Okay, so here's the low down on what happened to me yesterday. At some point during the early morning hours, in which I was laying in bed in a half-sleep because of insomnia based issues (so not really getting rest) I started getting chest pains. This isn't something new per se, I've gotten chest pains since my late teens but usually it's one or two "stabs" and a possible ache for a bit then it's gone. This time it continued for about a min. and while I was mildly concerned I wasn't overly so.
Fast forward to Christmas morning/afternoon around 3:00, and I get the same pains but this time my left arm starts to feel numb and weird. The pains stopped after about a minute but the arm numbness continued for hours. I could feel my heart beating too fast, and when I'd get up I'd get a head-rush and get dizzy. I also started feeling nauseous about 20 mins after the pains had stopped. I called the nurse hotline and they recommended I go right in.
Now, let me also add that the one time I ever went in for my chest pains in the past I had a doctor listen to my heart and proceed to tell me I have a heart murmur. She told me it was nothing, but there was never any follow up done. I have a tendency to get mad at doctors when they shrug me off so I tend not to go in very often. Anyway, when you add that and the fact that my family has a history of heart disease, high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes and issues with abnormal blood clotting... we figured it was better to be safe. Oh, and I've always had issues with "head-rushes", dizziness, loss of vision (sometimes just from standing up at a normal pace), bad circulation in my hands and feet, stuff like that.
So, St. Anthony's in Gig Harbor is stellar. Seriously the best hospital in the area, at least where the ER is concerned. We love them. They took me right in got me all hooked up, ran an EKG, which was super interesting because they had to give me anti-arrhythmics to essentially "reset" my heart. It was beating around 140 while I was doing nothing more than laying in a bed breathing slowly (it was running hot, a normal resting heart rate being around 60). They had to do this twice because the first time dose was not enough, they had to increase it to get a proper read out. My body just didn't want to slow down. It went right back up. So then they have me beta blockers which block the impulses that are telling the heart it needs to go fast. Those worked at first but after an hour I was sitting back up around 90. They gave me an oral dose that would last longer, and still even after all was said and done and we'd been cleared I still had to really focus on my breathing to keep me below 100.
By the way, those first meds, holy crap was that a weird feeling. The pharmacist, who was a absolute doll, grabbed my read out and went over it with me showing me where, in his words, I'd almost flat-lined. That's some creepy shit to hear. The meds have to slow you almost to flat lining to work the best. And they feel like you're on fire when it happens. Like liquid fire is coursing through your veins. It doesn't last long, but damn it's intense. The beta blockers just make you feel... almost restricted. Not in an uncomfortable way, but like you couldn't raise your pulse if you wanted to.
They ran the gamut of testing, everything came back good, although they're waiting on the thyroid tests. We were there from about 7-10, which wasn't too bad.
All in all, I've learned that I need to slow the fuck down. Not physically, in fact I need to kicked that up a notch (not like hardcore stuff, just activity in general), but stress wise. I need to eat better, drink far less alcohol and far more water, cut back on sugar and over the counter meds. I need to give my heart a break before something worse happens. The Universe has spoken and I am taking heed. It won't be hard to make my New Years resolution this year, and to stick to it. I've got my ER bracelet on the fridge as a not so subtle reminder.
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