I was at work and not feeling well. I felt my heart was racing, I was dizzy and my peripheral vision was blurry. I put myself on a portable monitor and was surprised to find out I was extremely tachycardic. The rhythm on the portable monitor looked like I was in AFib, but I wanted to make sure so I walked over to the IMCU to get a look on a better monitor. So as to not alarm the nurses of seeing a high heart rate on a monitor, I went to the nurses' station and told them I was going into an empty patient room to put myself on the monitor because I felt dizzy and was extremely tachycardic. Sara and Annie immediately came with me to the room to help place me on the monitor and take my blood pressure. I was in fact in A fib and hypertensive. Sara immediately ran a rhythm strip while Annie stayed with me. They both insisted I go to the ED. Being an old, sorry, seasoned nurse and yes, nurses do make the worst patients, I was being obstinate and said I will go after work. They both said you WILL go to the ED.
Sara escorted me to the ED and stayed with me through triage until I was placed in a room. Annie without hesitation covered Sara's patients along with her own assignment so Sara could stay with me. Deep down inside I was so relieved to have them both caring for me because I was scared to death, I had never felt like this before. The ED confirmed I was in Afib with a dangerously high blood pressure. I required a Cardizem bolus and then a drip. I was admitted to Regional and underwent an ablation two days later. I can truly say that if it was not for these two quick acting and exceptionally skilled nurses the outcome may not have been as positive for me. Thank you Sara and Annie for being my guardian angles.