Monday, April 03, 2006

My Heart...

I can't believe it has been three days since my last post. I have been so busy and didn't even really get to sit down to even look at the computer for more than 5 minutes at a time. And to be honest, I don't really have that much time right now. So, I'll TRY to be brief!

Some of you remember that last year, while pregnant with Elise, I had this little heart problem. I was at the zoo and talking to Jake on the phone. He told me he had just looked through our Respite kid, Justin's (who was with me) bag. He had found a big lighter (the kind you start a grill with) and a bunch of condoms. I don't think that had anything to do with what happened next but I told Jake I wasn't feeling so good and I had to go. I thought I was going to pass out. I told my sister and the next thing I know I am in an ambulance. They hooked me up to all these machines and told me my heart rate was 240! They told me they were going to give me a shot of medication that will stop my heart and restart it. I actually felt my heart stop and restart. It made me think, when people die of heart failure, they don't just pass out or whatever. They can feel their heart has stopped. They know they are going to die. It is crazy. Either way, I didn't die and I ended up being on this medication to help my heart rate for the remainder of my pregnancy. I went to see a cardiologist and he explained I have an extra electrical pathway in my heart and because of my pregnancy I had extra heart beats and any time you have even a few extras it can cause the "electrical pathway" to catch and it messes things all up. I thought it was odd because I was so much healthier weight wise with my pregnancy with Elise. Either way, I accepted what he said and that was that. He warned me I could have another "episode" at some point. Great. I went through the summer with basically no problems.

Back in October I started having some problems. I gained an unexpected 15-20 lbs. I really should have been losing weight because I went back to work and was eating much healthier. I still can't figure it out. Then I had this flushing problem in my face. It was like I was walking around embarrassed all the time. It drives me nuts. There was other stuff to...but I guess the only important symptom to tell you about it the heart palpitations. So, I go to more than one doctor (you can read a previous post about me firing one doctor) and no one can find anything wrong. It is so annoying. I know my body and something is amuck. Well, I finally decided to call my cardiologist because I almost passed out a couple of times and my heart was racing. So, I went to see him and he gave me this annoying monitor thing that I hook up to me and anytime I feel these palpitations I have to push this button and it makes this loud annoying noise. I am very sick of it. I have another week to go. So, this week end rolls around and I was busy. I had this conference I went to with my sister on Saturday (Moody Bible Women's Conference - it was great but too much crying, I felt drained afterwards). On the way to the thing I thought I was going to die. My heart was HURTING. I was sweating with a short sleeve shirt and no coat on. My heart was pounding. I felt like throwing up. That pretty much lasted through the day and into Sunday morning. I didn't go to church because Jude has puss coming out of his eyes and I didn't want to take him. When Jake got home, I told him I wanted to go to the hospital. I was having chest pain again and I wanted to make sure I wasn't dying. So, we went and 3 hours, an EKG, 5 vials of blood, 2 chest xrays and a whole lot of monitoring later....I went home. They told me I have a very healthy heart and my lungs are crystal clear. I am relieved to know I don't have congestive heart failure or heart disease BUT WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME????? My resting heart rate is almost 100. I think my heart is beating so fast that it actually hurts. I don't know why. I have really laid off the caffeine. I am out of shape but not THAT out of shape. Please! I have two little kids, how could I be that out of shape? Either way, hopefully, we will get to the bottom of this soon. It is making me crazy. I had only told a few people before because it is embarrassing. But now, you all know.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad they're doing the monitor. Smart move to get the cardiologist involved. We understand about the embarrassment -- no one likes to be different from "normal" in health matters. Hope they're able to figure out what's going on and how to restore "normal."
Aunt Nancy

Anonymous said...

Hope you are doing better by now. Know what you mean about the embarrassment thing, (been there/done that). You are "perfect" just the way you are, imperfections and all!

I missed you not blogging.
Aunt D.

toys r us kid(s) said...

I know this must be so scary, and I know it must be frustrating that you don't know the cause of the problem(s). But you need to take some solace in the fact that you did the right things, you recognized the symptoms, you got several opinions, you spoke to an EXPERT, and used the monitor. The tests didn't come up with a solution-but they didn't come up with somthing TRAGIC either. Just keep doing what you are doing. As you know, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, or whatever that saying is. Blog to ya soon

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear you feeling poorly.
i hope the Dr's can find the problem soon.

Brad & Jen.

Anonymous said...

Delilah, will you please inform all the bloggers on your "other cool blogs & links" list to --- get a LIFE and start posting!! How do they expect us to be entertained if they don't post? (laugh)

~Jacki said...

Josh had problems similar to this tht started in Dec. and it took them forever to figure out what it was. You might want to talk to him about what they did for it. He had a monitor, but his heart would never do teh palpitations while he has it-weird. I think living with my sister stressed him out too much :) Just kidding.