Lake Michigan at Sunrise

Lake Michigan at Sunrise

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Danger Zone!!

WRONG! ALL WRONG!

My cardiologist took back to diagnosis after my needing to go back sooner due to increased discomfort. Several expensive tests later. No doctor has an answer for me.. Still waiting.

Sometimes you are the pigeon, sometimes you are the statue. Yesterday I was the statue.

I had my cardiologist appointment and upon crossing the street to leave my visit, a pigeon dumped on my jacket. You thought I was going to get deep on you didn't you? (TWSS)

Okay, well actually I was dealt a rather surprising card.

The visit to the heart doctor was about two hours, including medical history, subjective complaints from me, examination, ultrasound of my heart, and a stress test on a treadmill. I made sure I told them every pressure and oddity I felt in my chest, even if I sounded redundant, since.. ya know.. I would like to breath comfortably again.

Best parts of the exam.. getting big patches of my chest hair shaven off (it is really hot) and them ending the test on the treadmill (it's goal was to get my heart rate to 178..) after 18 minutes since I was in just such good shape, they said that was good enough. I wanted to keep going just to try to reach the goal. The incline was fun to do, but really shined a hot lamp on my lingering strains.

Most of the time they looked a little perplexed and said... this doesn't look cardiac.

I was thinking the same thing, just rule out that I have a heart issue, and send me to get a chest x-ray and a different specialist.

But, if that was the case, I wouldn't be making this post would I?

The doctor started examining the ultrasounds and informed me that I have...Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. My reaction:

And started me on a beta blocker.. for life... woohoo.

Of course, I was confused..How does this affect my breathing? And wth is this? After getting the information on it from the nurse, I realize this is that heart thing that is a leading cause of sudden cardiac death in young athletes.. or for you runners out there.. when you realize you have a heart condition when you die mid race.

Strangely, I wasn't sad, I was in a good mood, relieved that they found this issue with my heart before... something bad happens. I have to follow up next week to get rechecked and see how my symptoms are going. I still feel like something different is bothering my breathing and this was just a lucky catch, but I will take it.

For a few hours, all I could think of was.. I was living in the....
Wait for it....
....
WHAT!!?
.....



Okay, all kidding aside, I am pretty lucky to find out I have this before something bad happened. I don't have a super serious case of this, which is good. I spent all evening thinking... I could die any step! I just need to make it to my first medication dose (this morning). My chest is still rather.. uncomfortable, but mentally, I feel more relaxed. We'll see if this is the root of my breathing issues.

And now I'm handling it the way I know best:

(P.S. I still haven't cleared up time to get on my blog reading.. maybe tonight??)

16 comments:

  1. I'm so glad you were finally able to find out what's wrong! Yeah, being on medication for life would suck, but definitely better to find out now, when there's something you can do to treat it.


    Lana! Lana! Lana! Lana! Lana! LOL, that's awesome.

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  2. I'm glad you found out. I am hoping things improve for you bud. Let me know if you need anything.

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  3. I'm glad you found out whats been going on and that you're able to take some meds to make it better. Hopefully they help the breathing as well. Hang in there!

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  4. I'm leaning towards- they found something wrong with me, but not what was causing my complaint. I feel a lot worse right now.... WOMP

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  5. Me too! glad I found out that i have that issue before it spurned me, but It doesn't seem to be what is causing my issue... i'm getting worse! yuck

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  6. Thanks! glad i found that out! the meds are killing me (see 24/ nausea and light headed feeling). Breathing worse. Yea, this is To Be Continued for sure!

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  7. WHOA. Glad you got this checked out.

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  8. Me too! A blessing. The medicine for it is killlllllllllllllllllllllllling me. And not helping my actually complaint. Time to get the next doctor in line or more tests!

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  9. Debbie @ healthy running momNovember 18, 2013 at 7:41 AM

    It's a good think you followed up & listened to your body! So many people ignore their symptoms. Sounds like you're getting the right treatment & have a great attitude So scary, glad you're doing well!

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  10. Yikes! That is really scary! Glad you found it before anything happened. Hope it helps with the breathing thing too!

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  11. Pete B lakefronttrail.blogspotNovember 18, 2013 at 10:26 AM

    Glad you figured it out. Now, you can start your half marathon training like a banshee. Anyway, I think the beer tonight at Pint Night will do wonders for you.

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  12. oh my gosh I take a blog reading hiatus and come back to this!! I'm glad you've figured out what's going on. beta blockers are interesting - I was prescribed propranolol briefly for migraine prophylaxis and had an unpleasant reaction but a lot of people find that it's very helpful! I blogged about it a while back and surprisingly that's where most of my search engine hits come from haha. very very glad nothing bad has happened up to this point. good job on getting to a cardiologist!

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  13. The beta blockers aren't helping, but did the CheezPuffs?

    I'm glad you discovered this, like you said, before...something happened. Now I hope you can get the breathing and nausea, etc. handled. I don't suppose a cane would help? ;-)

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  14. Gosh! I am so happy you went in to get tested and that they found what is wrong and are able to help you early!

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  15. This is my first time here and I'm sorry to hear that. It is true, it is good they caught it now. Do you know what that means for running? Best of luck to you. Looking forward to hearing more from you.

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  16. Well I'd have to say that was a good catch...scary stuff. Too bad it doesn't seem to help the whole not breathing problem...on to the next specialist?

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