Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Malfunctioning Medical Mess!

Well, today started out like all others, but did not end up that way. Bella and I went for our usual walk this morning and I felt fine. After returning I put a new chain on my Stumpjumper and went to the health club for a workout. The plan was a 45 minute run and conditioning.

About 10 minutes into the run I experienced a lot of discomfort, difficulty breathing, weak and tired feeling. Deja Vu...My condition has returned and I feel like shit. After my workout I ended up having to take my beta-blockers to help regulate my heart rate. Now it will be more doctor appointments, more tests, more questions, along with more unanswered questions. After taking my medication it took several hours for my heart rate to stabilize. I called Patti and told her what was going on and she was very disappointed that I didn't go into the emergency room or urgent care. This was my doctor's recommendation after the first episode.

What really pissed me off is that I missed my niece's softball game this evening. I just laid around until about 8 p.m. and decided to mow the lawn. Smart move! About half way through that my chest really started hurting (the result of a mtn. bike crash on Saturday). I think I may have strained the muscles on left side of my chest and pushing the mower back and forth really aggravated it. Anyway, right now it is rather sore and somewhat uncomfortable.

So now the question arises...What do I do now? I turned 50 in April and still need to have the big 5-0 physical examination. Along with that we will need re-evaluate my heart and try to find out exactly why I am experiencing these episodes of atrial fib. In the meantime I need to probably take the medication (beta-blockers) on a more regular basis. I am planning on riding tomorrow, but I'm afraid it will be a nice easy ride. Nothing wrong with that I guess. I fear that one of these days I'll have a serious episode during a race or out in the middle of nowhere. Then what? So, it's official I guess that I'm a malfunctioning medical mess. Heart, ribs, and knee... what else can I foresee?

4 comments:

Petit Chèvre said...

Thanks for the detailed post on "My Condition". I have been experiencing much the same -- with HR up over 214. I am a former Minnesotan in FL now and figured some was due to heat. I go in next week for a Holter monitor. Your post really helped shed some light on what the process could be like.

Good luck, stay well.

Spin On

Vito said...

Let me know how things go for you. Be good about wearing the monitor. I make a very poor patient and probably did not use it to my full advantage.

Judi said...

I gotta ask, do you take vitamins? You should be taking a SHIT-TON of fish oil. I think it would do you a lot of good. Email me if you have questions Vito. You have to take care of this.

Ali B. said...

Hey guys. I had a crazy heart in my late teens/early 20's. It was some sort of electrical misfiring issue according to my hilarious heart surgeon. :) He ultimately did a little catheter surgery when I was 24 to remove (ablasion) the bad cells & I'm good now. My heart would jump to the 250's -270's out of the blue. Crazy stuff! Vito, I'm a horrible patient too, but know that the good docs can do some amazing things for ya! Chin up, continue to be strong in all that you do! Ali

p.s. I'm on a beta blocker still... doc thinks I still have a tendency for a speedy heart. Sort of like my pedal cadence.. right? (severe sarcasm!!) :)

p.p.s. My dad has something simliar to what you seem to be going through. Again, his great doc is managing him wonderfully and my dad is well past 50..60..+