December 22, 2009

• PERICARDIAL EFFUSION

  I learned some new words yesterday, like echocardiogram, pericardium, and pericardial effusion.
  
  My Irish bride, Maureen had been having back and chest pains for over a week, and decided yesterday to go to urgent care at our doctor’s clinic. That’s how we ended up spending most of yesterday at the emergency room. 
  
  We found out that if you go to our clinic’s urgent care facility and tell them you are having chest pains, they call an ambulance, give you an EKG, draw some blood, feed you some aspirin, and send you to the hospital.  They don’t want to mess with you, you do not pass go, do not collect $200, and go directly to the Emergency Room.
  
  After seven hours and several tests, an echocardiogram determined she had pericardial effusion.  According to the Mayo Clinic’s website, the heart is surrounded by a double-layered, sac-like structure called the pericardium. The space between the layers normally contains a very small amount of fluid.  Pericardial effusion is excess fluid around the heart caused by inflammation.
  
  They gave us a prescription for an anti-inflammatory and sent us home.  She has to go back tomorrow and have another echocardiagram to determine if the prescription is working, but she is feeling a lot better today and it looks like the pills are working.

  • 8:22 pm
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