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Not a giant squid
Aug. 14th, 2013 02:34 pmI 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.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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
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
