Not a giant squid

[pameladean]

I am fine.

Such announcements, while always meant to reassure, make people (including me) run about crying, "What happened?" So I will tell you. But it is all fine; not quite a tempest in a teapot but possibly one in a great huge churchy tea urn.

When I was getting ready to take a shower this morning, I realized that my upper torso looked as if I had been attacked by a giant squid. Alas, it was only the lingering marks of the heart monitor.

Some of you will remember that I am prone to attacks of tachycardia, accompanied by that pleasingly Victorian condition, palpitations. I take a large dose of a beta blocker daily and work hard to stay hydrated, since the only cause the medical community has been able find, as they flung aside frightening possibility after frightening possibility, was dehydration. I had not had a bad bout in four years and had not had even a mild one in months. A few weeks ago I started having mild bouts. These are still very annoying, since they tend to start in the wee hours when I am not at my best, and the Gatorade I am supposed to drink upsets my digestion at both ends of the process. dichroic kindly shared with me the wisdom of her trainer that Gatorade seems just as effective at hydrating one if it's mixed half and half with water, and indeed this seems to be the case and also removes one end of the digestive irritation. The other end, though, is very inconvenient when one is hiking in places with limited access to bathrooms. I have missed far too many hikes this year, during one of the most beautiful late summers in memory.

I was in the HCMC ER from about five a.m. until about two p.m. on Tuesday. I have a followup appointment with a regular doctor tomorrow. The ER ruled out everything again, gave me some IV fluids, and released me when my pulse was back below 100. I had a bad feeling about this, and indeed my pulse rate went up to 108 late on Tuesday evening, with accompanying palpitations. I gather that most people feel these in their chests, but I feel them in my head, which is distracting and creates in my subconscious the idea that SOMETHING BAD IS GOING ON AND SOMETHING MUST BE DONE ABOUT IT AT ONCE, certainly in capital letters and probably with a lot of as-yet-uninvented punctuation marks.

I called the nurse line attached to my insurance (COBRA is actually earning its keep for once), and got a very low-key nurse who told me that since the ER had ruled things out and I had no other symptoms, I didn't need to go back. She told me many soothing facts about the range of human heart rates (but not about the hypotenuse), and suggested relaxing (as if that suggestion ever helped anybody do that) and doing soothing things -- this was not the time to do my strenuous exercise regime, she said sternly, while I tried not to laugh. She told me to try to go to sleep, since that tends to calm things down. Being accustomed to rude awakenings from this condition, I was skeptical, but I tried it, along with chamomile tea, and it worked for two- to three-hour stretches, punctuated by Saffron, who helpfully got under the covers and purred, sat on my chest and purred, put her paw on my face and purred, and poked her cold nose in my ear and purred. I was awake for several hours at just the wrong time to allow me to go hiking today, but my pulse is now 72. I knew it would be, because I have that followup appointment. I have always been fine for all followup appointments, so that it's hard to complain properly and get them to do anything. Possibly they can't. I may querulously demand a medication to be taken as needed when these episodes are ramping up, but I don't know that there is one.

I don't really want to be attacked by a giant squid, but it would make for a change.

Pamela

Comments

[casacorona.livejournal.com]

Yikes!

Personally, I think the whole notion of "relaxing" to control erratic heart stuff is bosh. Not relaxing doesn't start it, so why would relaxing stop it? But chamomile tea is always pleasant. Be well!

[pameladean]

I know! Possibly you can make things worse by being stressed about the situation, but I'm not even sure that I buy that. My feeling all along when this stuff hits is that I was going along minding my own business and doing what I do, and then WHAM. It seems very arbitrary. Possibly the people who say this are trying to give one a feeling of control, but to me it seems more like blaming the patient.

The tea was very nice. Fortunately the cats don't like it.

P.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Yeeks! I hope you can get all this behind you.

[pameladean]

Thanks! Me too.

P.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

Aghl! I am glad you are fine, and I submit to the management that this should Not Happen Again. you know. Just in case that helps. :)

[pameladean]

Well, the management has to be more receptive to your orders than to mine, given history, so let's see how it works! Thanks.

P.

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

I find that when I have bad dehydration, eating some almonds and drinking some salt water tends to help things out. This may not be true for you, but for me, unless I have that extra bit of magnesium and salt (potassium helps too, having a banana can be very useful) I can drink water and other fluids and I stay dehydrated.

Good luck with the giant squid!

[pameladean]

You know, I had been wondering about the magnesium. Gatorade has potassium and sodium, and of course a horrific amount of sugar (which mysteriously doesn't make it taste any better), but that's it. Thank you. I will try the almonds.

P.

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

No giant squid! Hope things get/stay better.

[pameladean]

Fortunately I am very far from the ocean. It would have to be a fossilized proto-giant squid, and I think I could handle that. Thanks for the good wishes.

P.

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

Gatorade's massive amount of sugar doesn't make it taste better because it is so much sugar.

I know people with suggestions are irritating, but have you tried coconut water? It is reputed to have the same effects as Gatorade without all the crap.

And please do take care of yourself!

[pameladean]

I have a massive sweet tooth, but there is no nuance in Gatorade at all, so possibly there is actually too much sweetness in it.

I will look into coconut water. I fear it will cost a lot more than Gatorade, but a lack of crap, in all possible senses, is very tempting.

If I didn't want suggestions I'd have said so, so you are not irritating in the least.

P.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

[pameladean]

Aww. And the same to you. You can always save them til they're needed, or spend them lavishly.

P.

[graydon saunders (from livejournal.com)]

Oh goodness.

I do hope there is use to be had from the diverse medical practitioners.

For my own part, I loathe and abominate gatorade. Fortunately, there's a product, well, several products, from a company called Nuun, www.nuun.com, which produces large tablets that one adds one to a half-litre (which is probably a pint, or at least pint-like) of water, at which point they effervesce and mildly pressurize one's water bottle, but after half a minute there's a very low-key sports drink. It's not sweet, there are diverse flavours, and I find it doesn't become cloying even after the third or fourth litre, as will happen when one goes cycling in July.

The other thing that might be of some use to consider is that the balance of ions is as important as the total amounts; getting the calcium and the magnesium intake, or at least the supplemental intake, into 2:1 by mass seems to help a great deal, perhaps because that's the ratio involved in the ion pump in one's nerves.

[lisajulie.livejournal.com]

Gonna pile on here all hlepy.

Dilute gatorade (half and half, or even 30%) is reputed to be
better at balancing electrolytes.

If too much sugar (and I wholly sympathize) is annoying, look for recipes for switchel, a proto-gatorade. It involves vinegar, brown sugar, and ginger. Other versions call for mint. Both ginger and mint are kind to stomachs if that is the area of concern.

V-8 juice has a well balanced set of electrolytes. If, and only if, you are having leg cramps or other symptoms of potassium insufficiency, then the low-sodium V-8 is the stuff.

Another place to look for re-hydration products are home-made recipes for oral re-hydration in cases of diarrhea. These might work.

You might also want to consult an herbalist about additives that might help with the "other end" problem - marshmallow seems like a possibility.

[pameladean]

Oh, it's great to know that I can dilute the expletive-deleted Gatorade even further. I have in the past used homemade recipes, though possibly not the right ones. They also cause me digestive difficulty, and don't seem actually to work as well as Gatorade. They don't taste that wonderful, really, either, alas.

But I will totally look for the proto-Gatorade. For one thing, it is what Ma sent Pa and Laura to drink when they were haying in hot weather, in the Little House books. If it really works, I simply must see how it is.

I can't afford to consult anybody at the moment, but will bear it in mind.

Thanks so much, this is really useful stuff to try out.

P.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

Sympathy, wishes for the best outcome.

[pameladean]

Thank you kindly!

P.

[sovay]

I am very glad you're fine. The rest of that is rotten.

You should just tell everyone there was a giant squid attack. It's not a bad story.

[pameladean]

Thank you.

I'm not sure the sucker marks are quite big enough. Maybe a dwarf giant squid? A toy giant squid?

P.

[clindau.livejournal.com]

Eep! Glad you're feeling better.

Regarding giant squid attacks--if one were to be attacked by said giant squid *during* one of these episodes, might it startle one's heart into behaving itself? ;-)

[pameladean]

I doubt it, but I bet it would be great for the hiccups!

P.

[coffeeem.livejournal.com]

Bother. Giant squid would be ever so much more fun, especially at 2 in the morning.

[pameladean]

We do have one on the garage door, but it never seems to go anywhere else.

P.

[redbird]

I'm glad you are fine, and that you have a helpful cat.

[pameladean]

Thanks. As you well know, life is not nearly so engrossing without a helpful stripy orange cat.

P.

[inlaterdays.livejournal.com]

So sorry you've been unwell, but very, very glad you are feeling better.

[pameladean]

Thanks so much.

P.

[fgherman.livejournal.com]

Oh dears!

Do let me know if there is anything I can do to help.

[pameladean]

Thank you. Things have returned to normal, and with luck the doctor will have some kind of useful suggestion when I go in tomorrow.

P.

[alexfandra.livejournal.com]

Oh my. I am so glad you are feeling better. The last time I was dehydrated, I discovered that you can make your own rehydration drink thusly:

1 quart water, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 3 to 4 tablespoons sugar. Seemed to work okay for me.

Having IBS, I well understand the importance of knowing where the nearest restroom is at all times. My condolences on missing great hikes!

Oh, and the whole anxiety cycle -- it's incredibly frustrating. Over the years, I've had bouts of odd unexplained symptoms which defy diagnosis, with the result that the doctors say "It's anxiety. You need to learn to be calm." But...but...the only thing making me anxious is the weird unexplained symptoms! I've had good luck with a regular walking routine, regular meditation practice, and plenty of Truman belly rubs. Best wishes!

[pameladean]

Oh, interesting. I have made my own rehydrating solution, but it didn't call for baking soda. I wonder if that would obviate the indigestion.

We have just a few hikes where there is no convenient restroom -- for example a really lovely nine-mile wildlife drive, one-way traffic only, a speed limit of 20 mph, and bathrooms at the beginning and end only. It's a paradise for birders, otherwise.

And yes, they ask if I'm anxious and I reply testily, "ONLY BECAUSE MY HEART IS GOING BAM BAM BAM."

I am sure that Truman belly rubs are very helpful, just like cold-nosed purring cats.

P.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

What a good helper kitty.

Hang in there and please do not allow any part of your body to explode. (This is just as useful as "relax," right?)

[pameladean]

She is a very fine helper kitty indeed.

It is certainly not any less useful than "relax," and actually may be better, as I have never tried ordering my body parts not to explode, whereas I have been told to relax repeatedly in all sorts of situations where anybody with sense would have seen that that was not really possible.

P.

[laurel]

Aw, good Saffron. Sounds like she's settling in very nicely. Our cats are still very much of the opinion that one shouldn't ever get on a bed. Though we've spotted Inalise down on our bed a few times when we aren't, so there is that. These days both Ibsen & Isbjorn are obsessed with knowing when Kevin goes to bed so they can get petted next to the bed (but in Ibsen's case, Kevin has to be reclining on the bed, it won't work if he's merely sitting on the bed). Goofy cats.

Sympathies on the not-at-all-fun stuff. I've been having weird chest pains from time to time and when they switched my generic drug, I had heart palpitations and even the little bits I've had of this stuff have been scary. And relaxing is ridiculously hard to do in those circumstances!


Also, when I first looked at my f-list I was just doing a quick skim and I honestly thought for about a minute that someone had told you to mix Gatorade with half & half and . . . EW. What a horrible thought!

[pameladean]

What do they think if you or Kevin lie on the floor?

Gatorade with half and half sounds like something you do in college when you are out of alcohol. As you say, EW.

P.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

I am glad and relieved you are fine. I know the giant squid was only trying to help, but it could benefit from following Saffron's example. Except, perhaps, the purring cold nose in the ear part.

Here's hoping your regular doctor does something that proves useful.

Much as I also hope you have no further cause to seek emergency treatment, all praises to you for getting it when you did. And for writing about it in such an entertaining manner, right down to the as-yet-uninvented punctuation marks.

Hugs.

P.S. I will be thinking of you on the morrow when Susan, Gavi, and I visit a National Estuarine Research Reserve in Maine. (We postponed our trip to York, ME, for a day and changed the schedule around to be at Wells Reserve shortly after their 7am opening time.)

[pameladean]

Oh, I hope you have a lovely, lovely time. It sounds splendid.

I really did not want to go to the ER, but the nurse on the nurse line (the first one I called, not the low-key one) said I should do it.

*hugs back*

P.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

Eurgh, all my sympathies. I had some weird heart stuff happening some years ago, but it vanished along with EvilBoss. :-/

I tend to go for Pedialyte, mixed half unflavored and half fruit punch (yeah, it's awful, but when I'm sick I become five again.) If you go the almond route, maybe salted almonds + candied ginger?

[pameladean]

I'm glad yours is gone. They keep asking me about stress, and there certainly is some, but the episodes don't correlate with it very well.

Almonds and candied ginger sounds very tasty, though nothing is quite so nice in the middle of the night.

Pedialyte has artificial sweeteners, except for the liter bottles, but I could try that. It is definitely different from Gatorade. (Artificial sweeteners generally don't like me very much, and I return the sentiment.)

P.

[cloudscudding.livejournal.com]

I am glad that you are fine, and (peeing squirrels notwithstanding) hope that a giant squid attack is *not* in your future!

[pameladean]

Thank you! I think it unlikely, unless the one painted on the garage to discourage graffiti suddenly becomes three-dimensional.

P.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

O bleah. So happy for you that they didn't do the cardiac "reset."

[pameladean]

Yes, the first doctor who talked to me asked if they had ever had to shock my heart, and I thought of Roy at once as I answered thankfully that they had not. I don't have actual fibrillation, as I understand it. The heartbeat is perfectly regular, it's just too fast.

P.

[rosefox]

Wishing you the very best. You have a good heart. I hope it goes back to behaving itself.

[pameladean]

What a very kind thing to say. Thank you for your good wishes.

P.