Matters of the Heart

For the past little while, I’ve been having these random tightenings in my chest, lightheadedness, irregular pulse, and these episodes come at random times. I could be at home in the tub, at Kick’s Karate dukin’ it out with a stand-up bag, watching TV on the couch, or at work on the computer. Two days ago, I was sitting at my computer at work and felt it again, but it happened for a lengthened period of time (about 30 minutes) and I looked up my symptoms online. Heart attack was on the list so I decided it would be a good idea to go to the doctors. I left work, called Tim and we took me to an Urgent Care Center to have me tested.

One blood-drawing, three EKG’s, three visits with three different doctors and an echo-cardiogram later, they still don’t know what exactly is wrong. Good news is my cholesterol level is excellent (which kind of surprises me since we consume so much bacon), my thyroid is perfect, and my vitals are pretty good. Either I run a low blood pressure or something is going on with that, but I do exercise regularly thanks to karate and kickboxing. Or maybe I should say thanks to my hubby. :-)

Just to make sure everyone knows, I’m not stressed out. My work environment is lovely, our home is sweet and quiet and we have so much fun, Chloe and Tim are the lights of my life, and my spare time is used to fulfill my dreams of either watching TV all day, creatively writing, or sculpting a warrior body. Sometimes I cook and clean and do wifey stuff, but mostly things are pretty awesome. Tim, Chloe and I have started “family snuggle” time which is just me or Tim yelling out “FAMILY SNNNNNUGGLLLLLLE!!” in the living room, then booking it to the bed. Chloe runs after us so enthusiastically, it is often dangerous in our little hallway and we can easily trip over her. She snuggles in right between us and puts her paws up in the air, licking our faces and smelling our mouths to her intense delight. We just all lie there and tell each other how much we love each other and talk about our days. Chloe holds down our arms with her paws and licks our skin til we tell her “enough.” She gives us a look that says “Please? Just over on this arm now and I promise I’ll lick Tim next.” It’s the best part of any day ever.

Back to the heart stuff…

The only abnormality that showed on any of the EKG’s was a very very slight delay in the conduction of my right ventricle or something like that. That picked up when I was not having an episode. My doctor said it may be some electrical malfunction going on that is causing this discomfort. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/hhw/hhw_electrical.html

My cardiologist says something I couldn’t hold inside my head because I was feeling so anxious that I was in a cardiologist’s office. Luckily, I have a stress test next Friday and a meeting with my cardiologist a week after that to discuss the problem.

Nothing to worry about, though, everyone. If it was something really serious going on, the cardiologist probably wouldn’t tell me I can continue karate and kickboxing. Aaaaaaaaaand my sister-in-law Jodi told me that if the echo-cardiogramist dude didn’t pull in the doctor’s to look at my heart, things probably are not too bad. All he said was “looks pretty good. Nothin’ I’d worry too much about.” So that’s good, right?

However, I’m going to be selfish and ask you to pray for us. My cardiologist told me, “You’re going to be just fine,” and other sources lead me to believe I’m going to be healed, so things will be okay, I have no doubt. But still, something is going on in that ole ticker o’ mine, and until it is fixed, we would appreciate some prayerful acts and thoughtful thoughts.

Love you all.

P.S. I am not pregnant. I got that question a lot.