I Was Overwhelmed

 

Last month I shared with you about my recent cardiac issues and I was overwhelmed, to say the least, by all of the positive and loving messages, prayers, kind words and thoughtful messages sent my way.  There may have even been a few tears, I've been a bit emotional lately.  To say all of you are absolutely wonderful, would be a true understatement.  I am incredibly blessed to have you in my life.  You're kindness has helped a ton.  Thank you all again, so very much.

 

Several of you have asked me about the symptoms I had and I know it is important to you to have that information for your own sakes so I'm going to share my experience in a bit more detail.  I hope you will find this helpful.

 

Leading up to my "cardiac event" I had been having a lot of anxiety, or what I perceived as anxiety at the time.  Along with that feeling of anxiousness my heart would race and I'd find myself sometimes feeling like I couldn't get a full breath and then it would pass.  A couple nights I woke up in full panic attack mode where I couldn't breathe and I literally thought I would come right out of my skin.  The odd thing for me was that I wasn't under any undue stress.  In fact, quite the opposite.  I had nothing to be stressed out about, but I knew if I went to the doctor I'd hear the same thing I've heard before.  "You need to relax and limit the stress in your life.  Do you want a pill for that?"  So I chose not to go to the doctor.

 

Because my actual heart attack was so mild I wasn't 100% sure it really was one, but my gut told me otherwise.  I was washing dishes at the kitchen sink at 10:00 in the morning and had intense pressure in my chest followed by a tightening like a band around my left forearm.  No pain, but my heart was racing at a pretty good clip.  I went into the bathroom and immediately took two regular aspirin.

 

You know that sick feeling you get after a really hard workout at crossfit?  Yeah, me neither, but that is what came next.  I was sweating, my heart racing, I was shaky and nauseous.  And until I got all of my tests done and my medications correct I enjoyed this lovely feeling several times a day for a little more than a week.  Every time I would bend over to pick something up I felt dizzy and nauseous and my heart would take off running and I realized I'd actually experienced a little bit of this for quite some time.  In fact, the simple task of raking leaves and doing things around the house would often times make me sick to my stomach, but I wasn’t connecting the dots.

 

For me the hardest part of all of this was feeling like I couldn't go to the doctor and get good help because "it was all in my head" and I just needed to "relax".  I always knew in my gut that a pill for stress and anxiety wasn't what I needed so I always refused them.  I'm really glad I did now.  I finally have the answers I needed and the doctors in place to take proper care of me.  And while I know I do have some issues with stress and anxiety I now know it wasn't as extreme as previously thought.  I'm going to be okay.

 

I am incredibly grateful to the nurse practitioner at my doctor's office who told me to go straight to the ER.  I'm incredibly grateful to the staff at the hospital that got me taken care of.  I'm incredibly grateful to the ER doctor that listened to me, figured out what was going on and got me in touch with the cardiologist.  I'm incredibly grateful to the nurse at the cardiologist's office who took the time to listen, understood my concerns and was instrumental in helping the cardiologist figure out the right meds for me (nurses are so awesome).  And!  I am so grateful to all of you for caring.  Life is good.  So are you.