Time to Get Serious

Well...hmmm. I've now seen my cardiologist twice and turns out they *think* I have something called unprovoked tachycardia. What this means is that my heart beat will increase to some ungodly number for absolutely no reason. How do they know this? On Thursday/Friday, I had to wear something called a Holter monitor that measured every heartbeat for 24 hours. The highest measure it took was 190 bpm...at 3am...while I was sleeping. Needless to say, they are really concerned. Especially since it peaked above 120 bpm at least 25 times during the 24 hours I was strapped into the contraption. I also had to keep a diary of my activities during the day. Turns out there is zero correlation between what I'm doing and what my heart is doing.

So what does all this great information mean? Well, they are still trying to decide what to do exactly. I'm not done having tests run on me. I have an echo-cardiogram scheduled for Thursday. I'll be seeing a high risk OB in addition to my regular OB. I also get to go on a medication called Inderal to try to get it under control. It's relatively safe for the baby, but the many doctors caucused and decided the risk the medicine brings is still better than my heart beating that fast.

In the meantime, I am to continue a relatively normal life - until they say otherwise. Above all, I am to REMAIN CALM (they keep saying that). However, it's not exactly easy to remain calm when you are fairly certain your heart is trying to jump out of your chest. I'm also supposed to report to the hospital immediately if I have chest pain, faint, or have difficulty breathing...but still REMAIN CALM.

All too quickly, this has gone from, yup we need to check this out and find out what is going on, to this is very serious and we are concerned and must get this under control. Not exactly the kind of response that makes you REMAIN CALM. Sure...no problem. If the medicine doesn't work, they've talked about ablatement surgery (which would be a pretty extreme measure) or putting me on bed rest. I'm really not too keen on either of those options (especially the surgery), but I'll do what I need to do to make it through. I do have one question...if my heart is beating like I'm working out practically 24/7, can I at least see some benefits from it?

One day at a time...