When I was a senior in high school I was diagnosed with heart palpitations. No biggy. I took some meds, they made me sick, I quit taking them and had no problems with my heart...until lately.
About two months ago I had a really bad two weeks where I couldn't breath. I couldn't take a full breath in and my heart would race really bad. It would get a lot worse after I would eat or right before I went to bed. I chalked it off as maybe an allergic reaction to something and went to Dr Pewitt to see if there was anything he could do to help me out. Well, he poked and prodded and found nothing. I had an EKG, blood tests, urinalysis, x-rays, holter test, and an echo. NOTHING. So he sent me home with an inhaler. Which made it 20x worse. Until I got the results back from the holter they found that I was healthy as a horse. They also said that I have Supra-ventricular Tachycardia (SVT) which basically means that my heart races unnecessarily. I asked if the cardio ablation was an option at that point because I am so young and he said no because of how many risks come along with the procedure and that he had patients die because of this surgery before. He put me on Metroprolol and all it did from there was go down hill. After 5 weeks of being on the medication I felt like I was dying. I couldn't do anything because I was always sick or so tired that I couldn't function. The medication is a blood pressure medication that lowers it. Well, from me being so healthy anyway my blood pressure was super low to begin with. Once the meds kicked in it made my blood pressure dropped considerably and made it at time as low as 90/60 and my BPM was like 61. I couldn't function, I couldn't enjoy being at home, I stayed up till all hours of the night because I was so sick, and I was always tired from staying up and my blood pressure being so slow.
After week 5 I had enough and scheduled an apt with Dr Back (my cardio dr from when I was in high school). Before I even had a chance to tell him what was going on he pushed the idea of having the cardio ablation down my throat. Which is where they go in through your groin, insert a catheter, and burn your heart so that the scar tissue blocks certain parts of your heart from acting up again. It was seriously that last thing I wanted to do because of how bad Dr Pewitt scared me about asking about it. Not to mention a lot of times people have to have 2-3 even 4 before the problem is solved. I told him about what my medication was making me feel like and he lowered my Metroprolol dosage and put me on digoxin which is yet again another blood pressure medication. The down side to this medication is that in now way possible are you able to get pregnant while on it because of the side effects it can have on your baby. I filled the prescription but was too scared to take it for fear that it would make me feel worse than I already felt.
Nobody in my family was comfortable (especially me) with the idea of me going under the knife and not considering other options. Lisa (Derek's step mom) made an apt in St Louis with her dad's dr, Dr Gibson. He was very nice and went through all my charts and talked to me for quite a while about what all was going on with me. His diagnosis was that I did not have to have the surgery and that the risks far out weighed the benefits. Not to mention the fact that he took me off of that nasty medication that was making me so sick and put me on a per incident medication that I will only have to take when I have an episode. Since being off of the meds I feel SO much better and I finally feel like I have my life back. I don't feel as run down anymore and I don't stay up all night with nausea anymore either.
Thank GOD!
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