After all the tests and blood work and everything we have an answer to why I’ve felt so bad. For those who haven’t heard anything I have had a rough week and a half or so. Since last Sunday (not this past one but the one before that) my heart has been going crazy. I woke up Sunday morning and my heart was pounding out of my chest which in turn made it really hard for me to breath and really tired. After a couple of days of this it started to make me feel lightheaded and dizzy and just overall weak feeling. So I called my Dr. and she oreder an Echocardiogram to check the status of my mitral valve prolapse and regurgitation and functionality of my heart. The ordered blood tests and an EKG to check the electrical aspect of my heart. Then finally yesterday morning she ordered a monitor to record my hearts activity that I wore for 24 hours. She called me this morning and said there had been no change in my echo and my heart was working just like it was a year ago–good news. My blood work was all normal except for a low potassium and for those who aren’t in the medical field, a low potassium affects your heart. It wasn’t extremely low or anything just lower than it should be. So I’m just eating more potassium rich foods. My EKG from yesterday morning showed a high heart rate–around 125-130 and I was just sitting there. The monitor from the last 24 hours showed a high heart rate as well and numerous PVC’s (premature ventricular contractions). The PVC’s we already knew I had and for that I’m alreaady on medication. The surgery I had last October was for the PVCs but was unsuccesful so that’s why I’m on medication. Anyway–all it comes down to is I have a pretty high heart rate and low potassium and that’s what has been causing all my issues the last week or two. I asked her why my heart rate was so high and she said “It’s just who you are–your body is in constant overdrive and it’s a part of your make up.” I have, or had before surgery, SVT which is where your heart rate shoots up to 300 beats per minute and that is an abnormal heart arythmia. She told me that people who have SVT are prone to have inapropriate sinus tachycardia…which is a normal heart rhythm but just fast and makes everything into overdrive. That along with my other syndrome makes my heart rate fast. When she first put me on medicaion a while back it helped my heart rate but over time my body has just gotten used to it and now we need to up my dose. So she doubled my medication and it should all be back to normal–for me! Oh ya and I’m definitely supposed to stop drinking caffiene now! DOH! I was drinking a monster when she called-HA. I don’t drink a whole lot of caffiene but I do drink some so I guess I’ll have to stop now. So that’s the news–thanks for your prayers and hopefully I’ll start feeling better within the next day or two.

I went to the cardiologist yesterday to get an echo of my heart and some blood work. I haven’t heard anything because the echo techs aren’t supposed to say anything and my blood work wasn’t going to be read until today. I’m not sure what all she tested for with the blood work but I do know she did a BNP test, which is what they use to asses heart failure. Now I don’t think she thinks I have that, she’s probably just ruling it out or something. So when I hear something from my Dr. I’ll post something.

Where should I start? Well for starters, I’m just going to be selfish here and ask for prayers because since Sunday my heart has been going crazy and hasn’t made me feel that well. I called my cardiologist yesterday and I still haven’t heard back from her so pray she calls back today.

Well, some people have asked me what exactly is wrong with my heart, and to be honest with you, I can’t exactly tell you. There’s no one thing that’s wrong with it. There are several things and some that aren’t figured out yet. So this is what we know is wrong. About 5 years ago I started having problems with my heart, I started passing out for no reason, I would get lightheaded and dizzy and my heart would start racing (up to 300 beats per minute). After 3 years they finally figured out I had proxismal SVT (supraventricular tachycardia). Luckily there was a cure for this–a radio-frequency ablation. 2 years ago I had an ablation on my heart and during this they burned an extra pathway on my heart that was causing the tachycardia and my heart to race. Everything was great for about 6 months then it all started again, except my heart wasn’t racing, it was skipping beats and then throwing extra beats in when ever it felt like it. These are PVC’s (premature ventricular tachycardia) and PAC’s (premature atrial tachycardia). It’s very normal for people to occasionally have these, every one does every once in a while. Except I get them about every 5 mintues all throughout the day. This makes me feel horrible and makes me extremely tired. Well that’s one thing, the other issue I have is I have MVP (mitral valve prolapse) with regurgitation. MVP is where one of the valves or your herat leaks blood. Your blood goes through the valve into another part of the heart and the purpose of the valve is to keep blood from flowing back into the part it came from. MVP with regurgitation like I have is where the blood flows back so blood with oxygen is mixed with blood without oxygen. This is essentially harmless, for a while. Over time it has worn my heart out and is now not able to pump as efficiently as it should…because of this my hands and feet are always ice cold and blue. It’s fine now and hopefully it will stay the same and not get any worse. Thirdly I have vaso-vagal syncopy…I pass out for no apparent reason and with no warning. For no reason, that we know of, my blood pressure drops drastically and I pass out. It’s happened so much that now when it happens I just get right back up and go back to what I was doing! I think I freak people out. HAHA. I was recently told I have Cardiac Syndrome X….which is just a bunch of symptoms thrown together and given a name. There isn’t much research or literature done on this syndrome and we aren’t sure if all my other issues are a part of this and caused by this or seperate from it. Syndrome X is basically saying my body thinks my arteries are clogged and makes my body think I’m having a heart attack when in actuallity i’m not. It is a problem with the little blood vessels in your heart and body. It also causes headaches and migraines. This might describe it better: Cardiac Syndrome X
Lastly my cardiologist was thinking I might have a congenital (from birth) abnormality with my coronary arteries…they might not be in the right place so when I exercise they get squeezed and decrease blood flow to the heart and it doesn’t get enough oxygen. I doubt this is the case but she hasn’t ruled it out yet. Well I think this is long enough and way too much info so that’s it.