Thought you’d have good perspective on this. I was in the hospital a while ago for a gangrenous gallbladder and pancreatitis (super fun) I also have Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, my heart rate was at about 43bpm the whole time (average for me is 55 ). It was on my medical sheet that the doctors had but the nurses still called for them to check me out for it 7 or 8 times during my 5 day stay and try to treat me for it (not just making sure I’m not dying). Why did this keep happening?
The first thing I would say as a nurse in this situation would probably be “Great! she’s not tachy! so she’s probably not septic! crisis averted!”
But then the next thing that’s likely going to be addressed is your pain, and this is where it gets to be a problem. If you were receiving Morphine or Dilaudid for pain, these medications drop your heart rate. So if your heart rate is 43, and you say “I’m in pain” the first thing I’m gonna think as a nurse is “sure, a low heart rate may be relatively normal. But how low can this go??” and 43bpm is already 22% lower than your normal heart rate of 55.
Your relatively low heart rate just gives us less room for error when it comes to deciding how low is TOO low. you could be fine at 43, but when I push a Dilaudid, it can go to 34, and that might kill you. I think I speak for most nurses when I say this: I refuse to be the one who pushes that Dilaudid that puts you in arrest. So we have a delicate balance that we have 2 options for: Give less pain medication, or increase the heart-rate to avoid cardiac arrest.
