Health Scare

A few weeks ago on a Friday we went out to dinner with my brother and his wife, as we frequently do.

That night I was tired after working all day so I went to bed about 9:30 or so. At about 10:30 I woke up with a pain in the middle of my chest, right below my rib cage. I got up, went into the bathroom and took a couple of Tums, thinking it was indigestion. By the time I got back to bed 10 seconds later, the pain had increased 10 fold and was radiating up into my neck!

I sat on the bed and waited for a  few minutes and the pain only got worse. I thought it was probably indigestion or a gallbladder attack, but the pain going into my neck scared me enough to wake Rich up.  We waited for a few more minutes but the pain was not getting any better. I though if I was having a heart attack then I was wasting precious minutes by sitting there so Rich called 911 and the Canton Rescue came in about 2 minutes. It felt like it took them forever to get there, though!

By that time  my blood pressure was high and I was breathing heavy. I was, in a word,  freaking out! They hooked me up to EKG machine and told me my heart rhythm was good and did not look like my heart was in any distress, but they recommended they take me to the local hospital anyway so they could check me further.

 In the ambulance they gave me 4 baby aspirin to chew, hooked up a IV, then gave me nitroglycerin to put under my tongue. I was still in a lot of pain but my blood pressure was lower and I was calming down knowing I probably was not having a heart attack.

At the hospital they did blood work and took a chest x-ray.  Finally after about two hours the pain went away. The did more blood work, kept the monitor on me for  a few more hours and at about 4:30 in the morning they said I was fine and we finally went home!

I felt kind of foolish for going to the hospital for what probably was indigestion but it's better to be safe than sorry! Plus, being diabetic puts me at higher risk for heart disease so I did not want to mess around.

I followed up with my doctor the following Monday and she already had the report from the hospital. She said it looked like there was nothing to be concerned about but she ordered a stress test just to be sure.

I had that done last Wednesday.

While I was walking on the treadmill the tech asked me if I felt anything and she was pointing at something on the EKG, which looked like Greek to me anyway. She said it was showing "some early beats."

The  next day I got a message from my doctor. She said my heart looked good, had good blood flow and nothing to indicate any trouble. The stress test did show that I had what is called premature ventricular contractions in the lower chambers of my heart, which are early beats or skipped beats.  Those are usually brought on  by too much caffeine,  or stress, or even exercise!   I guess it's pretty common and not dangerous unless it happens all the time.

So that's it. My heart is healthy, which is a relief and one less thing I have to worry about for now!

This was outside of the health center where I went for my stress test. It just strikes me as funny that there is a gurney sitting out there by the dumpster! It even had a sheet on the mattress!

And lastly: Guess who's 11 months old now and starting to take a couple steps??

Until the next time...