The One in Which I Called 911

Man, for not wanting to blog about my health I sure have done a lot of that recently. Thing is, it is consuming my life right now and honestly I have not felt up to composing anything and when I do I have nothing else to talk about. So, I don’t think the gallbladder surgery worked. Let me clarify, I mean it worked in the sense they went in there to remove my gallbladder and as far as I know that did in fact happen but I don’t feel better. A few of the symptoms, such as bloating, have improved but that gnawing, searing pain in my right upper abdomen accompanied by extreme nausea and weakness happens still when I eat…well, when I eat just about anything. But toast. Dry toast. And water. The heart problems are still raging like a legion of possessed demons  too. That brings me to this morning, well actually this brings me to an incident that happened eight years ago. I had an ulcer and was prescribed Prevacid. Shortly after I took the first dose I began sweating profusely and my heart raced very fast (this was before I knew I had heart rhythm problems). It eventually passed and I didn’t take anymore of it. Fast forward to last month. I was given Nexium (a medicine similar to Prevacid) samples, I took a couple several weeks ago and had some tachycardia episodes afterward but since I was already having problems with being tachy a lot I chalked it up to that but decided to discontinue the Nexium just in case. Over the weekend I decided to give the Nexium another shot. I took one yesterday morning and had a minor tachy episode but thought that was because I used my inhaler too. I took one last night and did not notice any problems. I took another this morning and about 30 minutes later thought for certain I would get to meet Jesus. In an instant my heart started beating fast. Roland brought me a book to read so he climbed on my lap and as I read the first two pages of Groover’s “I Can Dress Myself” I started to sweat. I tossed (more literally than figuratively) Roland into his pack-n-play and sweat dripped off my body and splashed on the hardwood floors around me. I felt my pulse. Couldn’t count it which usually means it is higher than 170 BPM. Then I started to faint. I layed on the floor and as my heart raced wildly I literally army crawled to my bedroom to get my beta blockers. I choked one down and then I started to shake. Violently. I called Curt (he was at work and I was home with Roland) and as he tried talking me through it my heart beat faster and faster. I knew this was not one of my “normal” episodes. Everything I normally do to make my heart slow down was failing. In fact, it just beat faster with every manuever I tried. Laying on the floor the room was moving in and out of focus, I could not move my legs, and I felt that despite laying down I was going to pass out anyway. So…I called 911. I have never done this before but I could not bear the idea of dying while my son looked on from his pack-n-play. I tried breathlessly explaining to the dispatcher about my various heart issues and let them know I was on a cardiac monitor already. I also wanted to make sure my son would be taken care of until my husband could get home from work. By the way, we were in the middle of a snow storm while this was going on and Curt would have to fight Columbus morning rush hour traffic to get home. Anyway, the dispatcher gave me some things to try to get my heart rate down and they worked! It started dropping, and dropping, and by the time the  EMT’s arrived it was in a more reasonable 150 range. They worked on me and got it down to 107. I felt the episode passing and the shaking subsiding and the sweat drying and I was soooo grateful. I recovered to the point I denied a ride to the ER. I know it was the Nexium and I was stable so they would not do anything for me except tell me to follow up with my cardiologist. The great thing is I had a cardiac monitor on so it caught the whole episode. I got a call from my cardiologist’s nurse this afternoon. They got the recordings from this morning and she wanted to know what happened and make sure I was feeling better. She is talking to my cardiologist and I am currently waiting on her call back.

So, I learned several things today. Number one,  never take Nexium again. Number two, always put a bra on and brush your teeth in the morning, just in case. Number three, the hot firefighter stereotype is true, at least the ones that showed up at my door. Number four, always make sure you’re prayed up because life can change in an instant!