On
Friday, I went to work and it was planned to be just another boring
day: I had a customer call, I chatted with some co-workers about how
my recovery is going, and I had a team meeting. Right before the
meeting, as I stood up from my desk to head to the meeting room, I
fell back in my chair, with a very, very heavy head, and the very
distinct feeling that I will faint. My vision was blurry and all
colors in front of me turned gray. I felt like my eyes were rolling
back in my head. I felt a huge head rush come up my spine, and
instantly, I got a headache, in the back of my head. Then, the rush
was slowly draining down through my spine, into my legs and feet, and
it was dragging all my energy down with it.
My
breath was shallow and scarce. My chest was in huge cramps, and the
left side of my ribs too. For a minute I thought my bra was too
tight, and I pulled at it, but the cramps were deeper than that. My
tongue was very heavy in my mouth, I had to speak very, very slowly,
and my voice got very quiet – which usually happens lately, when my
chest is in pain.
At its
worst, the whole thing lasted about 5 minutes. But after that, I was
extremely dizzy, and my speech was still not right. I felt like I
just took 15 percocet pills and I was sooo druggy, dizzy,
disoriented, and lethargic.
I went
to my meeting and sat in it for an hour through extreme dizziness. I
did text my husband that I am not well, thinking that if I will
faint, at least he'll know to call my work and ask about me. I told a
co-worker that I am not feeling well and I told him how to contact my
husband, if need be.
I have
been dizzy before, since my surgery, but this was different. I have
not felt druggy and slow, like this was going to be, ever, and never
for this long. After an hour in the meeting and another half hour
after it, after not being able to walk on my own feet, and having to
hold on to walls and desks to find my desk again, I felt like this
might be bad, after all, so I texted my husband to come and get me to
my ER. I was thinking, if I need to get in touch with my cardiologist
and my surgeon, I'd rather be at their hospital.
So, off
we went. The dizziness continued through the ride to the hospital
(another half hour). By the time I made it there, it had been two
hours where my chest and left side ribs were cramping, the back of my
head (also left side) was in massive migraine-like pain, my voice
was quiet and slow, and I was dizzy. Very, very, unstably dizzy.
We went
in and they put me in a room and hooked me up to machines and an IV
in less than 15 minutes, I think. They did blood work, and then an
EKG, a CT scan of my brain and (stenotic) carotid arteries, as well
as an X-ray to rule out any fluid buildup around my heart. Everything
came back normal: the heart enzymes were clear suggesting there was
no heart attack, the CT scan showed no brain hemorrhage, and there
was no fluid in the chest.
But my
heart numbers were bad. My blood pressure was yo-yo-ing between 89/40
and 140/50. If I stood up, I could not find my feet, I had to hold on
to something to be stable, and my blood pressure was lowest. I didn't
know what it meant then and the ER doctor didn't look concerned, but
this number on the heart machine (the QTc number) was 520 almost the
entire time I was there, and the machine was beeping the whole time,
flashing “QTc too high”. I found out after ER that
the normal QTc (or QT Interval) in women should not be higher than
450, and 470 is borderline high. Well, mine was 520. For a definition
of what this number shows, visit this site:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QT_interval
The ER
doctor said the number I see on the machine is not accurate, and the
number on the EKG is more accurate. Well, that number for the QTc was
485, so still high. As I said, he did not seem concerned. He said I
didn't have a stroke, nor a heart attack and whatever it was, to
follow up with my cardiologist for further investigation.
When the
QT interval is too high, I found, the symptoms are exactly what I
felt, and it means your heart is severely arrhythmic. I also have
arrhythmia, but I thought this was controlled by my beta-blocker,
which I have taken for more than 20 years now. I guess this time my
arrhythmia was more pronounced than others?!
The ER
staff was great and I was grateful that they did eliminate the more
severe diagnoses, but I was a little bummed they still did not give
me a reason for my symptoms.
After
waiting for the results of all the tests for about 6-7 hours, and
having confirmed that it's all clear of a “major” accident, they
decided to give me a liter of fluids, to see if that will make my
blood pressure rise. I was also very hungry, by that time, but with
the kitchen closed (at 9 PM) they just gave me a bag of chips (salt
rises blood pressure too) to eat. My blood pressure started creeping
slowly up, after the fluids were all in. When I finally took a walk
around the ward, I felt much better. Still a little groggy, but I
could walk without holding on to the walls.
They
sent me home, and this has not happened since (48 hours now after the
first symptom on Friday). I did work (lightly) in the garden for
10-15 minutes yesterday and I started getting dizzy, again, but my
usual dizzy, nothing like the syncope-like feeling I had on Friday.
The next
step is to follow up with my cardiologist who will have all the tests
they did and see what could have caused this. So far, I am just
trying to take it as easy as I can (I still have to go to work), and
trying to stay overly hydrated, since the one liter of water seemed
to do the trick of lifting up my blood pressure. I normally do drink
a lot of water, so I am not sure if dehydration was the cause for
this.
Every
new day is not like another one past, still. Anything can happen, I
guess, and this tells me that even after 5 months I am still not “in
the clear”. It also tells me that my heart is still very fragile,
and that I may never feel like I will ever be truly “ in the
clear”. I know they didn't say for sure that my heart caused all
this, but I have a good feeling that it was my heart. My blood
pressure and the QT interval numbers, along with the chest pressure I
had all tell me it's my heart. And by now, I know.
I don't
know what caused my heart to go into such a shock, so suddenly, with
no change in routine, diet, medication, or any other external
factors. I'll update more when I see my cardiologist and hopefully
he'll have some answers for me.
Good
health to all, and as little surprises as possible.
In the ER - notice the blood pressure is 103/41 and my QTc is 499. Not sure why I was smiling, as I was pretty scared ...
No comments:
Post a Comment