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January 31, 2008
The state of my union
So last night, I went to the ER (again). I had been feeling my heart skipping beats off and on for a few days, and it got pretty bad yesterday. I called the doctor's office about it, and the oncall physician wanted me to go in and get checked out - bloodwork, EKG, the whole shebang.
After a few hours crashed out in an ER observation bed, I was diagnosed with premature ventricular contractions (PVCs). They said that it wasn't harmful, that lots of people get them, and that it's not a sign of any other serious problems.
Had I not been sitting in a hospital bed for hours previously, feeling my heart stutter and flop about in my chest, I'd have accepted their words more readily.
Less comforting was the answer (which is becoming more and more common with medical concerns) of "We're not really sure what causes them". Sure, they can say they aren't harmful, and they understand the physiology of HOW they happen, but they can't say for sure WHY they happen. It could be stress, it could be a chemical imbalance in the body, it could be stimulants like chocolate or caffeine, it could be some other sort of heart disease.
So, after a rather brief 4 hours at the ER, I was sent home with no treatment options, no medications to take, just the standard advice about knocking off the caffeine and chocolate, getting more exercise, de-stressing, and losing weight.
I think they got my number this time.
I tell ya, the years of high blood pressure haven't been that big a deal for me. You don't FEEL high blood pressure, you just see it on a gauge in the doctor's office. Take a pill, the pressure goes down. If that pill stops working, try another one. Cholesterol is even worse - there's no symptoms, no gauge to look at, just a number on the blood test printout. Take another pill.
This PVC stuff, however, is very different. This is immediate and obvious. You feel that fluttering in your chest. You can watch the blood vessels on your wrist pulse, pulse... STOP... and then the pulse comes comes back HARD as the heart catches up. (It doesn't *stop*, it just decreases in pressure.) It doesn't HURT, but it's uncomfortable. And it's random and nagging. And there's nothing the doctors can give me to make it stop. (Well, there *is*, but I'm already taking it as one of my blood pressure medications.)
It's another damned reminder of my mortality, and I don't like it. Not one bit.
However, if I get my ass back in gear with this exercise and weight loss and better diet thing, that's supposedly going to help. All of those changes are recommended self-care and treatment options. So that's what's gonna have to happen. Stationary bike, DDR, better diet, no more pop (already coming up on a week without a Dew or Coke, so that's doable), maybe even no more chocolate. That, plus cutting back on a recent increase in my anti-cholesterol meds that the doc recommended, since I started that the day before all this crap kicked off. With any luck, I'll be back to my normal self soon. We'll see.
So, long story short - I'm not dying, I'm just old and fat and falling apart. I just found a new way to show it.
(Oh, and I did record some audio on the way there and back for a happy fun podcast - expect to hear that soon!)
Posted by zaren at January 31, 2008 12:30 PM