A few weeks ago something really bizarre happened. On a Wednesday
afternoon, my husband and I went for our usual bi-weekly or so walk in our
neighborhood. We have what I call a “kick-a$$” (for me) hill right outside our
driveway, about a mile long, round trip. This makes for good cardio. I have a
landmark on the side of the road (a bright red fire hydrant) that is almost at
the top of this hill about where my symptoms kick in: I start really losing my
breath, choking up, my left arm gets numb, and the cramps in my legs start
pulling at my muscles really tightly. These symptoms happen about 90% of the
time when I do this routine walk, especially when I go at that hill fast. I
normally do go fast because my cardiologist is of the belief that we really
need to push our heart into cardio mode to grow new, healthy arteries. As my
old ones are bad, I figured this is a good enough reason, but I almost always
pay for it with these symptoms. They do ease up after I am done with the hill
and walk back down, or wander around the neighborhood on more flat grounds.
I (sort of) digress, though. So, on this Wednesday, my
symptoms start kicking in at around my landmark and they get worse as I walk.
We make it to the top of the hill where there is a flat part of our walk, and
where usually the symptoms kind of plateau or calm down. But on this one day,
they were actually getting worse, even after was done climbing. On top of
the usual cramps and numbness in my left arm and shoulder blade, I was now
getting this incredibly sharp pain in my chest: like a huge eagle or owl was
sitting on my chest digging their huge talons into my heart, or somewhere where
my heart should be, somewhere behind my sternum.
We came back home and the chest claw was not letting up. My
breathing was labored and I felt like I had SO MUCH acid reflux in my chest – I
remembered very clearly that when I had my heart attack after my surgery, I
thought I had acid reflux, with my chest full of fluid and that I was not able
to burp it. That same feeling was coming back that day. I felt like I swallowed
a basketball-sized water balloon and it was pushing into my lungs and chest
walls or something.
Back home, after I rested for a bit, I took my blood
pressure and it was 150/58 with a pulse of 58. I thought: well, something
really did happen or my heart really did work out, since my pressure is clearly
up! I kept feeling weak all evening, with the watery chest persisting and the
claw coming and going. Because of all these new symptoms I did not even think
to take a Nitroglycerin. I was just in awe: what could cause all this and what
was happening?!
Next day, my weakness and full chest continued. My blood
pressure kept climbing up all throughout the next day: 149/62 in the morning,
189/81 at lunch (what?!), 141/50 in the evening. All of these while at rest. I
did not walk anymore. I was just around the house all day, doing light chores,
but all these numbers and what I felt were scaring me. On Thursday morning, I
jumped on the scale in my bathroom, as I usually do about 2-3 times a month. It
read 120 lbs! This was 6 lbs more than the previous time that could not have
been longer than a week and a half or two before! The feeling of bloating and
puffiness in my core body was still there and I could not help but wonder if
this was all fluid build-up. I had not changed my diet in any way. I was not
lazier than normal, so what could
possibly make me gain 6 lbs in that short of a time?!
I have a pretty good relationship with my cardiologist and
thought to text him a few times, but I also had an appointment scheduled with
him the following week, so I thought I’d wait. I figured he’d send me to the ER
if I texted him at that point and as much as that I figured out myself, but I
did not want to deal with the ER. Not yet. I was hoping that I won’t get light
headed or dizzy and as long as I didn’t feel that, I was going to wait this one
out. So, I did.
On Friday, we had a weekend trip planned to Virginia to
visit relatives and the symptoms continued during our drive up there. I took my
bp monitor with me and kept records of it, because I wanted to show my
cardiologist what was happening. The high blood pressure continued throughout
the weekend. On Friday night my legs were so swollen, you could not see the
bones in my ankles anymore. My feet
could not fit the clogs I was wearing except for the tips of my toes. On
Saturday, we went to browse a Barnes & Noble store and I was walking around
skimming through books and my chest claw came on again and I felt like I was
going to fall down – it knocked the breath right outta me. I had to sit down. I
was not dizzy, but very weak.
I continued to just take it easy and enjoyed our day up
there – my husband got to reconnect with relatives he had not seen in 35+
years, so I was so wanting us to just enjoy our time and make new memories.
We came down on Sunday afternoon and I drove the whole way
(about three and a half hours), just to take my mind off of this mess. I was
absolutely exhausted when we made it back. I took a shower and napped. My blood
pressure was still hanging out at 169/65 after my nap. My ears were bright red.
I was afraid to jump on the scale again. My sleep was poor, as well: I just
felt like suffocating when I laid down and I could hear my heart beating so
strongly and my valve clicking louder than normal. I have a stethoscope, and I
listed to my heart for new murmurs or swooshy sounds, but I could not hear
anything new.
Next Monday, I woke up and I did check my weight again: it
had dropped to 116! Just like that: from Thursday to Monday (in 4 days!) I had
lost 4 lbs! I wish this would happen every week, believe me, but I knew this
could not be just fat loss. Along with this mysterious weight loss, my bp was
115/50 that morning. The claw in my chest was gone and so was the full, watery
feeling. All seemed to be back to normal. Just. Like. That.
On Wednesday I went in for a scheduled heart echo and for an
appointment with my cardiologist. I explained all these to him and he has no
idea what happened! He doesn’t want to go on guessing. He examined me, and heard
no new sounds, either, and no sign of fluid. He did say that it does sound like
I had fluid backed up but it was obvious to him it was not still a problem, as
my leg swelling went down and my blood pressure too. He did check my C-reactive
protein levels which could indicate an inflammation, I guess, and that came
back normal. He just advised that next time I should take an extra-half of Atenolol (which I take daily) and see if the heart palpitations and the bp
would go down. If that doesn’t happen, to call him or go to the ER. Of course.
The echo he ordered was just my yearly routine echo. It came
back with almost no changes from the previous year, although it still shows disease, of course: there is annular calcification of my mitral valve, but the
valve is fully mobile. My left atrium is moderately enlarged. My ventricle is
normal and it squeezes strongly, the doctor said. My ejection fraction is still
sitting at 55% which has been unchanged since my surgery, three years ago. I
remember when it was 70%, even the year before my heart surgery, but I don’t
think I will ever see that number again! He also said that by looking at the
pictures, he thinks my aortic insufficiency has improved and it is not as bad
as before. I was kind of wondering about that, because the gap between my blood
pressure readings has gotten smaller. It’s still not what you would expect (the
diastolic is still lower than what you want), but it has definitely closed up a
bit. A good report, all things considered.
He also ordered an ABI test (or ankle-brachial index test - https://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/ankle-brachial-test#1)
to determine if there is vascular disease in my legs, since they always get
cramped when I walk on inclines or very fast. This test “indicated no
significant arterial occlusive disease at rest and after exercise bilaterally.”
They did make me walk on a treadmill, for the exercise, with an incline of 10
and a speed of 1.5 for 5 minutes. When I walk on the treadmill and when I do
get symptoms, I usually walk with no incline and I reach a speed of about 3
mph. I usually get cramps about 10-15 minutes into the exercise, so during
their test I did not get symptomatic at all. Not sure how to interpret this,
but the cardiologist assured me that if there were any disease it would have
been evident even in the case of a light, short walk with a steep incline like
in the test they performed.
I wish I understood more about what happened that odd week.
Since then, my blood pressure has stayed within normal ranges, or what normal
is for me. I am back to my usual routine and I did go on my usual walk several
times now, and the hill has not caused a problem yet. I am glad that it all
appears to be cleared up now and I am back to my normal, but a nagging thought
in the back of my head still tugs at me: was it a heart attack? What was that?!
I guess, for now, I am grateful I am still here and back to my normal routine and
looking forward to more normal days. Sometimes, this is plenty enough!
