A Night in Hospital with CPAP

[HoseCrusher]

I am glad you followed up on this and have a course of action.

Stints are supposed to be wonderful and your body will love having full circulation restored.

While they are at it, ask them to put a stint in your throat... then you won't need xPAP therapy anymore.

My thoughts and prayers are with you as you go through this.

[2 B Sleeping Soundly]

RocketGirl (my Coffee Sister),

My thoughts and prayers will be with you that you will only need the least invasive medical procedure necessary to treat your condition. Stay calm, strong, and focussed on getting back to health, which we all hope will be as quick as possible. Please keep us updated on your progress when you are able.

John (your Coffee Brother)

[2 B Sleeping Soundly]

HoseCrusher wrote: While they are at it, ask them to put a stint in your throat... then you won't need xPAP therapy anymore

[ohwhatanight]

Rocketgirl - I am spending my second night in a hospital following an er visit yesterday. Thanks to you and this thread, I had the presence of mind to grab my cpap and bring with me. Thank you so much.

Wishing you a speedy recovery.

[RocketGirl]

A heartfelt (haha!) thank you all for the prayers and good wishes - they worked.

The Nuclear Stress Test Was Wrong.

Based on that test I had been informed pretty definitively that there was at least one arterial blockage, maybe more. The cardiologist who interpreted the test did say that once in a great while, the test gives a false positive but that he'd not seen that happen in many years. I don't fault him on this - he did the right thing. Based on the stress test results and the chest pain, he was absolutely right to recommend the cardiac catheterization.

I did have the cardiac catheterization. I was awake for the whole thing. After the fact it is somewhat unnerving to realize that I was talking animatedly with someone who was at that moment running a little tube-thingy all through my arteries into my living heart, but that's how it happened.

They had the cameras hooked up to a huge screen right there, so I could see everything as it happened. The surgeon started out very serious, but when one after another the images came up showing no narrowing, no obstruction, no plaque whatsoever, and absolutely unimpeded easy movement of tracer-laden blood everywhere at every time, he issued a few excited "WOW"s and began asking about the details of my diet (vegetarian for about 30 years now). My heart is a lot younger than I am.

I had to remain quiet for a few days because of the incision into the artery to insert the catheter, but I am home now and cleared to go back to work. I am glad I had the catheterization. I believe in hard data, and to have seen the images with my own eyes in the company of a known expert removes any doubt about my heart health, and that is worth a great deal indeed.

Of course, I still have some pretty appalling chest pain, and there are more doctor visits on the horizon to figure out what it is - but for the moment, I am simply very, very glad to know what it isn't.

[ems]

So delighted to know what it "isn't" as well! Great news!

[kwcrnp]

Glad to hear your cath was good....15% of stress test are over read as positive. This is common, but on a good note, they are very rarely false negative. If there has to be an error let it be in favor of caution.

The hospital I work at use to allow home CPAP but due to unclean, poorly maintained equipment (pt would state we chewed their power cords...) they changed the policy to not allow them unless an inspection and release form was completed. They do encourage pt to bring their own masks. We have very nice new machines with humidifiers.

You have to realize that unfortunately the majority of CPAP users are not as interested in their treatment as we are and also don't maintain their machines the way we do.

[needzzzzs]

Delighted to hear that excellent news!

[HoseCrusher]

That is excellent news.

Now you are going to have to quite playing "Jane" of the jungle and quite thumping your chest quite so hard...

[PST]

They had the cameras hooked up to a huge screen right there, so I could see everything as it happened. The surgeon started out very serious, but when one after another the images came up showing no narrowing, no obstruction, no plaque whatsoever, and absolutely unimpeded easy movement of tracer-laden blood everywhere at every time, he issued a few excited "WOW"s and began asking about the details of my diet (vegetarian for about 30 years now). My heart is a lot younger than I am.

That's great news, R/G. There is something wondrous and amazing, isn't there, about being able to look at your own innerds in real time? I hope they find an inoffensive explanation for your symptoms.

[PST]

1. The hose, mask, is all brand new for each patient. (yes they would charge for this as supplies)
2. All equipment is sterilized far more efficiently then you could ever do.
3. This PROTECTS patients, the hospital has control over what is on the floor.
4. Yes YOUR machine may not be filthy, BUT what about the dude in the room next to you???
5. Using your logic about the equipment are you going to bring your own Bed, operating instruments, ETC

I realize I'm late to this thread, but I was hospitalized last fall and had some thoughts on the subject when a $700 charge appeared on my bill just for inspecting my own CPAP machine before I was allowed to use it. A normal hospital room is not a sterile environment. I brought all kinds of filthy things in with me without any attempt to stop me. For example, I wore shoes, which pick up all sorts of stuff on their soles. I brought my handkerchief, comb, and toothbrush. I brought my laptop computer, when everyone knows that keyboards are notoriously more germ-laden than toilet seats. All sorts of people visited me, carrying heaven knows what infections. None of them were children, at least, but other people on the floor had children come to see them, and we know what little snot-pots kids can be. I can hardly imagine a CPAP machine adding much danger to this mix. Maybe a gunky tank might qualify as a threat, but that could be easily sterilized. The hospital should do something for its $700.

[hades161]

1. The hose, mask, is all brand new for each patient. (yes they would charge for this as supplies)
2. All equipment is sterilized far more efficiently then you could ever do.
3. This PROTECTS patients, the hospital has control over what is on the floor.
4. Yes YOUR machine may not be filthy, BUT what about the dude in the room next to you???
5. Using your logic about the equipment are you going to bring your own Bed, operating instruments, ETC

I realize I'm late to this thread, but I was hospitalized last fall and had some thoughts on the subject when a $700 charge appeared on my bill just for inspecting my own CPAP machine before I was allowed to use it. A normal hospital room is not a sterile environment. I brought all kinds of filthy things in with me without any attempt to stop me. For example, I wore shoes, which pick up all sorts of stuff on their soles. I brought my handkerchief, comb, and toothbrush. I brought my laptop computer, when everyone knows that keyboards are notoriously more germ-laden than toilet seats. All sorts of people visited me, carrying heaven knows what infections. None of them were children, at least, but other people on the floor had children come to see them, and we know what little snot-pots kids can be. I can hardly imagine a CPAP machine adding much danger to this mix. Maybe a gunky tank might qualify as a threat, but that could be easily sterilized. The hospital should do something for its $700.

Just what was this Inspection? Like what did they do? Take it apart, sterilize everything, and put it back together? When I said I thought an Inspection would be ok, I meant like oh, I don't know like look at it and see if something green is growing out of it or it reeks of smoke. For 700$ they can BUY a cpap. Again just one more way to charge something for nothing.

[RocketGirl]

When I went in for the cardiac catheterization this week I did take my machine with me in case I did need to be admitted (which, thankfully, did not happen). I had asked the hospital ahead of time and they said certainly, bring it. When I checked in, they put a sticker on the case indicating that it was my personal property, and they stowed it with my clothing etc. on a shelf under my gurney (high-style travel, that). The machine stayed with me the entire time, except for when I transferred to the operating room. While I was in the operating room, my gurney with my things was right outside the door. No mention was ever made of needing an inspection. This was at a major teaching hospital in the Washington DC area.

[rocklin]

The cardiologist says that the stress of my job is most likely the main factor

Yes, stress kills.

If they find blockage, they will do an immediate angioplasty and stenting of the artery.

The magic number is supposed to be >70% blockage. Like a 10 second AHI, a blockage 70% of more is uh, "stentable".

Stents are a huge money-maker. There are people with so many stents inside their chest, surgeons joking say that they have a "full metal jacket"

The dirty little secret: stents can relieve chest pain, but they almost never extend your life.

[Mr Bill]

RocketGirl I was following along after a hiatus. First the shock of the news and then the relief of seeing that your heart is not just good but provably good. Please let us know how the chest pain proves out. My brother had chest pains a few years back. They finally told him it was strained muscles and that his heart was just fine. They did tracers and found no blockages. None of us knew at the time about sleep apnea. However, we now believe he had the familial CSA that my mom and I have. That may have caused damage somewhere that threw a clot or something. Unlike you, he was very overweight, I'll guess somewhere above 280. About a year after the chest pains, he decided to loose the weight. Between March and September, he had lost 65 pounds with weight watchers and one day after a walk, dropped with a heart attack and they were unable to revive him. I have no idea if his chest pains were a true warning sign or not. He was my little brother and I miss him a lot.