Heart CT Scan Experience at Gold Coast University Hospital with My Toddler ||

suvisjournalism

Follow my journey undergoing a CT coronary angiogram at Gold Coast University Hospital to investigate potential heart issues after a seizure. This video captures the emotional and medical moments, from managing my toddler Spencer in the waiting area to my deep gratitude for the compassionate imaging department staff who made the process less overwhelming. The procedure involved heart rate medication, breastfeeding-safe iodine contrast dye, and a sublingual tablet to expand heart vessels. Despite the CT machine’s noise and radiation concerns, the staff’s kindness and Spencer’s joyful presence made it unforgettable. Part of my ongoing investigation into seizure causes after elevated troponin and a normal EEG. Watch on Dailymotion to share in this heartfelt experience.  #HeartHealth #CTScanJourney #GoldCoastHospital #ParentingMoments #MedicalStory

Transcript

00:00well we're back at gold coast university hospital this is yet another one of those tests that they

00:06ordered because of the seizure and we got daddy with us today and goodness because obviously i've

00:13got spencer as well so today's test is uh let me get this right computed tomography cardiac scan

00:21that's basically a cardiac angiogram and they're going to be looking at what they're going to be

00:28doing first is they're going to be injecting me with a contrast dye so i think they're going to be

00:35putting an iodine contrast dye in oh is there a 30 that's really cute darling no matter what horrible

00:44medical tests i'm having spencer can always make me laugh um so they're going to be injecting me with

00:48a contrast dye and it is safe for breastfeeding so that's good like the iodine one is apparently

00:54safe for breastfeeding and they're going to be then putting me in this scary horrible

01:00donut shaped machine which is the ct machine and looking at my heart and today they're going to be

01:06looking at the coronary arteries now they're the actual arteries that supply blood to the actual

01:12heart muscle and the reason they're going to be looking at this is that um there's the possibility

01:18well hopefully not obviously we're hoping that it's the salt that caused the seizure but another

01:23cause of the seizure could have been um because the cardiologist was concerned that if there was

01:30an abnormal amount of blood supply to the heart muscle that could have caused an abnormal arrhythmia

01:36and that could have caused the seizure so they are going to check today to see if there's a narrowing of

01:42those coronary arteries because if there's a narrowing obviously less blood than is ideal is getting to

01:47your actual heart muscle so um i'm um look the last blood test i had showed very normal salt levels

01:54and i haven't felt lightheaded anymore since we did fix up my salt and i was in the level of um

02:01hyponatremia so i'm really hoping that the seizure was really caused by hyponatremia but when i did go

02:07into emergency i did have abnormal levels of enzymes in my heart or something i'm not sure about the

02:13technical things of what was going on but my troponin levels were elevated so there was something

02:19going on with the heart but hopefully again the seizure caused that not the other way around so

02:24today's test is checking to see if the heart caused the seizure and i'm very much hoping that

02:29the seizure caused the issues with the heart and sort of gave the heart muscle a bit of a punch like an

02:34injury so so anyway that's the test today so that is going to be interesting but right now we're just

02:41enjoying the moment and we're enjoying the birds and i'm so i'm so lucky that i have someone that puts

02:51a smile on my face so here we are at the medical imaging department and now i've registered at the

03:11desk and now i'm just waiting so i've got all my own a bit nervous the waiting is horrible

03:25i'm all hooked up here so i'm in a little section or a large section actually that they brought that

03:30they bring patients in so i've got a cardiac monitor on and the nurse said it's a nice healthy rhythm so

03:37that's good and i've got a very active healthy toddler here as well i'm having um my hydrolite

03:46drink because apparently you're supposed to really stay hydrated at least that's what the letter said

03:50because the contrast dye it's up to your kidneys to then sort of get rid of it i guess so they say

03:55to stay hydrated and i've also got this um i think just monitoring my heart rate and then they're going

04:04to be soon giving me some medication that i am nervous about to lower my heart rate down to about

04:1060 beats a minute i think and i am nervous about that one because i'm worried that my heart is going

04:18to get lazy and if it's lowered it's just going to go oh stop it you know i'll just stop working all

04:23together i'll just have a rest because i'm so tired so i'm nervous about that and once my heart rate is

04:32lowered to a satisfactory level then i'll be brought into the room where that big donut shaped machine

04:39is and just before or actually oh the nurse here is going to be putting a cannula in as well so i'm

04:46going to have a cannula in the back of my arm and then i go into the room and then um as i'm on the bed

04:53actually i'm already going to be on the bed or in the machine and that's when they're going to inject the

04:59contrast dye so actually during the scan so that's going to give them a really good reading of my

05:05heart and so oh my blood pressure has been taken now so i wonder oh it's not risen

05:18these medical tests they are so anxiety in producing basically i've got base anxiety anyway so i'd have to

05:27be have to endure all these tests is just a little bit of a nightmare but look we're very

05:36no no pressing buttons in here buttons

05:41he loves pressing buttons he's gonna press the emergency button in a minute if i'm not careful

05:46um but we're very lucky obviously in australia to have excellent medical care

05:50so i'm in here to get this computed tomography cardiac cardiac scans to get my coronary arteries checked

06:07so they've um now given me some medication to lower my heart rate

06:17so it's just a little tablet that i swallowed with water and they're aiming for i think

06:23below 60 or 60. at the moment it's probably not any of that so i've got to um

06:29ah take a few deep breaths and they've given me a warmed up blanket that's so nice about hospital

06:37they've got they must have a heating cupboard or something where they warm these blankets up and

06:41to have a warm blanket actually put on it was so nice

06:48i'm just taking a few deep breaths and just chillaxing here as spencer aptly put it i'm in my bed

06:55or i'm in bed and hopefully the heart rate will go down enough i have been warned that if it doesn't

07:03go down enough they might not do the procedure

07:14so my heart rate has finally come down i was given a double dose of well not a double dose they started

07:21me on half a dose of metophorol let me try and get that medication correctly start to pronounce

07:28and then they gave me another 50 milligrams so my heart rate's finally come down enough so this

07:33way i'm ready for the scan and um i feel a little bit lightheaded actually because it's obviously

07:40lowered my blood pressure as well so it's um

07:44um chilling out here with my active little buddy and i've got this here because it's cold it's always

07:52cold in hospitals and i haven't been walking around at all so i i get the chills easily but

07:59anyway so i'm gonna go in shortly they'll put a camera in and then i'll go in and get the contrast

08:04die and they'll pop me under that big donut shake machine

08:15no push button no pushing button no pushing button you're very very good aren't you

08:22well the cannula is in now so we're getting ready for the scan it's not long to go now

08:52so well here i am so i've been wheeled down in a wheelchair so that was kind of fun having a ride

08:59and now i'm going to be in the vehicle

09:08so this is exciting i'm on this this looks like something out of star wars honestly

09:15and they're going to give me a tablet in a minute to dilate my blood vessels

09:18and then i'm going to go yeah it's all right and then they're going to inject some of that

09:25contrast dye and obviously spencer cannot be in here when they're doing it so they're about to start now

09:41so guess who had a ride in the wheelchair on the way back and he came running to me when they opened

09:46the doors and i came out so they are so kind here they've brought me a cup of tea and some snacks

09:59spencer's eating the crackers i'm eating the cheese

10:04and um yeah they're just lovely here they look after you so well this is beautiful to have a cup of tea

10:10but you know what i actually found that really scary i don't like admitting this but i actually did

10:19the machine is really loud like it buzzes around you really loudly and so my heart rate started to spike

10:26and because it started to spike they had to bring me back out of the machine

10:31and one of the um nurses down there was so kind he was just talking to me and

10:35it's sort of just you know talking me down from from the sort of the fear which like oh water

10:43and um and then they did a test so they put some contrast dye in just to test so your hands your

10:48arms have to be up like this above your head and um and so they put in some tests and when they put

10:55that in and also the medication under my tongue those two medications combined the one under my tongue which

11:01expands your blood vessels and or dilates and um and the test dye both of them combined started to

11:09make me feel really dizzy like my head started pounding and my mouth felt a bit funny from medication

11:15and i thought i was having an allergic reaction so i think that's why i got a bit scared and then the

11:19machine tells you things like breathe in breathe out and hold your breath and while i was holding my

11:25breath i think that's when my heart rate spiked because i did i felt i felt a bit of fear

11:29and so then i was brought back out of the machine and then they came and talked to me which was

11:35really nice like they're so kind and so patient so they just chatted to me and then it was time for

11:42the real one so the bed wheeled in back in they were out of the room obviously because of the radiation

11:47and my arms were above my head and they put in the proper dose of the contrast dye and it is a weird

11:54feeling it really is sort of hot like it was hot around my throat it was hot all through my body

12:00and it was hot all in my groin so that's why everyone says it feels like you've wet yourself

12:05because it really was it was it was quite heat and it was rapid too like from when it got injected in

12:10like you basically your arms are up here and there's a cord that runs from this cannula and it must run

12:16i don't know where it runs to but they must be out of remote control started so it's a push push in

12:21and so then i think my heart rate must have spiked again even though i was really trying to stay calm

12:30because then after the scan which didn't take long the actual scanning bit didn't take long it was

12:34i would say maybe less than a minute but i don't know i didn't have a clock to look at um then i was

12:40taken out of the machine and then they looked at the scans and i was borderline and what that means is

12:46my heart rate did spike and so it was going quite fast and in that small window where the heart's

12:52beating the the picture that they can take of your um coronary arteries was a bit blurry so then they

13:00got a specialist down just to have a look at the pictures and he gave me okay so i hope that means

13:07that maybe they're not worried about my coronary arteries i don't know i'm going to take that as a good

13:11sign but um so they weren't perfect the pictures were borderline but but the specialists did say

13:17that borderline so it was accepted if it if they had to repeat it they were going to try once more

13:23straight away like they were going to put another lot of dye in me and just put me back in the machine

13:29you know today on the same day but anyway i only had to have it done once so

13:33ah so that's done now so i'm going to obviously wait for the results just hopefully it's going to

13:41be okay just like the eeg was okay too so i was very relieved about that but we are very lucky here

13:47in australia to have excellent medical care and everyone down here in the medical imaging department

13:53has been so nice and so kind and so patient you know and and really great with with spencer like just

14:02i think he's made a few people's day just with his cute smile and riding on you know when the when

14:09the doors opened to that medical imaging room and spencer ran to me saying mommy mommy mommy i

14:15i just have to say that was probably the highlight of my week

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