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ticker issues
Jan. 16th, 2008 15:04thanks for all the good wishes, it's appreciated.
it wasn't as bad as the last 3 times; i probably was in atrial fibrillation only for a few minutes (enough to wake me though). but then the damn thing beat irregularly (to the tune of 20-40 extra beats a minute) all day long.
we did drive to the ER when it was time to take my meds since i wasn't entirely sure it wasn't a sudden side effect, and taking them might make things worse. but instead the metoprolol slowed things down a bit, and i got hopeful it might stop, so i didn't go in. the ER was busy, too. i decided that if the ticker was still doing it by morning i would go in, because then i'd have a chance to see a hospital internist. finally stopped beating irregularly after 1 in the morning, an hour and a half after i took the meds. *sigh of relief*.
yeah, yeah. i know. conventional wisdom says i shoulda gone in. but i likegambling with my life data, and making decisions based on that. part of what made me feel things weren't urgent was that i actually fell asleep on the couch, and slept for a couple of hours. that certainly didn't happen before. from reading about this i know this can go on for a long time, so now i know that i too can go for many hours with it without croaking, and that makes the inclination to panic go away, which will make the next attack easier to handle. because by now it's no longer something that happened a couple of times and will never happen again, but it's probably something i'll have to live with.
i have an appointment with my doctor for tomorrow, and will see what he says about the meds; maybe i should take an extra pill if this happens, or maybe he'll up the dosage overall. i still haven't heard from an internist, either through the hospital or through the one my doctor referred me to, and i really want to push that.
i wish i had some hints as to what brings it on. i wasn't dehydrated, i do very, very little caffeine (cup of green tea on some days), i get enough potassium (and not too much), i ate the same as i eat every day, nothing extra stressful happened, my blood sugar was normal the day before (and has in fact been normal, not pre-diabetic, for the last three weeks), my blood pressure was a little higher than it had been all week, but nowhere as high as it was the previous times. i've in fact been really good; i've been exercising every day, i've been eating decently (no extra salt, no extra sugar, low carbs), i'm not forgetting meds despite my weirdo schedule (better living through list-making). it's a little frustrating not to be able to point to anything i do in specific and say "there, that triggers it, now see whether you can fix it".
it wasn't as bad as the last 3 times; i probably was in atrial fibrillation only for a few minutes (enough to wake me though). but then the damn thing beat irregularly (to the tune of 20-40 extra beats a minute) all day long.
we did drive to the ER when it was time to take my meds since i wasn't entirely sure it wasn't a sudden side effect, and taking them might make things worse. but instead the metoprolol slowed things down a bit, and i got hopeful it might stop, so i didn't go in. the ER was busy, too. i decided that if the ticker was still doing it by morning i would go in, because then i'd have a chance to see a hospital internist. finally stopped beating irregularly after 1 in the morning, an hour and a half after i took the meds. *sigh of relief*.
yeah, yeah. i know. conventional wisdom says i shoulda gone in. but i like
i have an appointment with my doctor for tomorrow, and will see what he says about the meds; maybe i should take an extra pill if this happens, or maybe he'll up the dosage overall. i still haven't heard from an internist, either through the hospital or through the one my doctor referred me to, and i really want to push that.
i wish i had some hints as to what brings it on. i wasn't dehydrated, i do very, very little caffeine (cup of green tea on some days), i get enough potassium (and not too much), i ate the same as i eat every day, nothing extra stressful happened, my blood sugar was normal the day before (and has in fact been normal, not pre-diabetic, for the last three weeks), my blood pressure was a little higher than it had been all week, but nowhere as high as it was the previous times. i've in fact been really good; i've been exercising every day, i've been eating decently (no extra salt, no extra sugar, low carbs), i'm not forgetting meds despite my weirdo schedule (better living through list-making). it's a little frustrating not to be able to point to anything i do in specific and say "there, that triggers it, now see whether you can fix it".
