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It wasn't a heart attack.

Posted by FelisNoctua, 20 June 2015 · 786 views

health
I was folding laundry, nothing cardio, and had drunk 20 oz of water, besides my 12 oz coffee. I'd recently eaten a large lunch (300cal burger), and slept 6.5 hours. I wasn't headachy today, though I had one yesterday. I'd been sedentary, but had run around the yard with the dog hours earlier, so it wasn't a "suddenly standing after sitting" issue. I've had heart palpitations before, everyone gets them, and they last a minute or two. The heart revs up to 130, max cardio for my age, and stays there.

It happens suddenly, my breath isn't enough to fill up the heart (so I know it isn't really my heart) and the heart is beating too fast. I'm not dizzy, but I don't want to be, so I take a deep breath, and then another. It doesn't slow, so I sit down, and think calm calm calm and breathe slow and deep. After a minute, it's not slowing. I realize my phone is still in the living room. I wonder briefly if I can call out to my roommate if I start to pass out. It's a silly thought, because I'm not going to pass out. But I want my phone. Just in case. I hope I don't get dizzy on the way to the living room, and I go.

This doesn't usually make me dizzy, and it doesn't this time either. I sit in my chair, and debate texting my husband. He's an EMT (well, not anymore), and I want equally to tell him and to not tell him. It's probably nothing. I assess for pain in my shoulders, arms, head, everything feels normal, except for my heart. It feels like the cat is sitting on my chest, like I'm just that little bit out of breath and my heart has to beat harder to get all the blood in.

I find the stopwatch on the phone and take my pulse, like I was taught. I never got to do it on patients, just other CNA students, and later Wildlife First Aid students, but I count and try not to watch the timer. I can't keep up with the heartbeat. I have to go

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30...

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40...


130 beats per minute. I look it up, just in case I don't remember, but I do. It's the top range of cardio. I keep my fingers at my throat to monitor, andI text him.

My hr suddenly jumped, and has been 130 bpm
for three minutes. Trying to lamaze it, but not
lowering. What should my level of concern be?
Uncomfy, but not painful.


I text my cousin too, she's an RN. I get back on the net, on the phone, and it tells me that if it doesn't stop after a few minutes, it's an emergency. I really should stay off the internet. You shouldn't self-diagnose; it's a really bad idea. I take my pulse again.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30...

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40...


My heart is beating so hard, it feels like it's doubling in side, flopping against the front of my chest. 140 bpm. Goddammit. I look at the time, 10 minutes. I try breathing again. Reassess for pain or aches. I look up hospitals in my area. I check my pulse again. It hasn't changed. My eyes well up a little, and I call the hospital.

Blah blah blah, blah blah blah, if this is an emergency, please hang up and dial...


I bloody hate computers.




It stopped. At first, I don't feel my pulse and I am frightened. Then, there it is. And again, but slower. I close the call, and I take my pulse again, and this time I can count normally.. 80. 80 beats per minute. My chest still feels like the cat is lying on it. And I feel like I have that tiny bit of out of breathe in the center of my chest, like a deep diaphramic cough that won't come. I text my husband that it stopped, and my cousin. I just. Sit. Fifteen minutes. I check the time, and my heart was racing for fifteen minutes. Fifteen very scary minutes. Do I just, go on about the day?

He calls, concerned. He wants me to rest, and gets upset at me later when I tell him I did the dishes. Standing is about as lazy as it gets, man. I still feel that tickle of out of breathness. It's annoying. I don't know what happened. I don't know what it was. I don't know if it was anything. I know it wasn't a heart attack.



wow, this really got me. I hope you never have to experience that again. :(

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Me too. We now get to decide if it was scary enough to get checked out by a doctor. :/ Probably won't, but if it happens again, I'll be going to the hospital.

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