Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Around early December, I started having some bouts of chest palpitations. They were increasing in frequency. I blew it off for a few weeks, but then one night at work, I was having so many of them, I decided to go down to our ER (I work in a hospital) to get checked out.

When they got me on the monitors, it showed Ventricular Bigemeny, meaning every other heart beat was a PVC. I got up to around 30 of them before they stopped.

From that night in the ER, I saw my primary doctor who sent me for a stress echo and I left that test wearing a Holter monitor for 24 hours. The stress echo came back abnormal, showing my ejection fraction to be 45% and the blood flow was sluggish through my left ventricle. Those results forced my primary doctor to send me to Henry Ford Main to see a cardiologist. Not just any cardiologist, though. LESLIE'S cardiologist. If you are a faithful reader of this blog, you remember a post I made that involved him that triggered one of my worst, saddest days of the whole experience. Bed side manner? He has none. But still. Leslie is doing just great, and my doctor thinks the world of him, so I was willing to give him a shot. I don't doubt he is a great, great doctor.

One of the first things he asked me today was if I was done having kids, to which I replied, "I'm not sure." So then he said, "Just don't be trying right now, okay?" Okay.

My heart is not functioning properly. How or why? I don't know. I now have to have a heart MRI and wear a heart monitor for 30 days. I'm also on two different medications for my heart to protect it. From there, I may be having a cardiac cath.

Now interestingly, he DOES feel my heart issue may be related to Leslie's heart issue. He feels there are some genetic ties. Both of us are otherwise healthy, so why would two sisters have these issues? I don't know, and I am determined to find some answers.

I'm not too worried right now. I think the MRI will tell a lot, and I won't go back to see him until March when he'll have the results of the 30 day monitor to see what our next step is.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wow, Laura....this is incredible. Hope you find out everything you need to know. I know a good cardiac nurse who would take great care of you!!!