Something screwy is going on...

Hi Steve,

Yesterday, my mom and I took a ride over to the Dollar Tree store, to get a few decorations for the front yard, and right before I was ready to cash out, I felt a tremendous amount of fluttering in my heart.  It also makes me feel short-of breath, so I thought, "maybe I am having low blood sugar."  So I left the store, got to the car, told my mom and then decided we would just go get my prescription at the grocery store and then go home so I could lay down.

When we got to the grocery store, I was still feeling awful, my heart was racing and fluttering all over the place, I thought maybe I should eat something sugary, so I had a piece of candy while walking into the store.  As I made my way to the pharmacy, I got there and must have had a strange look on my face because the girl behind the counter said, "Do you feel okay?" And I suddenly burst into tears, and said, "No...no I don't feel okay..." and I started swaying as though I was going to pass out.  She ran around the counter, grabbed hold of me, sat me down and asked if I needed an ambulance.

I told her no, my mom was out in the car, and I thought maybe my blood sugar level was low.  I took my glucose meter out of my purse and checked it with this lady sitting next to me, and it was 156.  So that wasn't the problem.  The girl said, "You approached the counter and suddenly your whole face and upper chest area turned bright red, I really thought you were going down."  I was shaky, and still crying a little bit, feeling embarrassed, telling her I was sorry to cause such a ruckus.

She suggested I call my doctor, and of course, the doctor said to go immediately to the ER.  My mom drove me to the hospital, I sat in the ER for the entire afternoon, about 5 hours, getting test after test after test done, soaking in an IV of fluid, feeling groggy and spacey, and super exhausted.  They did a chest x-ray, a CT scan, an echocardiogram, took my blood and tested it for all sorts of things, and monitored my heart rate and blood pressure the whole time.  Every single test they took came back NORMAL.

Sure, that's good news, I know.   I'm not discounting that.  But I AM very frustrated that they couldn't figure out what is WRONG with me.  The doctor suggested that it may just be anxiety, and this time of year, it's "normal" for people to go through it.  Well, dammit, this is NOT NORMAL FOR ME.  I refuse to believe that it's all in my head.  My heart HURTS and feels like it's exploding every few minutes from the constant fluttering feeling, it tires me out, makes me short of breath, and exhausted.

They gave me some Atavan, to help with my dizziness....they say I have vertigo....I knew that 15 years ago when they diagnosed me with it THEN.  I just thought it went away, but apparently it never does.  When I sit up or lay down, the room spins.  It's great fun.

As I was sitting there in the ER, waiting for my CT scan results, all of a sudden out of NOWHERE, I had this horrible feeling that someone had just set me on FIRE.  I was burning up, and my mom said I had just burst out into this horrible sweat all over, the back of my head was sopping wet against the pillow, my back was wet, I was cold and clammy and had bullets of sweat running down my head and neck....I felt sick, like I was going to vomit.  Nobody seemed at all worried, though, and as soon as they brought me a dish to puke in, the feeling went away.  Then I was super cold again.

I said, "If that was a middle-aged HOT FLASH, I am NOT going to be happy going through menopause."  It was the first time I have EVER felt such a thing in my LIFE, and it scared the shit outta me.  But, even THAT didn't seem to phase the doctors, nor did it seem to show up in any tests.

So WTF is going on?!!  I'm getting fed up with this annoying fluttery thing going on in my heart.  I told the nurse, (feeling disgusted), "I just wish I'd have the damned heart attack and get it over with."

Anyway,  I went home with 2 Atavan in my system, and slept for 12 hours.  I feel a little better today.  I may have been slightly dehydrated too, so they gave me an IV just to be safe.  Now I have 2 huge bruises in the crook of both arms where the IV was, and where blood was being taken.  They are sore.  But other than that, I am feeling better today.  It just gave me a scare.  I have never been in the ER like that before, not ONCE in my whole life, so this was really freaking me out.

Well, I hope you have a great weekend, I'm off to a comic book convention with Pete and his daughter and son-in-law who are here visiting this weekend.  Bye for now.

Love, Rebecca