The Past Few Months...

The past few months I've been having super weird things going on with my chest...on a few occassions I've ended up either at the ER or the local urgent care center (it just depended on which one was closer!) with a racing heart, throbbing chest pains, piercing head pains, difficulty breathing, extreme dizziness, unable to stand up and feeling like I was going to pass out at any minute. After the episodes, I would find myself absolutely drained for at least the next day, if not two days after. My body seriously felt like I had just run a marathon and all I wanted to do was sleep to regain some energy. Each time I sought urgent/emergent care, the attending physicians or PA told me "it was just a panic attack" and to go home and take care of myself. One PA even told me to go to a happy place whenever I started feeling bad. Really??? The girl who is always chill is having a panic attack??? I've never had one before and why would I start now?! I will admit I like to rant & rave, but that's totally different than worrying about stuff and letting it consume me--consciously or subconsciously. I tend to think my primary care physician is pretty awesome and will do whatever she can to make me comfortable...she knows I'm not one to complain unless I'm at my wits end with feeling crappy. We tried several different anti-anxiety drugs while we did a battery of other tests and guess what--the anxiety meds didn't make any difference. Dr. Morin was pretty sure they wouldn't but she figured it was worth a shot. Well, the stupid episodes continued and I would just let it run its course while curled up on the couch in a fetal position. I figured the hospital/stat care didn't do anything other than send me a large bill afterwards and yeah, maybe that would cause a panic attack! Anyhow, the first part of February I decided to cut out meat and see if that made a difference. I'd just had another attack so I figured it was worth it. About 3 weeks later, I was at my dr's for a follow up and she told me I was getting put on a heart monitor for 21 days. I was a bit frustrated about being hooked up to a black box when I hadn't had any episodes since cutting out meat and we were in the process of moving. It wasn't the most convenient time to be put on one but I was ready for some answers...I have no idea how many times I accidentally set off the heart monitor--it made this awful squaking sound so needless to say, it was a bit embarassing to be around other people and have this hideous sound start coming out of me! I wore the heart monitor for the 21 days and nothing happened. I was SO excited! I called my dr's office to let them know but then they told me I had to wear it an additional 2 weeks--so 5 weeks of wearing the stupid thing?! I decided to bite the bullet and low and behold, I started having episodes again during Easter Weekend. Ah, maybe they do know what they're doing after all! Finally, I was able to turn in the monitor and schedule my appointment with the cardiologist to review the results. Yesterday was the big appointment day! Turns out--I wasn't crazy! The symptoms were not in my head and they were NOT panic attacks. For whatever reason, the electricity in my heart exits out just like it should...but then it decides it's not ready to leave and re-enters my heart, causing my heart to short-circuit and go into tachycardic episodes. That's why my heart would hit at least 160 beats per minute for hours at a time! I kinda giggled at the thought and wanted to ask if it was maybe my brain and not my heart because ummm, yeah, sometimes things don't always connect in my head! Thankfully, a daily med treats the condition and if I still have episodes while taking the medication, they'll go in and burn some of the tissue that causes the short circuiting. He also gave me some tips on what to do at home during the episodes so that I can re-set my heart and not have to seek medical care. All in all, I was so relieved to find out that I wasn't going crazy after all! Part of me wants to write a letter to the doctors who told me it was all in my head and be like, "Hey--I wasn't freaking out, turned out my heart just needed reset. PS You suck. Love, Bria." But then I realized--it is a small town and maybe someday I will need them to reset me so it might be best to be a nice girl about it!