Story time! Part suspected health care cuts/part funny

[Jersey Girl]

For your reading pleasure and partly informative...we hope.

It's going on 6 a.m. we just got home from the ER. I went into Afib/RVR and couldn't cardiovert myself at home so off to the ER at 3 a.m. Anyway, a couple of things I noticed.

Intake: Usually there would be an MA or whatever do the initial intake in the ER by doing vitals. Then an RN would come in and take all the pertinent information the blow by blow of what happened, what meds you take, etc.

This time only the MA did the initial intake.

Inside the ER: An RN did the rest of the pertinent information right in the ER resuscitation room.

Usually they'd draw blood labs full panel and do a chest x ray before the electrical cardioversion. This time...only electrolytes were tested for and no chest xray.

I'm thinking these are necessary cuts in the health care system due to staff shortages or some other financial thing like losing money during the pandemique. What do you think?

Also, this might be unrelated but after the pushed the Propofol and I was obviously out because I don't recall it, the Boy said he could hear them in the room shouting at me "Jersey can you hear me?" repeatedly for about 10 times. I guess they were trying to make sure I was under but that has never happened in all the times I ever went there for the same procedure. File that under miscellaneous.

The funny part: I don't know what you guys think I'm like in real life but I tend to crack jokes. Not non-stop or anything so that it would annoy you and sometimes sarcastically, but I also tend to use humor as a form of getting a point across and ice breaking or essentially putting others at ease. So anyway, they put you out with Propofol which I absolutely love because it just turns you off.

On the way out after discharge, this young man (who actually was the person whom the ER doc let push the button for the shock and I know this because the doc was reviewing it with him before they put me out) is the one who wheeled me out to the entrance, I thanked him for pushing the button whereupon he told me a story about me. He said I was so funny when I was coming out of the Propofol (after the shock) because as I was coming out from being under...he said that I said, "Haha I was only faking being asleep. You can shock me now".

Me: Are you joking?
Him: No you said that.
Me: I did not!
Him: Yes you did. (He's laughing the whole time)
Me: Swear!
Him: I swear
Me: Pinky swear!
Him: And darned if he didn't pinky swear it!



All the way home we discussed how on earth I could come up with a cogent and relevant sentence/joke like that and still stay in character as it were/be my authentic self, while still partly under the effects of Propofol.

k I'm off to bed now! Hope you enjoyed my little story and do give feedback if you feel like it about what I mentioned as possible cut backs and why you think that is the case now. Thanks!

[Jersey Girl]

Oh I see how it is. No one even cares about my joke or cutting corners on health care? Fine. You guys stink on a melting glacier.

[huckelberry]

Oh I see how it is. No one even cares about my joke or cutting corners on health care? Fine. You guys stink on a melting glacier.

Why I have only placed my feet on a glacier once. I had no crampons, no ice axe, no rope and the glacier went down a long ways so I went around a different way down.

I just saw your story Jersey Girl, It makes me concerned about your health, well at least enough to wish you well, I do not wish to pry. Propofol is strange, a complete blank, your joke fits.

[Jersey Girl]

Oh I see how it is. No one even cares about my joke or cutting corners on health care? Fine. You guys stink on a melting glacier.

Why I have only placed my feet on a glacier once. I had no crampons, no ice axe, no rope and the glacier went down a long ways so I went around a different way down.

I just saw your story Jersey Girl, It makes me concerned about your health, well at least enough to wish you well, I do not wish to pry. Propofol is strange, a complete blank, your joke fits.

Oh no I'm perfectly fine, huck. I've written about it too many times already here. Anyway, I think my joke coming out of propofol (of which I have no memory at all) is anecdotal proof that even though propofol wipes your memory/causes amnesia, your brain continues to think while under the influence.

Weird, right?

[Gunnar]

I just read your OP, and I found it very amusing! I shared huckleberry's concern about your health when I first read it, though. Thanks for sharing and assuring us that you're alright!

This reminds me of a story the famous science fiction author, Isaac Asimov once told about himself when he had a medical emergency that required he be put under anesthesia. He had a benign thyroid tumor that needed to be removed. He was quite nervous about the procedure. When he woke up in recovery, his doctor told him how he almost died -- not because of the procedure itself (it was a fairly routine and minor procedure, after all) but because of what Asimov did just as he was passing out due to the anesthesia. Just before he passed out, he suddenly sat straight up, grabbed the doctor by the lapels of his lab coat and said: "Doctor, Doctor, in green coat, Doctor, Doctor, cut my throat, and when you've cut it, Doctor, then, won't you sew it up again?", after which he fell back on the operating table, totally unconscious. Asimov didn't remember any of this, of course, and the doctor said he laughed so hard that he had a hard time getting himself under control enough to safely do the procedure.

[Jersey Girl]

I just read your OP, and I found it very amusing! I shared huckleberry's concern about your health when I first read it, though. Thanks for sharing and assuring us that you're alright!

I've written about AFIB with RVR a million times in the Score so far thread in Paradise. You probably don't follow that thread very much. It's not life threatening and now these days only happens about 1-2 times per year. I can often cardiovert myself back to NSR but sometimes I can't especially if I am already tired because the techniques I use are exhausting. If I can't do it in 2+ hours, I go to the ER and get electrical cardioverted--shocked. The only at-home method I've never tried (and I should some time just to see) is plunging my face into a bowl of ice water. I've seen it done but I've never done it myself because yikes it's ice water! Anyway, my heart is healthy. It's the vagus nerve that kicks it off.

This reminds me of a story the famous science fiction author, Isaac Asimov once told about himself when he had a medical emergency that required he be put under anesthesia. He had a benign thyroid tumor that needed to be removed. He was quite nervous about the procedure. When he woke up in recovery, his doctor told him how he almost died -- not because of the procedure itself (it was a fairly routine and minor procedure, after all) but because of what Asimov did just as he was passing out due to the anesthesia. Just before he passed out, he suddenly sat straight up, grabbed the doctor by the lapels of his lab coat and said: "Doctor, Doctor, in green coat, Doctor, Doctor, cut my throat, and when you've cut it, Doctor, then, won't you sew it up again?", after which he fell back on the operating table, totally unconscious. Asimov didn't remember any of this, of course, and the doctor said he laughed so hard that he had a hard time getting himself under control enough to safely do the procedure.

Can you even believe that?!?! I'm learning that anesthesiology is a complex and interesting topic! Like I said, propofol wipes the memory but now I can see that although we might be unaware of it, it's possible that we never stop thinking while we're under or emerging from it!

p.s. Joe Biden has AFIB but not the kind that I get. The kind I get is not well studied nor recognized in the US like it is in the UK. It was a doc schooled in the UK who correctly diagnosed me after years of having repeated episodes and he gave me my life back! The reason for the difference between the US and UK is that in the US, funding must be raised to forward research where in the UK funding is already built into the health care system. I think it was last year or the year before that I finally found a research paper from the NIH on the type that I have. One paper! The UK doc knew what it was within five minutes of my explaining my history with it! Which only begs the question, how many people have what I have and are being treated according to other types (the medications treatment for which exacerbates what I have) and are ending up getting ablations (that won't help with this) and finally ending up with pacemakers all because the US hasn't come up with the dollars to fund research studies and sort it out! Think about that...

[Some Schmo]

I just read your OP, and I found it very amusing! I shared huckleberry's concern about your health when I first read it, though. Thanks for sharing and assuring us that you're alright!

Ditto on this post.

It sounds like you are a joker, Jersey Girl. I'm not surprised by the story, however. I'm a firm believer your subconscious is in control and only communicates to your conscious what it thinks you're safe to consciously think about.

I've been known to make a few jokes myself, and I'm surprised how often they pop out of my mouth before realizing what's funny about them.

[Jersey Girl]

I just read your OP, and I found it very amusing! I shared huckleberry's concern about your health when I first read it, though. Thanks for sharing and assuring us that you're alright!

Ditto on this post.

It sounds like you are a joker, Jersey Girl. I'm not surprised by the story, however. I'm a firm believer your subconscious is in control and only communicates to your conscious what it thinks you're safe to consciously think about.

I've been known to make a few jokes myself, and I'm surprised how often they pop out of my mouth before realizing what's funny about them.

Nah, I'm perfectly fine and like I said, I've written about this repeatedly (much to the of others I am sure) on the Score so far thread but only because I was mainly documenting my journey with it just like I use the thread to document fitness and weight loss (and more currently for me weight gain) because...that's what the thread is for. Anyone who wants to comment on health and fitness can post there, even mental health issues are welcome and those who comment are being hospitable to each other regardless of the issue. It's my favorite thread on the whole entire board!

Yeah can you believe I said something so on topic and playful while slowly emerging from the influence of propofol? And yes, I'm a well known joker in real life but never a cruel remark that hurts anyone's feelings and mostly to I guess use insight and irony to make people feel comfortable or get a point across. I dunno, I just say stuff that pops into my head like you said you do. When I was a little girl my Brownie scout leader nick named me "Giggles" because I would disrupt meetings and have the other girls laughing. Like what did I think I was doing there? Playing a prank on the medical team? I wasn't consciously thinking at all and don't remember any of it. Or like you said, there's a communication process there between subconscious and conscious states? I don't know enough about it this that is for sure!

You're a joker, too? I would have never guessed!

[Gunnar]

Can you even believe that?!?! I'm learning that anesthesiology is a complex and interesting topic! Like I said, propofol wipes the memory but now I can see that although we might be unaware of it, it's possible that we never stop thinking while we're under or emerging from it!

Yes, I figure that being a curious and fairly well-read yourself and much better educated than most people, that you are likely familiar as I am with rare accounts of horror stories of surgical patients who wake up from their anesthesia with vivid memories of what the doctors and nurses discussed among themselves during the operation, including, sometimes, demeaning, unflattering remarks and crude jokes about their patient, confident that anesthesia precluded any possibility that said patient could be aware of or ever remember what was said.

[Physics Guy]

Way back in grad school I was part of a group of grad students that met every week over beer to talk about "Mind/Brain" stuff. We had philosophers, computer scientists, psychologists (including some doing real neurology), and for no good reason besides general physics nosiness, a few physicists. We often brought in professors or other professional experts to talk to us. One time we got an anaesthesiologist.

That was a long time ago now, but I've talked to anaesthesiologists since then and heard the same story. We don't know what anaesthesia is.

It knocks you out. You might think that the professionals can say a lot more than this, about exactly what it does. But they can't.

Another interesting thing I remember learning from that anaesthesiologist was that morphine is non-toxic. It's addictive, and it can wreck your life if you get hooked on it, but the only way to overdose on morphine is to drown. So the protocol for doing surgery with morphine instead of other anaesthetics is just to give the patient more morphine if they show any response. My father once had surgery under morphine and he said that it didn't remove the pain, but just made him not mind it. I don't know what that means, and he couldn't explain it. That was just how he thought of describing it at the time.