Thursday, May 08, 2008

A Little Scare

Ok, so I take my health for granted. I rarely get sick and when I do go to the doc - all my tests are normal for my age and weight.

On Tuesday at work I was sitting in a project review meeting with my whole team and my chest started to really feel tight. I've felt a milder form of this before - I think it's related to heartburn or acid reflux. I got up from the meeting, went to my desk and got a Zantac, and took it with a glass of water - that's always taken care of this before.

I went back to my meeting and my chest was still really tight - starting to hurt pretty bad - I realised that one of my co-workers was asking if I was alright. Instead of saying "yeah, I'm ok" which truely was what I was going to say - I think I said "no, I don't think so"

To make a long story shorter - I ended up on the couch in the quiet room until the pretty firefighters and EMTs came to take me away to the hospital. I spent the night and all of yesterday getting checked out. We did a full cardio workup and from all we were able to determine - it's probably not my heart.

I'm on a different proton pump blocker and will follow up with my PCP next week.

The cardio doc and I talked about two different things - What is causing the current pain and how to keep it from being my heart.

We are starting with the new proton pump in inhibitor - if I go the whole two week therapy without any more pain - that will tell us that it's gastro in nature and we can treat that. If I do have the pain again during treatment - then we have to do some more tests - perhaps an endoscope to look at the esophagus or a heart cath to see what the heart is doing in more detail.

My cholesterol is on the high side of normal and he wants me to start walking a couple of times a week - to get my heart rate up a little - he thinks that will bring the cholesterol right down to where it needs to be. That's going to be the hard part.

6 comments:

Holly Schwendiman said...

How scary! I'm so glad you were surrounded by good people and have a team of medical staff behind you to find answers. This aging thing is for the birds.

Hugs,
Holly

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad you didn't say you were alright! I hope they figure it out soon!

Anonymous said...

Well, shoot! Doesn't sound like fun AT ALL. Glad you got some attention.

I'll be thinking good thoughts for you.

Bobbie Wallace said...

Oh, scary stuff! My doc wants me to walk, too, but I haven't figured out how to knit on the treadmill yet. ;) Sending good vibes your way!

Elysbeth said...

Glad it was only a little scare.
I recommend the Leslie Sansone videos, they are hokey but they get the heart rate going and don't require fancy foot work or equipment

Dharma said...

Scary stuff. Glad you are in good contact with care providers.