched rubber band.
Lisa,
I do have high BP and am on medications ( 3 ) to control it. The medications also slow my pulse down to a normal of about 60 - 65. With out the medications it is usually around 75 - 80.
I was also tested for sleep apnea in 2007 which cleared me of that one. But I do have COPD. Normally when I was tested a few months ago my o2 was ranging between 98 - 95 with it actually increasing as I walked around. This was due to the fact that I would be breathing quicker due to increased work load.
Mike,
They didn't say anything about the BP fluctuations as they didn't see them. Most of the time I was alone in the ER room and they would only show up if they wanted to get blood, EKG, etc. or if the Alarm went off like the one time when I rolled over and disconnected the o2 monitor by accident.
All:
Thank you for your comments and I do hope this will not become a new normal for me. How would I tell if it is just this happening again vs a real heart attack then.
The big question probably is why did my BP spike so high in the first place. If it hadn't spiked I probably would have not gone to the ER.
Dennis
One thing I noticed that I didn't mention this morning was that during part of the time the skin was hanging from my left forearm like there was no muscle at all in there. That was strange to say the least. I didn't mention it to them as it was back to normal by the time the nurse came back into the room. The only thing I can think of is that the muscle became so tight it was like a stretched rubber band.
Lisa,
I do have high BP and am on medications ( 3 ) to control it. The medications also slow my pulse down to a normal of about 60 - 65. With out the medications it is usually around 75 - 80.
I was also tested for sleep apnea in 2007 which cleared me of that one. But I do have COPD. Normally when I was tested a few months ago my o2 was ranging between 98 - 95 with it actually increasing as I walked around. This was due to the fact that I would be breathing quicker due to increased work load.
Mike,
They didn't say anything about the BP fluctuations as they didn't see them. Most of the time I was alone in the ER room and they would only show up if they wanted to get blood, EKG, etc. or if the Alarm went off like the one time when I rolled over and disconnected the o2 monitor by accident.
All:
Thank you for your comments and I do hope this will not become a new normal for me. How would I tell if it is just this happening again vs a real heart attack then.
The big question probably is why did my BP spike so high in the first place. If it hadn't spiked I probably would have not gone to the ER.
Dennis
I'm glad you went in to get things checked out, Dennis. The BP changes are interesting - could be labile hypertension, could be MS stuff.
Sleeping on and off with a heart rate between 55-60 bpm is fine. 48bpm is getting a little slow, but I don't know what you usually run. I range between 46-54 at rest, and that's normal for me because I ride my bike when I can, and get a decent cardio workout. YRMV :-D
Am I right - you have sleep apnea as well? That can cause your O2 sat to drop some.
Feel better! Thinking of you...
Sleeping on and off with a heart rate between 55-60 bpm is fine. 48bpm is getting a little slow, but I don't know what you usually run. I range between 46-54 at rest, and that's normal for me because I ride my bike when I can, and get a decent cardio workout. YRMV :-D
Am I right - you have sleep apnea as well? That can cause your O2 sat to drop some.
Feel better! Thinking of you...
Wow! Scary stuff Dennis.
Strange BP readings, I don't know if this is normal or not, did they tell you anything at the hospital?
Take care, Mike
Strange BP readings, I don't know if this is normal or not, did they tell you anything at the hospital?
Take care, Mike
sorry to hear, hope you are feeling better. When my pulse kept dropping below 60, that's when they put the pacemaker in, said I had a "lazy heart" that kept forgetting to beat!
I am so sorry this happened to you! I can only imagine your concern and fear of another heart attack. You have no idea how much you just helped me! My son Jordan had the same thing happen over 2 weeks ago. Since he had never had these symptoms before, I thought it was his heart. All down the left side, tingling, numbness, double/blurred vision pain in left side of chest and pulse up and down. We had all kinds of test ran for his heart-negative. He now has continued numbness and tingling in left leg and forearm. We were told we are getting closer to diagnosis of MS. MS specialist told us this was a flare-up but won't say MS. Said she wants to watch a little longer but she suspects MS. I truly thought maybe I was crazy. So hard to understand all the things this can do. I am sorry you are not feeling well and hope this gets better soon. Thank you for all of your help today! My heart is much less heavy today because of you. Best to you!
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