We went to Canada's Wonderland by tube and bus, it was very hot (35+c). I had drank a couple of bottles of water that morning but threw away the last of it when entering Wonderland because they wouldn't allow drinks in. We went straight to the Top Gun rollercoaster, only stopping to take 1 photo for Kay in front of a waterfall.
We joined the queue for Top Gun, which took about an hour before we got on the ride. It was very hot waiting in the queue with very little shade. I felt OK though just a bit hot.
It was the first time I'd been on a rollercoaster for a few years, but just felt the same as I had in the past. A little nervous as you climb to the top of the first drop but then after that it was fine. I got off feeling OK, Kay was complaining about her head being thrown about while on the ride but I was OK. We walked off the ride and walked up past the screens showing the videos of the ride. We watched 30 seconds or so of us before carrying on towards the next ride. Just after this I started to get pins and needles again in my feet and hands. I had mentioned this to Kay when first climbing on the rollercoaster.
I then started to feel very hot and was sweating, also realised my chest was tight. I started to feel very weak. I told Kay I needed to go to the toilet. I sat in the toilet for a couple of minutes trying to pull myself around and throwing water on myself. I decided I couldn't stay there any longer so went out to meet Kay, I walked a few yards to meet her and told her I needed to sit down for a bit. We then moved a bit further and I said I needed to sit again before going on another ride. I could tell Kay was pissed off with me, so told her to go on the ride while I sat down for a while. She said no, I got a drink and shortly after drinking it was sick a couple of time.
Kay said I must have heat stroke or something but I hadn't mentioned about the tight chest, hadn't really thought about it. She tried to make me drink more water but I just couldn't. I managed to have a bit more but just threw it up again. Kay said we should go inside where it was air conditioned. I struggled to walk to the building which was only about 100 yards away. I bought 2 more drinks, then on the way to the seats threw up again and rushed to the toilet. I had no idea what was going on.
I came out of the toilet and sat down, Kay said we couldn't sit here all day and said we should go to the medical centre. I followed her but it felt like we walked miles, it was probably about 1/4 of a mile. We got there and said we thought I might be dehydrated, they took me through and laid me on a bed while they checked my vitals. The lad couldn't find my pulse and looked quite worried, he called over another man who was a paramedic. He checked me out and again looked worried, he hooked me up to a monitor and took my blood pressure. He was then even more worried asked them to call an ambulance. I was still talking away fine to them and Kay but was having problems controlling my breathing and my chest was tighter.
The ambulance arrived and they transfered me onto a stretcher and I got wheeled into the ambulance, it all felt a bit surreal. The Paramedic tried to put a IVF in my arm but had problems. He tried 4 times while on the way to the hospital, he got the driver to pull over at one point to try. He still couldn't manage it, this was to become a common problem when ever anyone tried to take blood (which was lots). Eventually we arrived at the hospital and I could see my heart beat on the screen and could see it was 218. I could see the panic in peoples eyes, when they had struggled to get a line into me. At that moment I thought maybe I was about to die, as my chest felt tighter than ever and people were talking about heart attacks and that it had been going on for about 3 hours. It didn't feel that long to me but Kay said it started at 1 and it was now 4 :-(
I wasn't worried about dying but it went through my head about how it would affect my parents and I felt upset for them. I had no idea what was going on and people kept telling me different things, basically it was because they didn't know. They gave me some Aspirin to chew for a second time because I had just thrown up again. I had tried to warn them that I was gonna be sick again but no one had taken any notice. There was lots of people around me and I think we must of been in a corridor or something. Someone I think the paramedic told me to bear down as if going to the toilet. I tried and then shortly after my heart rate started to gradually slow and the my chest didn't feel quite so tight.
The next few minutes are a slight blur but I ended up in A&E sat up in the bed talking to Kay and a doctor or some medical person. While I was in A&E they attached me to a saline drip and took blood a few times (struggling to take the blood). I also had to give them a urine sample, I was constantly having to answer the same questions from different people. I was beginning to get annoyed with everyone asking me if I had taken drugs. I was sick of telling them I had never taken drugs in my life, but they didn't appear to believe me.
At one point a female doctor (I think), said that I was in a bad way and that there appeared to be problems with my kidneys and liver as well as my heart. I sat there waiting to wake up from the nightmare, it just didn't feel real. I was the fittest I've ever been in my life and much healthier than most people I know. Yet here I was sat in hospital in a foreign country where no one knew what was wrong with me, least of all me.
I was in A&E for quite a while, I said Kay should go as it was getting later and she was going to have problems getting back to the B&B because we had no idea where we were. She said she would wait a bit longer, I felt really bad for her and really guilty :-(
I eventually had to give my credit card and after a while they said they were moving me to a private room upstairs. The room had a tv and a phone and thought it might not be too bad if I could watch TV. Once I was in the room we asked for some directions on how Kay could get a bus back, she got some very vague instructions from a nutty nurse, then Kay went.
I tried the TV but it had a message about contacting TV Services, I asked the nutty nurse who just mumbled about getting it sorted if I was in there was for 3 or 4 days. I realised it was going to be a very long boring night. During the night a nurse came about every hour to take blood and struggled each time getting the blood. I got up and went to the toilet dragging my drip and wires behind me. When I got back in bed the nurse turned up saying my readings had gone very high, I tried to explain that I'd gone to the toilet but she didn't understand. I then got sick of all the noise of people walking past. So got up again and stretched across the room to close the door but I could reach with my hand because of the drip. So I stretched my leg across to close it. I could see my heart rate going higher again (still not bad). The nurse turned up once I was back in bed again, leaving the bloody door open I'd just shut.
I must of dosed off for a couple of minutes because I suddenly woke up with a doctor leaning over me. He told me various things, which I now can't remember and eventually he said he was moving me to CCU (Coronary Care Unit) where there would be 1 to 1 nursing. So at about 1:30am I got moved to CCU and I can sort of remember a black nurse saying hello my name is Marigold. I think I got about 30 minutes sleep that night. I was starving by the morning as all I had eaten was some breakfast the day before. I thought I hadn't been allowed to eat so hadn't said anything but did now. They got me some breakfast and i met a new nurse called Adaline, she was really nice. I spent another night in there and during the day got introduced to Dr Blakely by Cardiologist. He was going on about heart by passes and how good of a success rate they have with heart operations and stuff. I sat there thinking it can't be that bad what is he going on about. I said could I leave that day but he said he wanted to keep me in another night :-(
Adaline was really good during the day but she went off shift later than she was supposed to at about 9pm. The next nurses in the unit weren't so nice and told me off for going to the toilet, which Adaline had let me do rather than using a bottle. she also moaned at me for not having mentioned about food. I thinks he was called Helen, when I tried to use a bottle my heart rate went high. Mainly because you struggle to use the thing in bed and you have people constantly coming in (stage fright as well). I couldn't hold off any longer by the early morning so spent ages trying to go to the toilet without my heart rate going up. I knew they wouldn't let me out if it did.
The following morning Adaline was back again and she got an English doctor who used to work in the unit to come and speak to me and explain things better. She also got me to wear a portable monitor and walk around the ward because I said I wanted to leave. She said the only way that would happen was if I could prove I was OK by walking about. So I did and I was fine.
Eventually Blakely came in later in the morning and he was told I'd been fine overnight and that I'd been walking around with no problems. I told him I wanted to leave because I was going to Montreal the following day. He wanted me to stay another night but I said I wanted to leave. Adaline had collared the other Cardiologist in the lift to get a second opinion and he thought I would be fine to leave. So the 2 Cardiologists discussed it and agreed I could leave. I waited around for ages for my Discharge summary but eventually got it.
I must say the Canadian Health care is a lot better than ours. I had lots of test, 3 Chest X-rays, Echo sounds, ECGs, Blood and urine tests and loads more all within 48 hours. It would take weeks for all of these in the UK if not months. As an example I've been told it will take about a month for the referral to see a Cardiologist in the UK.
Here's the Discharge Summary with the Diagnosis of Supraventricular Tachycardia:
Click it for readable version, not that it will make much more sense.
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