Last month my husband surprised me with a zip-lining trip. Here’s a picture of us standing on one of the questionable bridges.
Here’s me actually zip-lining. (I love how it looks like I’m only 3 feet above the ground.)
And here…..is a very crude drawing of the cardiac monitor that I removed before lying to the zip-lining company about whether or not I had a heart condition.
Wait a minute. What???
I’ll try to keep this short. About two months ago I went to the doctor with symptoms that concerned me. A resting EKG spit out that there might be some damage to my heart. (The doctor didn’t say heart attack, but of course that’s what worried her.) Fast forward a few days (during which time I was instructed to keep 911 on speed dial and cease half-marathon training). I see a cardiologist. (Yeah, because I’m 100 or something.) The cardiologist disagrees with the EKG but starts a battery of tests. Plus I was hooked up to a portable cardiac event recorder (pictured above) for two weeks. (It was called the “King of Hearts”. Who names these things?) So, no heart attack but still something wrong, and I feel like crap all the time and we were waiting for answers. Which is why we lied to the zip-lining people. We really didn’t know what to say.
In the midst of all this, I had a routine mammogram come back with a suspicious density on my left breast. Further diagnostic tests eventually showed that everything was benign, but it was a long few days wait from phone call to test. Plus, when you have to remove your heart monitor in order to have a cancer-screening ultrasound…well, it just starts to feel surreal.
Right now it is believed that I have a supraventricular tachycardia. Not fatal (usually) but it means that sometimes my heart is just not working quite right in an electrical sense. It messes up the way it beats and as a result works much less efficiently. That would be an annoyance to anybody, but is particularly irksome if your hobby is endurance racing.
The doctor prescribed medication that I didn’t want to take. He was afraid it would make me sluggish. A casual conversation with my mother didn’t help.
Mom: “What’s the medication?”
Me: “Toperol…or something like that.”
Mom (an admittedly youthful 67, but still 67): “Oh, I’ve been on that for years.”
Me: “Oh good, that makes me feel so much better.”
But I’m on the medication, which does seem to be helping. I’m supposed to be off caffeine, which is not helping anybody. Mostly I figure this is the first step to me having to carry one of these:
And that makes me want to scream.
But there it is. That’s a little more sharing than I tend to do on here, but I felt like I should explain myself to people who I see in person and who also might read this blog. (I think there are 2 of you.) If I have seemed particularly distant, aloof, moody, mercurial, or just generally useless lately (more than usual)….well, now you know why. All of this on top of football season, fall portrait season, and an extremely tough quarter at Ohio State has overwhelmed me. Some days I am tense to the point of paralysis. But all days I am grateful that it’s not something more serious and that we seem to have it under control.
You took off your heart monitor to take a heart-leaping ride through the trees? Yowza, girl, you are something else. But I understand your reticence to accept limitations. Just be safe, okay? And you looked great on the line. Best wishes!
Well, by the time of the zip-lining we were pretty sure it was nothing serious. But there were still moments when it felt like a dumb thing to be doing. Thanks for your concern. I am trying to be a little smart and cautious, although that’s tough to do sometimes. =)
Fer cryin’ out loud. Glad to have the information–I think–especially the OK part. You are still one amazing woman.
Your average day would exhaust most people, let alone days like the ones you’ve been having recently! I hope the medicine helps, and I hope you’re feeling better!