technicians abilities

I went in for my routine 6 month pacemaker check and had 3 episodes of atrial tachycardia with one of them having a max heart rate of 240. The boston scientific rep said it was atrial flutter, but the doctor never said what rhythm it was. I have a history of sinus node ablations and atrial pacemaker insertion. I find it hard to believe that it was a sinus tach at 240. I then went to have an echo done and the echo tech told me I was in atrial fib and had blood pooling in my atrium. I got the final report back from the echo and it says nothing about atrial blood pooling or a-fib. I am so confused and don't know what to think. I have an appt with the cardiologist at the end of this month. I would like to know if I am having episodes of a fib or flutter, as this would be a very new thing for me. I would think a pacemaker and echo tech know basic rhythm. I am a masters prepared cardiac nurse, but have not seen the rhythm strips from the pacemaker check or echo. Any thoughts welcome??

1 Comments

"Physician"...

by donr - 2013-09-11 08:09:22

..."heal thyself!"

Random Thoughts -

1) It never ceases to tickle me that when suddenly thrown to the other side of the examining table how health care folks suddenly lose some of their cool.

2) You need to be a pushy patient & ask, nay - demand to see your rhythm strips when they do an EKG/ECG. I now have my entire cardio team trained - I ring a bell & they salivate & ask for a bowl of dog food. Well, not really - they run a tape of any sort & I stick my hand out & they hand the output to me so I can look at it like I know what I am looking at & ask questions. ESPECIALLY my PM download report. MOF, we have done this little pas de deux so many times in the last 10 + yrs that they say "Keep it" & run a copy for themselves. It's your right to see all this stuff.

3) The PM download report has a wealth of info that you can pore over & answer a lot of your own questions, based on already knowing what things mean. It is an unfortunate fact that when a Pro looks at a report, they do not always see everything. They see so much "Stuff" all day that they sometimes miss changes in an individual's report from visit to visit. They are also under time pressure to get you in & out & cannot line up this report w/ the last report & compare them. You have a personal library of your reports, you can sit down at night w/ a cup of whatever rotgut you drink & look at them & see what has changed & cal the & ask "WHY?" the next day. In the practice I go to, the Strip is run, the tech, lets me look at it answers any questions that they can & leaves me to ponder till the "Great Man" comes in to answer what is left over.

4) As time goes on, I'm sure that you will become a practiced, savvy, pushy patient & relax at what you have to do to become a successful patient.

5) What you are witnessing is how difficult it is to be a patient & insure that your best interests are taken care of & you receive quality healthcare. You have an active part in all this little drama called "Life."

6) It is NOT unusual from this side of the desk to get a report that says something different from what the tech said. I've seen it frequently. There are often limits on what techs are permitted to tell a patient, so You must carefully compare what they perhaps tell you that is really beyond their authority to disclose w/ what makes sense to you. Also to ask about the differences you see in the final report. This is a tacky area - you build up a rapport w/ a tech & they tell you things that are perhaps out of school - you must protect them as a source of info in delving for final answers.

Don

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