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The last thing I expected to be doing this morning was hanging out at the hospital for six hours. So much for “only” three visits this month. But in fact, it all started about 25 years ago, back when I was living in Toronto.
I was at the gym and bent over to pick up my towel and my heart suddenly started racing like mad. Scared the hell out of me. And I was so scared two hours later when it hadn’t stopped that I ended up going to Emergency. Of course while I was in the waiting room my heart rate went back to normal. Since then I’ve had this happen on quite a regular basis, though I learned that if I lie down and pull my knees to my chest then the tachycardia stops. I’ve been to specialists, have had numerous EKGs, and once even wore a little “heartbeat recorder” for a couple of days, but nobody could discover why this happened to me. The usual trigger is me being overheated and/or bending over – it’s like flicking a switch. And it usually stops just as suddenly if I lie down.
Except last night it didn’t…
I woke up around 3am and saw that it was 33 degrees in my bedroom. We’re really in the middle of a heat wave. Anyhow, I got up and had a long drink of cold water and when I got back into bed the tachycardia started. So I did the usual deep breathing and pulling knees to chest. Nada. And four hours later things still hadn’t gone back to normal – I admit I was getting quite nervous because it has never lasted that long before. So Nog and I taxied over to the hospital and I’ve been here ever since.
And of course the tachycardia stopped as soon as I got here.
But I had an EKG done and some blood tests. Twice. Am now waiting for the second results to come back. As “luck” would have it my heart started pounding again (it’s never happened twice in the same day before) while I was out having brekky, so I nipped back here and they did a second EKG. The doctor said it was curious because although my heart is beating faster it’s quite regular (I was sure this morning there was arrhythmia happening). So now they are talking about putting me back on the machine. Bleh. Just when I was revelling in Being In Good Health.
So I guess as soon as I get the second blood test results I can get this poky thing out of my vein and go home. First time I’ve used the WordPress iPhone app to write a post. It’s a bit clumsy and slow going, but sure has helped pass the time.
I think I should have just gone to yoga class…
casa azahar 
I’m home! Finally went to see what the hold up was with the second blood test results and apparently they’d had a “problemita” with the machine so there was a back-up of about an hour and a half. Well, I had been a very patient patient all morning, but at the six-hour mark I started to lose it. So I asked the doctor to PLEASE take the poky thing out (I also still had those EKG sticky things stuck all over me) and said I would leave him my phone number in case I had to come back. He seemed more concerned about me not getting copies of my test results to bring to my GP(Agustín) but I’ll see if Ricardo can find them for me when I go visit him on Thursday.
The reason for the second test was because a couple of things were “off” on the first one, which the doctor thought was a mistake, but he wanted to redo it do be sure. But I’ve been having such regular blood work done lately that I doubt anything could be that seriously wrong since last month.
Also, I was there by myself. Nog had to leave shortly after we got there because he had a new class starting this morning that he couldn’t miss. So I was quite proud of myself for keeping my cool all that time. Well, except for the second tachycardia bit… the doc gave me a tranq and it stopped. Will do that if I ever have another all-nighter.
It’s curious because not long ago something like this would have really upset and annoyed me. But ever since I got the “reprieve” I am too busy being happy to let much get me down.
Life is good. 🙂
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Gack! You had to eat hospital caff food again?
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Nope. As I knew I had lots of time to kill I went to a little bar down the street and sat outside. The coffee & toast wasn’t actually any better than at the hospital, but it was wayyy cheaper.
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Okay, wow – and very glad you’re back home! Is it heat wave time everywhere? We’re also in the 90s here (your 33-35 is our 91-95). I have so much to do at home, but the littlest bit of movement is a full-on over heating moment!
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It’s 40º here this week, which makes it about 45º (113ºF) in the centre of town. I have two fans going at the moment, but it’s like sitting in front of a pair of blow dryers. Still, better than without them.
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Wow. That was a bit of excitement you could have done without. Hope the ticker’s behaving itself today.
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I have long had attacks of palpitations. Generally, they are anywhere between 5 – 6 and 15-20 flutters which make me cough in a funny, repetitive way while the palpations are going on (because the extra blood floods through your lungs) which also makes me light-headed and my face flush, if they are longer than just a couple of beats.
When I first got them in my early teens, my family doctor told me it was “gas”… I said, “but why would it make my heart feel funny and my lungs expand and contract?”. She just said “gas”.
It wasn’t until years later when I went to college that a new family doctor sent me for ultrasound on my heart and diagnosed a “floppy heart valve” (prolapsed mitral valve), and told me I had to take antibiotics every time I had anything from having my teeth cleaned to major surgery. I didn’t take that to seriously until I read a book by a well-known sports writer who had also ignored his doctor’s advise, got a cavity in his tooth, went to Russia, brushed with tap water, and ended up having to have a heart transplant when his heart failed…. You can bet I became very serious about making sure I got antibiotics from then on!
However, in all those years, no one had ever been able to catch the palpitations in action.
The day my niece was born, I woke up and was having palpitations. Unlike the previous events, these didn’t just go for 5 or six beats, they went on all day, for minutes at a time. Finally, when I went to the hospital to visit my sister, I went straight to Emergency. Even so, the monitor, which only took sporadic samples, missed the offending patterns but I was able to see and describe them to the doctor. I guess I drew an accurate enough drawing of the graph because he was able to tell that I wasn’t in serious danger, though why I was having them so long was a mystery.
My then newest family doctor had a friend who was an expert on herbal remedies and he asked if I had been taking Ginseng recently. I had been and it turns out that for anyone with any sort of heart problems, Ginseng should not be taken without a doctor’s supervision. I stopped taking the Ginseng and the sudden onset of constant palpitations went away.
I recently got yet another new family doctor and she sent me for another heart test and they found that I do NOT have a prolapsed mitral valve so don’t have to take antibiotics all the time. They still don’t know why I have palpitations but they at least have one less thing that could cause them.
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It’s been under 20 here for the last month! Summer is a comin’ and none too soon.
Did they give you good drugs? 😉
btw, when you see me here and the traffic feed says ‘Toronto’, that’s my companys server, I’m still in cloudy old Vancity.
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My goodness, that was an unexpected surprise of the not-so-nice kind! Good you’re back home safely, and that they’ve been able to do some tests on it. Want me to send you some nice irish rain – we seem to have plenty of it at the minute!
And yes, isn’t modern technology abso-bloomin-lutely marvellous! I’m so glad I live in this century 🙂
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Yikes. I’m glad you’re home and the tranquilizer worked!
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Wow. I was scared for you reading this post, Az! I’m glad all is well now. I was wondering if this was a heat-related issue at first. I hope you have a good day in front of those blow-driers! 😛 I bet your kittehs are not happy with this weather, either.
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The ticker is still feeling a bit fluttery, Teuchter. I don’t think being up since 3am has helped matters, and I couldn’t take a siesta because I was waiting for the first July tenant to arrive. After he got here it was too late for a nap … reckon I’ll just have a very early night.
I was a bit concerned because I gave the doctor my phone number and said he only had to call if there was something wrong and I needed to come back. Instead a nurse called and said I was supposed to go back, talk to the doctor and pick up my test results. To me it sounded like it was mostly about picking up the results, so I’ve decided to move my visit with Ricardo to tomorrow morning and get all that done.
The famous words that almost killed me two years ago, Mudhooks. My thing sounds similar to yours, especially how nobody really seems to know what it is or what causes it.
Just the one measly tranq, zoomer. Fine with me.
I wouldn’t mind a little Irish rain, Linda, especially overnight to cool things down a bit.
Glad to be home too, Colleen. I did worry that I might get stuck at the hospital for observation.
The kittehs are now sprawly cat rugs, WC, and Loki (channelling Sunny once again) has already sussed that the bathtub is the coolest place to be.
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My late and ex husband was once told to go home and take Maalox and half a day later he was getting his gall bladder out. It seems to be a favorite blow-off diagnosis.
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Crazy, isn’t it? I wonder how many people have actually died from being told they were just full of hot air.
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More than any of us want to know, I’ll bet.
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Well, it sounds like heart dodginess is more common than I thought – I get a racing heart for about a minute or two, every few weeks. No idea what sets it off, I can just be sitting down and all of a sudden it goes nuts. You can see it beating wildly through my skin! But it has, so far, always calmed down after a bit. If it happened for more than about 30 mins I’d be straight off to the doc because it must be a strain on the old ticker to keep that up for much longer than that (as though I were running at full pelt).
I guess that as long as they can rule out any of the scary ‘need to take antibiotics for everything’ diagnoses, then even if they can’t tell you exactly what is causing it, maybe they can give you something to take to calm it down next time. I sure hope so, it must have been frightening. I’m really proud of you for staying so calm throughout it all.
Here’s hoping the heat wave breaks soon and you get a decent night’s sleep to recharge those batteries.
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Yes – I get that too! It’s really freaky to see it pounding through your skin like that, isn’t it?
I reckon that since I’ve had this for over 25 years and nobody has been able to find out why, it will remain a mystery.
And speaking of a decent night’s sleep – I slept for a whole 8 hours last night! Uninterrupted even! I must have been totally exhausted. Feel great today, so may visit Ricardo on Thursday as originally planned and pick up results then. Got a ton of errands to run this morning.
This sleep stuff sure seems to work wonders…
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Oh. That doesn’t sound like a pleasant surprise.
I’m glad you’re back home, too. Though sorry to hear that home is so terribly hot! I think I would melt, or maybe just spend my whole day soaking in a cool bathtub. (It would probably be hard to go online that way, though…)
I hope you are getting some rest in spite of the heat, and that you are keeping well hydrated. (Sorry, I’m always harassing people to drink more water. And reading about heat waves makes me thirsty.)
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Yeah, you wouldn’t want to DROP YOUR NEW iPAD IN THE WATER. (Envious? Moi?)
You don’t have to worry about me staying hydrated. I always wonder why those ads and articles urging people to drink 2 litres of water a day want me to drink less.
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Way too harrowing a tale, actually. Glad you recovered and hope your heart acts normal from now on.
I shall resist asking the question “What else could happen?” because it is one question we don’t really want to know the answer to, actually. Unless the answer was “Nothing much except excellent digestion and plenty of gainful employment,” of course.
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Yikes!
Glad it seems to be okayish.
Our weather’s going crazy. Heatwaves one day, constant drizzle the next. I’d understand heatwaves and thunderstorms, but this is just rain. And rain and rain and rain. Ah well, what do you expect when you live in the Bog of Allen?
TRiG.
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Yep, things seem okayish now. I had a couple of moments this week when it felt like my heart was going to switch to overdrive, but stopping to breath deep and relax kept it from happening.
Well, I will be going to see Ricardo this morning and will pick up the test results from Monday then.
We had some crazy weather here too – a tornado! And the woman who is staying in the apartment next door this month was flying in from Paris just as it hit. She said it was the most terrifying experience of her life with the plain being buffeted around like a toy … but they landed safely. Meanwhile the wind brought patches of rain and a lot of sand from the Sahara, which left cars looking pretty grubby. And then it was all over in a couple of hours. We are now back to our regularly scheduled HEAT WAVE.
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We could really do with a thunderstorm, actually. It’s been really muggy. But no, just rain. Today’s been a mixture of weathers; warm, though.
TRiG.
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