On AFib and bidets
Well, I'm home from the hospital, and inordinately happy to be back home again. There's a rant coming on, but first - the news.
Sunday afternoon, as usual, I put the cuff on my arm to take my blood pressure. My doctor recommended it several years ago, so I keep logs to take to the doctors on my frequent visits. I felt nothing unusual, and was expecting some good numbers to show up. But I got 126/96. That's too high on the bottom for sure, but the heart rate was 186. Damn tachycardia again, I thought.
I found my KardiaMobile ECG machine and took a reading. Whoa! It said Atrial Fibrillation! Never had that before. That's bad! Could lead to strokes or heart attack. I soaked a washcloth in icy water and slapped it on my chest to try to shock my heart back to a normal rhythm. No dice! I took another reading and it still said Atrial Fibrillation. I'm not feeling any pain at all, I'm not short of breath, and I'm not any dizzier than normal. I felt my carotid pulse and it was really faint and rapid for sure. After a third reading of Atrial Fibrillation, I gave up and called 911. I also called my sister-in-law Wilma to let her know I'm back in the hospital. She has been my lifesaver when I need a driver.
So I spent two days in the hospital getting what they call a chemical cardioversion to get my heart back to a normal sinus rhythm. So now I'm on two more drugs. The last time I saw the cardiologist we had some discussion about me not wanting to take blood thinners. My contention is I am an active person, I don't own a recliner or TV, I ride up to twenty miles in a day, I work in the woods with a chain saw, and my dangers of bleeding to death outweigh his fear of me dying of a blood clot somewhere. Not to mention the surgeries I have had all year. Well, this Atrial Fibrillation is a game changer. He put me back on a blood thinner, and I agreed. When he left the room, I swear he had an "I told you so!" grin on his face. We are good friends still, and he brags on my bike riding to his staff.
But that's not the rant I want to talk about. I want to talk about the complete lack of bidets on hospital toilets. It's crazy! Hospitals are supposed to be sanitary, but there is no sanitary way to wipe your butt with dry paper. I'm laying there in bed, holding as long as I can, because I have two IVs in my left hand and arm, and a pulse/oximeter on my right hand, and I don't want to have to stick my hand into the bowl and try to sanitarily wipe my butt with dry toilet paper.
At home both of my toilets have bidets, with warm seats, warm water jets front and back, (if you are male don't use the front one) and a gentle warm air dryer so you never have to reach down there for any reason. Far cleaner and more sanitary than TP, and saves a few trees in the process.
Think of it this way. You just served a big dinner, gathered up the plates, saucers, and bowls and carried them to the counter for cleaning. Half of them you wash with a stream of warm water and air dry. The other half of the dishes you wipe with a dry wad of toiler paper. Which dishes do you want to eat off of next?
I spent a couple of long years taking care of my wife as she slowly died of Alzheimer's disease. When I first put her into assisted care, she had acquired a UTI in the motels we stayed at across the country. I drove back to Nevada, took the bidet from the toilet there and brought it to Oklahoma and installed it in her room. She never had a Urinary Tract Infection again. When I finished the installation, the manager and the nurses came in to see what it was and how it worked. After my wife died, I asked if I should remove the bidet and was met with loud objections. They wanted it to stay.
If the cost of toilet paper and plumbing stoppages are considered, I am sure bidets would pay for themselves in a short time. I just seems bizarre to me that all hospitals, of all places, don't have bidets.
Gee but it's great to be back home!
