Everyone being so over the top / pushy doctor?

[Manchildd]

Hi everyone.
currently on holiday in Cyprus. I have 2 heart conditions, prolonged QT and SVT. Just to paint a picture a few years ago I discovered the two. I started having seizures and it wasn't a good time. I had to stop driving and spent a long time in hospital. Fast forward 3 years I'm driving again, living a normal life on medication etc.

i do get heart spikes, most days in fact. Due to these two conditions my heart sits at about 110 and eating is a trigger. All I need to do is chill out, take my medication and it'll pass.
last night at dinner with everyone around me my heart spiked to about 124 (this is nothing, it can go to 200s)

the protocol from my cardio team is that if I have a seizure / if my heart spikes to 160+ for 10 minutes or more then I go to hospital.

when I'd finished my food we left to go back to the room. I went up to a staff member and kindly asked if someone could collect us as I don't feel very well. There were a couple of nurses in earshot that then started ordering chairs, asking to give me space and asked what's the matter. I said to them my heart is a little quick but this happens ALL THE TIME and I just need to get back to the room. They wouldn't let me and quite literally blocked me from going. They were taking my pulse and it was 124. They then instructed staff for an ambulance. This was working me up by this point as nobody was listening. I didn't need an ambulance I just needed to go back and chill out. Ambulance was called.

my brother at this point told everyone to calm down and cancel the ambulance. They did.

instead they had asked the staff to call a doctor.
doctor game and immediately said I need to go to hospital (without doing a single check.) I know my body. Nobody was listening to me. When everyone realised that I'm not going, I had to sign a waiver saying I was refusing treatment. The doctor was very pushy for me to go, he demanded my passport details, address, GP details etc.

eventually my heart rate settled (as it always does) and the doctor saw that I was fine. But I felt so pressured he even got a cardiologist on the phone to me on his phone saying you have to come in and have bloods and be admitted. Saying that I could die. All of this hyperbole over something that happens to me most days. Nobody was listening.

the doctor then said I need to pay him €150 for the visit. I questioned this as I never called a doctor. A lot of people at dinner were drunk (I don't drink) and it was so dramatic. Realising I wasn't getting out of the €150 I paid it. Realising he has charged be twice x2 €150!!!! He then started being super nice saying everyone was being dramatic and that he will call me tomorrow (today) to refund the €150.

do I ask for the full €300 back? AIBU to think this is ridiculous? I felt so cornered and claustrophobic. These nurses were telling me to breathe into paper bags, to clear space, shouting 'SHES GOING TO HAVE A SEIZURE' - I haven't had a seizure in 3 years. I have my license back and cleared for driving. At no point was I worried. I have a device in my chest that alerts me if I'm in arrhythmia and it didn't go off. I tried to explain this. It happens nearly every time I eat an evening meal. I wasn't in SVT and medication corrects my prolonged QT.

just feel so shit about it all today. I just feel like there was lots of hyperbole and people wanting to be the hero / medical professional out of work times. Perhaps im being harsh but the 2 nurses weren't even listening to me. They kept telling me I need to do this I need to do that. I know what I need to do, I have protocol from my team and I wasn't panicking. I was just getting pissed off no one was listening to me and now I've ended up being charged $300 for the experience!

thanks for reading so sorry it's long.

I'll admit, I jumped to conclusions at the beginning of your post OP. Explaining about what sounds like a serious heart condition, and then saying 'why all the fuss!?' - it sounded, well, a bit puzzlingly ungracious.

But then I read the whole story. And your plain statement of the facts - based on your medical knowledge, your own experience of living with the condition, and a situation that left you feeling helpless, steamrollered, physically blocked, bossed around and €300 out of pocket - left me fuming on your behalf.

Hearing stories from medical types in my own family - and with apologies to others who read this, because it probably annoys you too - I don't doubt that a couple of well-oiled nurses ramped up the drama unnecessarily. To the point where a doctor, cardiologist, ambulance and restaurant staff got involved in your quiet meal out!

Yep it's got its funny side... but also a clusterf* of everything that must make your life a lot worse than it need be OP. So no, you're not being harsh and unreasonable. Just a woman at the end of her tether with that particular kind of "caring".

You do realise "nurse" isn't a separate form of human don't you ? They're people in a lay setting. Just like any of us. You clearly have scorn for the fact they were drinking whilst not at work, else you wouldn't keep calling them "drunk nurses" like it's a sneery judgement. I'm picking up on it and I've got no skin in the game as I don't drink.

Don't they! Poor squishedmallow getting herself all her up about my description on 2 people who inserted themselves into a situation they shouldn't have.

perhaps squishedmallow is one of those people tho involves themselves in to others business. Never drunk of course though

I have similar conditions and wouldn't think much of my hr getting to 200 the trick is to keep it to yourself as people dont understand things like this can be part of a chronic condition. So they hear high heart rate and your to unwell to walk and panic as for someone who was fit and healthy this would be a concern and a lot of people can't differentiate. Even in hospital this has always been an issue if I go to a&e for something unrelated my hr becomes their priority no matter how many times I say its my normal.

the reason I'm bringing it up is because I doubt they would've got themselves so involved or caused so much drama if they weren't drunk.

if they would, sober, then it's a character flaw.

Your QTc wouldn't be prolonged with a HR of 118 though.

Thank you ❤️

I think the nurses were trying to help you - also doctors and nurses are obliged to help people if they are unwell. They can lose their registration if they left a patient.

You sound a little unpleasant I'm afraid. I think I'll leave it there.

My QT is always prolonged. Medication pushes it back to the longer side of normal.

it doesn't just get 'long' when my heart is quick

you evidently don't know anything about this condition so I don't know why you're questioning it 😂😂

have you nothing better to do?

Not when they have consumed alcohol their not.

Don't slam the door on the way out hunnayyy xoxoxo

I came to say exactly this. No medical professional would call loss of counciousness due to fast heart rate a 'seizure' because isn't a bloody seizure ffs

I think the pissed nurses were out of order. Regardless of having good intentions, they blocked your way and wouldn't listen to you. They have no authority to try and force you to accept medical treatment, even if they were professional and sober.

Pfft. I'm glad you can manage your own condition and wouldn't need my expertise. That's all I can say.

Please read my posts. I have 2 heart conditions.
Prolonhed QT & SVT.

the prolonged QT can cause seizures.

I think unfortunately we're alone in our sensible advice /conclusions 🤷

Wouldn't want it or need it.

my team are fabulous, thank you!

If you could explain how your QTC could be prolonged in a tachyarrythmia I'd be ever so grateful.

I wouldn't call you an expert if you can't recognise long QT doesn't cause seizures though. I'd class that as someone who doesn't know anything about the condition!

That is a good point, but you never know with these things. Perhaps, there might be expected to call an ambulance.

You lack reading comprehension.

Oh dear 😆 you really can't read can you.

Chemotherapy caused by an incurable, terminal cancer, caused me to have a seizure one day.

after that and many ECGs and 128 days in CCU I was diagnosed with prolonged QT and SVT.

they put me on verapamil and bisporolol.

every ECG I've had since, when my heart is quick, or not, my QT has been prolonged. Just less long than it was before medication.

I have had SVT episodes and my QT is a little long, and at times, very long.

happy now?? Would you like me to personally email you my notes and diagnosis?

Says you who keeps saying SVT doesn't cause seizures.

I never said it did.. brains..