Monday
I’m running really behind with posts again this week. I’ve been working on my thesis conclusion waaaay too long – I need to finish it ASAP. It’s going to be another fun (not) day. [I began writing this post this morning – but have only been able to post this afternoon]
Monday was sort of stressful. Jac has given her permission for me to tell you what happened, which I shall do so very briefly. Basically, she had heart palpitations – her heart beat abnormally fast for 45 minutes – and she called an ambulance and was brought to hospital. She’s had heart palpitations before – but only for 5 or so minutes at a time, and the doctors have examined her and found nothing wrong with her heart. This time they happened just before she got into the car to drive to work. I was already at uni, and so she was alone, which of course added to the stressfulness of what was happening to her. 45 minutes is a long time. She was shaking so much she couldn’t get in the car to drive – I’m glad she didn’t try. She rang me after she rang the ambulance and told me not to panic – but of course it was hard for me not to worry. I rang her mum and got ready to get to the hospital.
Anyway, long story short – MK drove me from uni to Royal Perth. Because Jac wasn’t actually having chest pain and her heartbeat began to slow down when the ambos* hooked up the portable ECG to her, they didn’t think it was a heart attack and it seems they took their time getting to the hospital, because I actually beat them there.
After lots of waiting, waiting, waiting – I finally got to see her. She was dressed in one of those hospital gowns and hooked up to a heart monitor. She was smiling though. They said her blood tests were all normal and as her heart rate was back to normal she could go home.
It turns out she has something called SVT – supraventricular tachycardia (a rapid heartbeat – to find out more, look up SVT heart in Google). Apparently it’s very common, and lots of people of all levels of fitness have SVT from time to time, and never have any serious heart problems. A lot of the time there’s no known cause for it – if you fall into the no apparent cause category, unless you happen to be hooked up to a heart monitor at the time of an episode they have no way of working out what caused it. And of course, most people aren’t hooked up to monitors when it happens. The doctor taught Jac a couple of things she can do to try and get her heart back to normal rhythm next time she has another episode. There’s no telling when that will be – could be soon, could be in a long time, could be never. She doesn’t have to live her life any differently, she can play hockey and do everything she normally does.
Jac’s mum picked us up and dropped us back home, and we rustled up some toasted sandwiches for lunch. Then Jac had a long nap – her rapid heartbeat had left her feeling like she’d run a marathon that day.
She’s fine now. You wouldn’t know we’d spent most of Monday morning in hospital. Interestingly, she said that both cats were hanging around her meowing before she left for work (or rather, tried to leave for work). Even Pixel was meowing for no apparent reason, which is unusual (Billy Lee, however, meows about nothing all the time). Maybe they sensed something, I don’t know. When we got home Pixel seemed a little subdued, like she was upset. But yeah, Jac and the cats are all well and fine now. Actually, I think I was more upset by the whole thing than Jac was.
It was Melbourne Cup Day yesterday but I just didn’t get into it this year (I had a very different Melbourne Cup Day last year). I think I’m a little more stressed out this year. I have to submit my thesis in a little over three months, and I’ve been preoccupied with what will happen after that, job-wise.
*Ambo – term meaning ambulance officer, along the lines of dermo, postie, chippie, sparkie etc.