AN IRON INFUSION AND ANOTHER VISIT TO A&E!

 

THE IRON INFUSION!

Well! That didn’t pan out as expected!

Firstly, it took the nurses four attempts to get the cannula in despite being having totally noticeable ‘butch’ veins.  On the second attempt the nurse said it was in fine and flushed it through with saline.  As she wandered off to get the iron, I noticed a big bulge in my forearm (that cannula was in forearm/wrist).  I thought I had better query it although it had gone by the time she reappeared.  Lucky, I did as she had missed the vein and would have been infusing straight into the skin which would have been a waste plus would probably have stained my arm brown – possibly permanently!

Luckily, the rest was straightforward and I felt fine for the rest of the infusion and afterwards. I took it easy with a couple of walks and an e-bike ride before beginning running (shuffle and walk intervals) five days later.  The run was as gruesome as before but I managed to run for twice as long for each interval with a shorter recovery so that was good. 

As the week progressed, I felt better in myself and several people commented that I had more ‘spark’.  I ran again but I am so slow!!  It wasn’t helped by the fact it was that boiling hot week - 24˚ at 7 am! I was also sleeping very badly.

Then of course it all went pear-shaped!  Of course it did!  I’m a jinx!!

I spend a lovely day at the Norfolk show – it was hot but tolerable but on the way home I got a really weird pain in my shoulder – this then spread to my chest, arm and jaw!! Oh no!  So off to A&E even though I didn’t think it was my heart (although the last time I had thought that I was actually having my SCAD!).  It was chaos – the usual array of timewasters (an insect bite you couldn’t even see), the angry (“I’ve been here for hours, I might go home” – good, off you toddle then) and the mad plus a prisoner with two wardens (there is always a prisoner in A&E, I think they treat it as an away day!)

I told the staff I thought I was having a heart attack (no point being stiff-upper-lippish in these circumstances) but still waited half-hour to even be triaged!  I then waited another half-hour to see the nurse.  However, when I finally saw the doctor he checked me over thoroughly for heart attack, SCAD, aortic dissection and blood clot in lungs!!  But nothing found.  I think it was just the heat, some problem with my spine referring pain to my shoulder and then a bit of panic on top (OK, a lot of panic).  After five hours I was discharged.  So that kind of ruined that nice day out!

The next day I had a follow up from my last cardioversion and the lovely nurse, C, told me I had done the right thing by coming in (the A&E doc said likewise) which was nice because I was feeling a bit of a knob about it all!

All was well with my heart, amiodarone doing its thing and then SOME GOOD NEWS!!! AFTER MY SCAD MY EJECTION FRACTION (a measure of how well your heart is pumping was 55% (it should be 54-75% in females) which they were pleased with as it showed the heart was working well.  But now IT IS UP TO 65% (SIXTY-FIVE PERCENT!!!!!).  Forgive me shouting but I was so happy!!!

The day after that I spoke to the lovely dietician again.  My gut biome is good (171 different bacteria – you can have up to 250.  More than that though is bad), but missing two important ones.

I thought I wouold be told to take antibiotics and keep to the low-Fodmaps diet forever, but instead she said I could relax that a bit – not feel guilty about eating non-fodmap friendly stuff and prescribed a whole load of herbal stuff.  She thinks I have low (or was it weak?) stomach acid.

This would mean the food is leaving my stomach partially digested giving plenty of food to the naughty bugs which have escaped my large intestine and invaded my small intestine (the SIBO).  So, I have been following that regime for a few days.  Easy enough although all the stuff tastes foul – which must mean it is good!!!

And then things got odd again (natch!).  11 days after the infusion I started feeling really cold but with a burning face – given that it was about 31˚ or so, this did not seem a good sign.  It continued for about 48 hours before disappearing again leaving a trail of panic in its wake (there is a rare and serious late reaction you can have caused by low phosphate – so, being a raging hypochondriac, I thought it was that!).  I felt a bit worn out all week but felt better after a super-fast march/shouting at the sky/crying session.  Boy, I felt better afterwards though it did make my nose bleed (of course it did!)!

I am now feeling much better and have now started running AGAIN.  I’m super slow as before but at least I am doing it again. I feel full of energy and so hopefully the iron is now kicking in (it takes up to two months).

Onwards and Upwards!!

 

Have a great summer everyone. 

Your HHT and aFIB and SIBO and SCAD athlete!!!!!

 

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