I found out that the tech-staff in the hospital begins work early so that their results will be available when the day doctors and nurses come on duty at 7 A.M. Thus, they may wake you up at 5:30 to take an x-ray or a blood sample. This happened to Nancy today as they make plans to implant a permanent pacemaker on Monday morning.
They had given some meds to lower blood pressure and control her heart rate, among other things. When I got there about 11:45 she was worn out, sleepy, and not in her usual upbeat attitude. I helped with lunch and ate part of it. She was ready for a nap and was nodding off, so I woke her up to say goodbye.
Today they were trying Argatroban (ar GA troh ban) as an anticoagulant. As these things go it is relatively new and people seem not to develop the allergy to it as they do with heparin that leads to low platelet counts – if so inclined, look on the web for heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT). For any of these things there is a lot of info on the web but a nurse said to me “Remember they tell you way too much.” Indeed, they do.
The pacemaker implant procedure is scheduled for late morning on Monday. Apparently, Nancy will receive drugs so as to not feel or remember any of this, unlike when doing the temporary one. There will be nothing to eat from midnight until she is reawakened. Bummer!