Week in Review

It felt good to add a post once again

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Monday I had an appointment with my BCSCF physician followed by a visit with Norman. It was good to see him, he is doing so well! He arrived with his usual treat for me of a salted brownie but this time he added a wonderful lemon square that had a shortbread crust; he had tucked away another one in a box for Rod along with a brownie for Kenny. Popular man in our household this week! My voice was still mainly absent on Monday so I sat and listened while Norman talked, I bet that doesn’t happen for him often, it was a very enjoyable visit.

On Tuesday I decided that I needed to take it easy and see if I could help my body get rid of this cold that has been lingering; it was a nice quiet day.

Wednesday was an errand/shopping morning and I was very pleased with how well everything went; the route I had planned worked well and I was home for lunch with everything (and more) that I needed taken care of.

Yesterday was apparently national Chili Day (according to Facebook, anyway) so I made up a big crockpot full of chili first thing in the morning and then did a few other things before going over to the hospital to have the holter monitor applied. There were a few other people in the waiting area of the CV labs area when I arrived and the staff was at lunch; I was happy to have my iPad with me and access to the internet. When it was time for my appointment, they called me by my first name and took me back, without checking any of my demographic information with me to make sure that I was the right person – not good on their part.

The process of getting wired up was an easy one, first they used an alcohol swap to clean off the five areas that the leads would be placed; once those were dry they roughed up the skin a bit with an emery-like material followed by placing the monitor leads. Once placed, they connected the leads and then taped over the leads to secure them even more. The holter monitor itself was small, like a cell phone, much smaller than the ones I was familiar with earlier in my nursing days. The holter was placed in a protective cover and attached to some webbing that acted as a belt, the loose lead wires were all tucked up neatly and I was set.

The tech reviewed the diary that I was to keep with me. I was to go on with my normal daily activities; if I felt there was an ‘event’ i.e. arrhythmia; there was a button on the holter to push and I was to record the time on the diary along with checking off any symptoms I might have felt at the time it occurred. The only other instruction was that if I exercised I was to document the time and duration on the diary. 

As I left, I thought about walking down one of my favourite hallways at this hospital where they have different pictures and paintings by local artists for sale but talked myself out of it and headed home.

Murphy’s law – I didn’t have any episodes like the 45 minute arrhythmia that placed me on this path; I did my treadmill workout and recorded that; then had one little skipped beat once I went to bed, otherwise I think it was a fairly boring holter test. 

Here is a picture of the holter apparatus - my apologies for getting my finger in the way of the camera lens - 

This morning, I removed the holter as instructed at about 9:30 a.m. and placed everything along with my diary in a Ziploc bag, then drove over to the hospital and dropped it off to the bin they had instructed me to place it in. I once again had the urge to walk down the hallway where the paintings were but thought about my 15 minute parking and decided to leave. I made it to the front door and still thought I should go back and look at the paintings so I followed that urge and asked the Lord to show me if there was something there that I was supposed to see. Most of the hallway walls were being cleaned today so the pictures had been taken down and some were just in the process of being re-hung by a couple of volunteers. There was an area further down that always had pictures also so I headed to that area and once again asked the Lord to show me what I was supposed to see. There it was! The perfect picture for Keiran whose birthday is coming up at the end of April. The picture goes well with the theme I have going for his gift so I quickly picked up the picture and walked down the hall to the gift shop to pay for it. The volunteers beamed as I walked past them, very pleased at my purchase. So was I.

Tomorrow we have the pleasure of babysitting Paisley and Charlie.

So that is my week, including the Holter monitor which turned out really to be a non-event. Next week it will be back to work.

Take care, everyone!