Tick Tock, Tick Tock, TickTickTickTick, Toooooccckkk....

In case you haven't figured it out, that's my heart beat. Its random, and unusual, and very undecided. Here's a much needed update of my heart saga!

I wore my cardiac event monitor for 30 whole days, with two stupid electrodes very-well-stuck to me chest, and wires coming off of them. They were attached to a box about the size of a deck of cards, which I had to keep attached to my pocket or belt loop. After two hours of wearing it, I was ready to be done. It was CONSTANTLY in the way, wouldn't stay clipped, and if I bumped it and it fell out of my pocket, the wires would pull on the electrodes, which in turned pulled on my skin. Ouch! But it is now (thankfully) returned to the doctor, and I am electrode free! Although I still can't seem to get rid of all the sticky residue on my chest....

Last Friday, I went in for a stress test on the treadmill. I showed up all ready for some serious running, expecting them to make me run until I collapsed (nearly... I doubt they'd let me fall on the treadmill and then fly into the wall behind it. Although you never know!) They hooked me up to the EKG machine, and took one EKG standing, and one laying down. They also took my BP, which was 130/80. But my pulse was at 112. A little too high.

Then, I waited in the room, while the doctor saw other patients, probably flirted with the nurses, and possibly ate his lunch, since I was in there waiting for AT LEAST 30 minutes. In the meantime, I braided my hair, checked my own blood pressure (it was still 130/80), and watched my pulse bounce around from 99 to 135. Isn't my heart lovely? NOT.

When he finally came in, I climbed onto the treadmill. They started me out walking VERY slowly, like you would walk if you were holding the hands of a one-year-old who was just learning to walk. And my pulse started its climb to scary-ness.

After three minutes, it sped up to a normal walking pace. Easy stuff. And it inclined. No big deal. But still, my pulse kept rising.

After another three minutes, I was speed-walking (not even near needing to jog), and I felt fine, minus the feeling that my heart was going to explode. I was breathing fine, and I wasn't tired, but I felt like I had just gotten done running a marathon. He only let me go at this pace for one minute before cutting me off. Because my pulse was...........................

......................................

.....................................

200!

That's 200 beats PER MINUTE. Its like I had the Energizer bunny in my chest!

Then they did two more EKG's, and he prescribed me a low dose of a BP medicine, Atenolol.

And let me tell you... me and Atenolol have a sort of love/hate relationship.

One one hand, the Atenolol dramatically reduced my pulse. I was going through my whole day without it rising above 80. I couldn't even FEEL my heart for once - it was amazing! But there were other effects too...

For one, I was nauseous ALL DAY. And I had bad headaches ALL DAY. And I was light-headed, couldn't stand up quickly, and I was just kinda "blah" feeling. So Monday, the doctor took me off of that for a week. Then on Monday, I will start taking half of a dose each day, and see how that goes. If I still have the yucky symptoms, we'll try a different medication.

In the meantime, my heart rate is back up, and I still have some of the residual symptoms from the medication being in my system still.

I'll update next week on how the new plan is working!

Weekend Recap

Friday night was bowling, which was a lot of fun. I love my bowling boys. They joke around and tease me on my skills, but are also very encouraging and always willing to help me improve. I actually didn't do too bad either. The only down part of the night was feeling like I was on the verge of a heart attack at two different points. My heart just would not slow down! But luckily I got the events recorded, and sent off to the doctor.

Saturday evening was Race Night at South Sound Speedway! I arrived around 5:30pm, and was able to watch the end of qualifying. Then, the Parade Lap, and racing started! Trophy Dashes were first, then heat races, and finally the main races. Saturday happened to be Race #2 of the Big 4 Series, which means it was a 150-lap race for the Super Stocks. Man, I love watchig those guys! The race started off with around 17 cars, and dwindled down to about 7 pretty quicky. They do a mandatory caution at lap 99, so the cars can refuel to finish the race. Its so exciting to watch - I spend most of the race on the edge of my seat!! Here are some of the Trophy Pictures:

Its amazing how hot the track gets - right after the 150, we go down 0n the track so I can present. If I stood still for more than two seconds, I started sticking to the track! But its so much fun, and so cool being down there and looking up at the stands. Plus, when I drive by in the trophy car, all the people in the stands wave back at me!! Here's a picture of the Trophy Car from that night (obviously I stole this picture from the internet - its not the EXACT one I rode in, but it looks the same!)

The next time I do it, July 26th, they're bring down this....

Can you tell I'm really starting to enjoy this??

Another Update

So, I am currently the proud wearer of a Cardiac Event monitor for the next 27 days. Yes, I'm counting down already. I have one electrode on my upper right chest, and one on my lower left ribs. I've already has to call in three or four events, so they should be getting some pretty good data on my heart!!

Jeff and Rachel are back from Disneyland, and can't stop telling me how sad they were that I wasn't there. Little Cody missed me bunches!

My kidney pain has disappeared for the time being for the most part, which is a relief.

Other than that, work is crazy busy all of a sudden, with an average of 10 more patients per day than usual, in the same number of hours. It sure makes the days go faster, but I feel like I'm neglecting some of my work duties to tend to patients. Now don't get me wrong - working on patients is what I live for - but I do have other work to do too.

Tonight is another night of me being Trophy Girl at the Speedway - and it should be a perfect night for racing! I'll post pictures as soon as I get them!

Quick Update

So I received my results from my cholesterol test and echocardiogram today.

Both were completely normal.

Which means back to square almost-one for the whole heart ordeal. There's still the possibility that there is something wrong with my heart structure, because my cardiologist hasn't signed off on the echo yet; just the technician.

Although I was relieved to hear it was normal, its also frustrating because I want this to be figured out, and soon. Tomorrow's heart monitor day!!

More of the heart saga....

These past two and a half weeks have been a jumble of health issues. I've had weird, irregular heart palpitations for about a year and a half now. I saw my doctor when they first started, and she thought it was anxiety. So I was put on Valium. All that did was get me high and put me to sleep. So no more that. Then, they put me on a low dose of a blood pressure medicine. That didn't help either. Over the past year, the doctors have tried to diagnose exactly what is wrong with me. Unsuccessfully. Until now.

About a two weeks ago, I was diagnosed with Supraventricular Tachycardia. Basically, its an electrical problem in my heart. I was born with too much "wiring" that doesn't want to work right. All the extra "stuff" in there makes my resting pulse higher than it should be. And every now and then, the electrical impulses will cause the two atria (top two chambers of the heart) to contract and relax too rapidly. Which means they don't have time to fill with enough blood. Therefore, the two ventricles don't get enough blood to pump to the rest of my body. Which is why I get really light-headed and sometimes faint. It also causes a feeling of something really heavy being on my chest, so that I can't inhale deeply. Which makes me cough.

These random "sprints" that my heart decides to do aren't all that unhealthy, except for the fact that they will cause my heart to wear out more quickly. Especially since I am still so young. So we're going to start out with some different medications to try to control it. However, my doctor really wants to just go in and fix it. Which scares me to death. I have a ridiculously huge fear of surgery. But it sounds like some of the side effects from the medications would make surgery worth it.

And if all that wasn't enough, I'm having problems with my kidney and gallbladder. I started having severe pain in my right kidney, and they determined it to be gallstones. And they want to remove my gallbladder. Its still causing kidney pain, which raises my blood pressure, which makes my heart even worse. But they don't want to fix my gallbladder until they have my heart under control.

I'm glad to finally be figuring these things out, but at the same time, I'm tired of having doctor's appointments almost daily, having my arm pricked to draw blood, and I'm not looking forward to wearing this stupid heart monitor for the next month.

Arbonne International

Just a quick heads up... look for an invitation to a special Arbonne International party I'll be hosting in July!!

Arbonne offers amazing products that focus on three main things: being pure, safe, and beneficial.

They offer several complete lines of products, including anti-aging, daily skin care, nutritional aides, cosmetics (I switched ALL of my cosmetics over to Arbonne!) and BABY CARE!!

At the time of the party, all products will be offered at 35% off, with lots of special deals as well!

I hope to take advantage of the sunshine and possibly have the party outside, enjoying some desserts and other good snacks!

If you have any questions before the party, or are interested in trying products out now before you buy, just let me know!

Unhealthy Me

Yesterday morning, around 7:30am, I woke up with a weird ache in my side/back. I got up, began moving around, and the pain felt worse. It was on the right side, right where my kidney is. I pushed around a little bit, and the whole kidney-area was very tender. I called Mom at work and told her about it, and she told me to call the doctor and try to get in. So I did.

At my 3:15pm appointment, the doctor examined me and poked around some more on my kidney. Then she palpated my gallbladder. And I almost punched her. The pain was that intense. Based on my lack of any other symptoms, she concluded that my gallbladder duct was a little clogged, and so it was backing up into my kidney. Like a gallstone. Hence the pain in those two spots. Yay for me, right? So I was instructed to stick to bland food for a few days, and to watch for any other symptoms, such as nausea or a fever. But my appointment wasn't over.

For about a year or so, I've had a very rapid resting pulse, as well as severe palpitations that come and go. I took Valium for about a week, but that just put me to sleep instantly. And I tried a blood pressure medication, but that didn't help. So I've sort of ignored it. I had an EKG done last year, but it came back normal as can be. Well, when I was in for my appointment yesterday, my heart (finally!) started acting up when a doctor was around to witness it. She took numerous pulse readings, and it just hovered between 120 and 135. When I was sitting still. And had been for an hour. With no caffeine, no exercise, no nothing. So she did another EKG right then. And it came back not quite so normal. Not like "you're going to have a heart attack tomorrow," but definitely not 100% perfect. So lucky me, I get to go to the cardiologist Friday afternoon and wear a cardiac event monitor for a week.

And in the meantime, my kidney still hurts. Isn't life fun?