March 31st - MRI and ER Visit - Mean Jean (worst mean nurse EVER!) Doylestown ER

On March 31st - I reported to Doylestown hospital early in the morning for an MRI. I was feeling good (I usually did in the mornings). The guy doing the MRI asked me what kind of music I wanted to listen to. I picked Country. Turns out, he LOVED Country music and so we started talking about what concerts he'd been to, who he liked the best. He was very cool and made me feel totally at ease. Funny thing was, he mentioned also why I would be getting an MRI if I'd already had a CAT scan. I, who generally felt I was "in the know" when it came to my health (getting copies of reports/labs/etc) started to question if I was really as proactive as I thought. Two medical people questioned why I was getting an MRI when a CAT scan had already shown what was wrong. But here's the thing - I'd liked Dr. Minissale, so when he said, "Get an MRI" - I just said, "Okay!" Perhaps I should have asked why, and what information would it provide that wasn't provided by the CAT scan...

Anyway. After the MRI, they gave me a copy of the MRI on CD so I could give it to any doctor who may ask for it in the future. I thought that was awesome. I think we should automatically receive copies of our labs/EKG/reports - we shouldn't have to request them.

I'm in a great mood. I'm feeling positive! I feel I'm NOT dying! I get home and go on line and start to work and I'm working for about an hour when suddenly - I feel 3 strong very forceful palpitations from my heart.  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

What. The. Fuck.
I had to fast the night before the MRI and had been given injection dye. After the MRI, I had a Diet Coke...I wonder if perhaps it's the caffeine on an empty stomach? I wait for it to pass but those three original palpitations seemed to set off a constant parade of palpitations. Fuck! I don't have time for this! I just WANT TO GET BACK ON TRACK WITH LIFE AND FEEL HEALTHY AGAIN. I take a Xanax and lay (lie) down. They don't go away. Now I'm having shortness of breath but think this is because I'm beginning to become fearful. What if this is the end? Should I go to the ER? Should I wait for it to pass? What if I was having a heart attack and am wasting time. But what if it was just my excitable heart being...well, excitable?
Finally, I turn to John and say, "Let's go - just to make sure."
Of COURSE, on the way over, my heart starts to calm down a bit.
Upon arriving at Doylestown ER, they hook me up to a monitor and take a quick look at my heart. It looks good. It ALWAYS does when they do this. Back in 2006 when I was in ER for palpitations, they did the same thing and everything looked fine. Then they hooked me up to bedside monitor and the PVC's were so frequent they kept setting off alarms!
They take me to a room, hook me up to the monitor and things look ok. A bit fast, a rare PVC, but nothing for me to freak out about. The nurse, Jean, seems really annoyed by me. Is it because this is my third visit in a month? Perhaps. But I'm being extremely co-operative and nice (as I always am). I worked in EMS, I know ER nurses and docs are often overwhelmed and are treated like crap from a few patients (and nurses are treated like crap from some docs too). But man, is this old lady nurse named Jean REALLY giving me attitude. My blood work comes back - my red cells and my  hemocrit are down and my MCH is high. This concerns me. During my other 2 ER visits, my blood work came back abnormal also. SOMETHING WAS WRONG. Since the end of February when this all started, I'd seen 7 doctors, been in the ER 3times, and though everyone seemed to admit something was wrong, no one could seem to figure out WHAT.
Dr. McHugh was the ER doc and he seemed nice enough - but very busy. He sent me for a chest Xray and when I came back - I was suddenly thirsty and had a raging headache. My blood pressure (which is normally 90/60 - was now 134/86. My heart rate was climbing - I felt the pounding in my chest and started to panic. I buzzed the nurse. Jean came in all but rolling her eyes. "Yes?"
"My blood pressure shot up, I have a sudden headache - my heart is racing." - I pointed to the monitor which my heart rate was 140 and rising.
She sighed as if I'd just told her I shit the bed and she'd have to clean it up.
"It's just because you're in the hospital - your blood pressure is actually fine."
"Not for me, my pressure is very low normally."
"Well, your fine."
OHMYFUCKINGGOD. She was a royal bitch and instead of calming me down or reassuring me, she was making my situation WORSE. When she left, I took out my iPhone and recorded the SVT rhythm that my heart was now in. I buzzed again.
Jean shuffled in. "I want a new nurse - you're not taking me seriously."
"Fine."
In comes the nurse in charge. She took Jean's side. She was a bitch too. I couldn't believe this. I wasn't in the ER looking for drugs. I didn't get any and didn't ask for any. What I wanted was answers and to be assured I wasn't having a fucking heart attack! And instead of calming me, they were provoking me.
Dr. McHugh came in the room and said all reports (except my labs) looked fine and I was free to go. He saw the SVT on the monitor and while he talked to me, the rate slowly climbed down. While he was nice enough, and I understand there's really not much he could have done, he failed to mention my run of SVT in the report. Nor did he mention in the report the spike in my blood pressure. The EKG report mentioned that my ST was now depressed when compared to the EKG they had taken on 3/13/2014.
The nurse that came in to give me my discharge papers was very very cool. He explained that Jean was close to retiring and she wasn't just that way with me, she was that way with most people. He said the staff had the same complaints about her!
I left that ER feeling beaten, mortified, embarrassed, and angry. Now I seriously was starting to distrust the Doylestown medical system. Again, the reason why I'm frustrated is that when it comes to my cardiac history, I went to Doylestown ER in 2006 with palpations, followed up with cardiac testing only to be told it was "nothing" and "harmless" - so I believed this. Then when I had surgery in 2007 - I went into bigemny and trigemny under anesthesia. Even when I came out of that, I blew it off because I was told a year prior, all was well. So the past few years, I shrugged off palpitations and now am wondering...wait, could it be my heart causing all this abnormal blood work? Is my heart causing my fatigue, and anemia? And yet, I guess because there is no OBVIOUS flags (I'm not unresponsive!) they just send me on my merry way.