I've spent the past week partially under the care of the BC medical system. I felt my SVT return on a Thursday afternoon while sitting quietly with a book. I had experienced a couple of earlier episodes in the morning that had been easy to diminish. In the afternoon, the usual "vagal" practices didn't seem to work. Dave took me to the ER in Kaslo which operates from 9 - 5 pm daily, I believe.
There I was met by a nurse within 5 - 10 minutes and monitored by an ECG. At the beginning, my heart was calm but it soon escalated. Fairly quickly, I was met by the attending ER dr (who also has patients that he/she needs to visit as a GP part-time in our town). Within an hour he had administered a drug that was supposed to bring my heart back into regular rhythm, but did not. After 2 doses of this unpleasant experience, he called the hospital in Nelson to consult with an internist there. I was given 3 doses of a different beta blocker and it did reduce my heart rate but not below 120 bpm. By this time it was approaching 5 pm and I was asked if I wanted to go home or check into Nelson hospital to be monitored over night and see the internist the next morning. That was the route that I chose.
Nelson hospital was expecting me (although not at the registration desk) and I was put onto a Holter monitor and saw an attending dr to review the experience. I actually slept in the very quiet ER where I was basically given a private room (no bathroom) with a very good internet connection. My heart continued to go in and out of arrhythmia. I was given breakfast and the internist was at my bedside by 9:30 am. He did a very thorough "past experience" interview and told me that if I had SVT, the drugs I was given in hospital should have worked. Because they didn't he felt that I should take a blood thinner because of either atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter. I was given a new beta blocker and went home with prescriptions to deal with the issue. It worked well through the weekend, I was booked into an echocardiogram on Monday morning and then went to revisit an ER in Trail on Tuesday morning because the arrhythmia began again. After spending the morning there, I was sent home and continued to have an uneven heartbeat (that didn't happen in the hospital) but it was manageable and I had a good night. We sent the internist an email about the latest episode. He did not call us back until the next day, but I was surprised that he did call. I am now booked for a stress test in 2 weeks. He has also made the cardio unit in Kelowna aware of my situation.
Most everyone is complaining about the medical system in our country. BC is no different. I was extremely impressed with the care that I was given in an "emergency" situation. I was given full attention, I felt. Each dr that I saw (3 in total) wrote a very thorough and accurate report on the hospital experience that is now in my health portal. I suspect that these reports, which I believe are dictated, still take a physician at least 10 - 15 minutes to complete. I felt very CARED FOR with the staff that I met in this recent experience. I don't have to undertake medical care very often (and perhaps that is about to change), but my situation assures me that I should be in good hands.
