OK, Now I'm Freaking OUT!

musicalmomma · May 23, 2007

I am SO upset!!!! The nurse from my surgeon's office called me on the 15th, told me my white blood cell count was a little elevated and I had to get clearance from my PCP before surgery on the 1st! She faxed my test results to the pcp's office and talked to someone there about them. SO, I go to my pcp on the 16th and he said I was fine! Great right? NOT so fast!!!! The nurse from my surgeon's office calls me again today asking what the status was with my pcp follow-up. I told her I went the next day and he cleared me. She asked what he said about my "abnormal EKG"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WTF!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?! She never told me I had an abnormal EKG!!!! She said she told the pcp's office and faxed the results. I said "HE never mentioned the EKG and you never mentioned it before today!" Now she's going to call them and see what's up!

I am so upset!!!! I've been out there riding my bike, swimming, working in the yard...getting my friggin cardio work outs!!!! And here I have an abnormal EKG! I asked her what that meant exactly, she wouldn't say. All she'd say was it couldn't have been too serious or they would have kept me in the hospital! Any of our nurses out there care to wager a guess????

Thanks for letting me vent

faithmd · May 23, 2007

I cannot even begin to hazard a guess. There are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many things that can make an EKG come up as "abnormal" and require no interventions at all. There are very few things that I can think of that could make your EKG abnormal that would require some treatment right away that would have been a condition you didn't know was going on. Did that make sense? I mean that if you were having some severe cardiac issues, you'd probably know it. You'd feel palpitations, weakness, dizziness, fluttering, extreme fatigue, shortness of breath that is abnormal, any number of things. If you've been doing good cardio without many problems and haven't had issues like those I listed, it is probably something fairly small.

That having been said, there could be something to it, but I really honestly would not freak (if you can stop yourself, that's the hard part) until you know more, or have another EKG.

A slightly elevated WBC count can come from any number of things. And elevated in my lab might be considered normal numbers in your lab. For example one lab might say 11,000 is the high end of normal, my lab might say 12,000 is the high end of normal, someone else's lab might say 10,500 is high normal.

Keep us posted!

Daisalana · May 23, 2007

About the white blood cells.. I offer no info on EKG, but I had elevated white blood cells also. The nurse said it means I was sick, or I'm getting sick or I'm sick.. I wasn't sick, I hadn't been sick, so I thought I was getting sick which was sad, she said if I get sick the anesthesia won't operate (this was 5 days pre-op). So they gave me antibiotics to take until surgery, the next day they called back and said I had a urinary tract infection.. I had NO symptoms, so they changed my antibiotics to a UTI antibiotic..which I took till surgery. And that was that.

The white blood cell doesn't seem too serious.

musicalmomma · May 23, 2007

Thanks Faith & Laura. Yeah, they checked me a second time for a UTI and I didn't have one...I had been sick so they chaulked the white blood cell elevation to that. The EKG thing really scared me!!! My PCP Nurse called me back and said that my heart rate is a little slow, but the doc see's no problems and I'm finally CLEARED for surgery. Now, I thought I was cleared last week and THIS came up...I just hope nothing else arises.

Thanks again for chiming in It's good to have the support of this message board.

breaney · July 23, 2007

Thanks Faith & Laura. Yeah, they checked me a second time for a UTI and I didn't have one...I had been sick so they chaulked the white blood cell elevation to that. The EKG thing really scared me!!! My PCP Nurse called me back and said that my heart rate is a little slow, but the doc see's no problems and I'm finally CLEARED for surgery. Now, I thought I was cleared last week and THIS came up...I just hope nothing else arises.
Thanks again for chiming in It's good to have the support of this message board.

I guess since I have started losing weight, and it's almost impossible for me to overeat. I'm not to concerned. I didn't feel that way until my second adjustment. I haven't lost much yet, but the good thing is now on a bad day I won't gain weight. You'll feel more at ease eating after surgery and your adjusted right. You'll be more at ease after surgery!