“Oh, hold on! There seems to be an anomaly in the ECG trace! Your chart seems to be showing that your heart is ischemic. I need to see Dr B to check something. I’ll be back.”
Needless to say, the look on Ruth’s face took a turn. I’ve only ever seen the colour on her face drain that fast, one other time (may be in a future blog)
Knowing her heart was probably having its own battles with the inner walls of her chest I ask, “Are you ok? You worried?”
“No,” came a forced high pitched whimper!
I laughed internally! I know Ruth. I know what was going through her mind! Her thoughts had become a search on Google for a self diagnosis or partner in this case! You know when you type headache on Google and click enter, then all the extreme content comes up first? And what was an itch and slight chest pain has now become Ebola or some other exotic disease? That just happened in her head!
The Dr came back into the room and I asked what ischimic was and he ran off the Wiki explanation. My inner geek came to life. As he talked, I thought about researching what ischemia was!
To know how we got here, I’ll let Ruth tell you all about it!
(RJ) So, today didn’t go to plan… we were due to do some hiking (we ended up doing it the next day), but Ahmed was getting pains in his back, chest and had a little rash on his left pec… he’s had the pain for around 2 weeks, so I thought it was about time he went to see the doctor. He does not like to go and see the doctor, so it was more of a “We are going to the doctors”. He came reluctantly.
He explained the concerns to the doctor and she arranged for some tests to be carried out. One of the things that really stood out for us both was that things progressed really quickly and the doctor was able to do other tests onsite (ECG Trace); which we had not experienced with our GP in the UK.
They found an anomaly with his heart on the ECG and referred us to the Queen Elizabeth II hospital for further checks. As she said this my heart dropped and I really realised how much I need this dude to be here and how he needs to be ok!
I drove from the GP to the hospital, trying to keep conversation as casual as possible, but inside I was bricking it.
On arrival at the hospital, we checked in and Ahmed was seen in 5 minutes. They asked me to stay at reception at this point to update his details on the system. Once I had done that I was reunited with my love and we sat waiting for more tests. They carried out an X-ray, took more bloods for testing and ran another ECG.
Then we waited!
It felt like a life time but in all reality it was about 40 minutes. The doctor came in and explained that she didn’t think it was a blocked valve as suspected by the GP, but was waiting on the second set of bloods to confirm.
At this point we were now waiting in the reception area and got the feeling that they were not too concerned and ruled out all the acute options.
We sat in reception feeling better than when we arrived as we knew at this stage it was not a worse case scenario (I mean the royal We BTW). We could deal with anything else! Ahmed just seem nonchalant as usual and seem to take it all in his stride!
This guy said, “If there’s something wrong, I can’t change it. If there’s nothing wrong, I wasted my worry for nothing!” He can’t be serious! Ever since I’ve known him, he’s worried more about others than himself.
So, anyway, the doctor called us back in to confirm that it was not a blocked valve and all the tests supported this. They were unclear on what the issue was but gave us some signs to look out for and advised to come back should we see any of these or if the pain gets worse. One of the doctors suggested it could be something to do with the chest wall.
The GP asked that we came back following morning for the results from the swab taken that day. Ahmed had a rash on his chest that they think may be a separate concern (shingles).
The following day
We went back to the GP the following day as requested. The results of the swab were not back, but they said they will call us once they were in as they knew we are due to fly back to Canberra in a few days. The doctor gave us a referral letter for our GP in Canberra. She requested a few more test to be carried out to get to the bottom of the chest pain issue.
Ahmed is feeling a little better now, I am trying to be a lot more caring and checking in that he is ok lol… I think he might start feeling smothered soon; but that’s ok lol…
My overall assumption is that his heart rate peaked when I entered the room and that’s what caused the abnormal heart beat and suspicion of a blocked valve. He is in love after all and its a natural reaction lol… well that’s what I am telling myself anyway!
Thank you for reading this far and for keeping up with the Jalloh family.
Peace, Love and Happiness.
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Twitter: @justJallOZ
The Jalloh Family 