Another Bad Night

I didn't post a blog yesterday as it was a pretty quiet day for us. Val had PT in the morning and made good progress with learning to transfer. He went from the bed, to his little scooter, to the toilet, and back to his scooter and then finally back to bed. He was exhausted but it was a great accomplishment.

During the night he was restless and couldn't get comfortable. I tried adjusting the bed but nothing seemed to help. About 4:30a.m. he broke out in a cold, clammy sweat and started having trouble breathing. The nurse came in and took his vitals and they appeared to be normal. She thought maybe he was having an anxiety attack. She put him on oxygen and that seemed to help some. A little later I asked them to notify his caridologist, or whoever was on weekend call for their office. But before they could get there, the internist on call for Dr. S. came in. He immediately determined that Val was out of sinus rhythm and in atrial fibrillation. They had to put in a new IV so they could give him a push of digoxin. So here we are, back on the cardiac floor where he can be on a telemetry monitor while they adjust his meds to lower his heart rate. Val is breathing more comfortably right now and the nurse just popped in and said his heart rate is down already!!! When we left the rehab. unit earlier today we told them we'd be back in a day or two, so we'll see how it goes.