I almost forgot to mention the most exciting thing about my week! So with my sick heart patient, the Cardiology Attending came by and wanted to cardiovert my pt. I guess they had done it on Sunday, but it was unsuccessful. So they wanted to try it again on Tuesday (yesterday). So we prepared him for cardioversion. Had RT and a beside intubation tray and vent on standby just in case he coded. Had Anesthesia there to give Propofol for sedation. And the Cardiology Attending to deliver shocks. I was on standby with the crash cart (with my preceptor of course b/c at this point I was already freaking out! haha). So first shock delivered with 200 joules. Asystole. Then heart rate comes back at 70-80s, then jumps right back into Afib, rates 140s. Second shock...360 joules. Same thing, except the time in Sinus was a little longer. This happened 2x more at 360 joules and same result. Unsuccessful cardioversion again. The attending thought the amount of IV Amio was too much and pretty much blocking the SA node, so we switched him to PO Amio. That seemed to help because today he was a new man (see previous post).

And that was my week in a nutshell. Although I'm working the weekend, so there may be more stories to tell!