Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Seeing the doctor

I apologize again for not making a post in years, but I've been dealing with moving on to the third trimester and have not felt my best the past couple days. Today's blog I wanted to talk to you guys about making sure you get yourself checked out if you think something is wrong with your body. 

About a year ago I started noticing that my heart was racing very frequently, it would happen at the same time everyday and would make me lightheaded and delirious. Not only that, but any type of physical activity would send my heart rate through the roof even just going to the bathroom would put my heart rate at 164BPM. My heart was also palpitating two to three times a day for 30 seconds at a time. This, of course, was very concerning for me. I went to my doctor who just said it's anxiety. A month went by and I was still experiencing all these symptoms and again she just said it's anxiety. I did not believe her as I've suffered from anxiety all my life and it's never been like this. After a week I called her and basically said I'm not accepting "anxiety" as an answer and I want to see a professional heart doctor. She set me up with a heart doctor conveniently named Dr. Love who gave me a heart monitor to wear for a week and every time I was having a symptom I had to press a record button to record the symptom. This was, needless to say, a pain in my butt. It had stickers and wires I had to attach all over my chest that would leave giant red welts every time I took it off. After the week was over they reviewed the results and just told me "Lauren your heart rate is a little fast at times, there's nothing wrong" This was not enough for me I knew there was something more than my heart rate being a "little fast" A decently in shape person should not be out of breath with a racing heart after going up one flight of stairs. I called Dr. Love, the heart doctor back and let him know that answer was not okay with me and I wanted him to run more tests. He decided to use and EKG machine to look at my heart and make sure all the valves were working appropriately. Every thing looked great and he said nothing was physically wrong with my heart. I knew he was going to once again say I was fine and said "well we need to do something else then" He then hooked me up to an overnight heart monitor that I had to wear for 48 hours straight that constantly monitored my heart. After I returned the monitor they reviewed my results and called me in. Finally the doctor had some good news. He said after reviewing my reports he could see that my heart rate was never dropping below 85 bpm even when I was sleeping (the average resting heart rate is 60 btw). At multiple points during the day it was jumping to 160-175bpm which led him to only one conclusion. I had a very rare condition called inappropriate sinus tachycardia syndrome. A condition that mainly appears in girls in their 20's and can last anywhere from 6 months to two years, but wasn't dangerous and only meant that I had a super powered heart.

I was so relieved by this information I cried in the office. Finally they knew what was going on and I knew that it would have an end. I finally didn't feel crazy anymore. I got pregnant not too long after finding out and my symptoms just went away. Recently though my heart is starting to race again and there sending me back to get some medicine, but I'm okay with that, because I know there isn't anything wrong. 

I'm telling you all this story just so if something is ever going wrong with your body that doesn't feel natural and your doctor says your fine, but you don't feel their right don't give up. Keep going until you find an answer you know your body better than your doctor and you know when something is wrong. So keep going back until they give you an answer you're okay with. 

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