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yet another A&E visit!
5 years ago
General
So after another rough morning, I cracked and took a taxi to A&E, and straight up asked "I've had intermittent palpitations for 7 weeks, my chest hurts and I look like my grandfather when his angina was playing up. Do I have that too, now?" It's actually the most me thing I've done since this all started and I feel a bit better for doing it. Action is always less stressful than inaction and knowledge is always less stressful than ignorance.
TLDR they did an x-ray, and some more blood tests, and an ECG, and 6 hours later said no, almost certainly not angina, also none of the chest pain today was a heart attack. In fact it would be shockingly rare for a patient to show up with unstable angina without any history of exertion-induced angina, and they consider me very low risk for heart problems. Which is more conclusive than anything else I've had so far and reassures me that the last 5 days of intermittent achey chests weren't cardiac events either.
They apologised for not telling me what it was, but at least I have some clue what it is not; i.e. life threatening. There's a possibility that the pain is just random and poorly timed muscle inflammation between my ribs. Wouldn't be the first time.
Which is of course, good news.
One of the doctors even asked if the palpitations are linked to eating, to which my answer was yes, definitely, but my GP seems very suspicious about the link and I was starting to doubt my own belief in it. They nodded and said it's common. Which is also interesting, although it does make me want to press my GP for a referral to cardiology so's I can talk to someone who's heard of the problem. The only thing similar I'm aware of is vagal aFib - which would be unpleasant, but also not a death sentence. I've dealt with enough medical dramas in my life to recognise that aFib is something to be managed, not something to give up on life in despair because of.
Meanwhile, beta blockers - they do work, as long as I take them every 12-15 hours or so. Gets a little bumpitty if I leave it longer than that and there's anything particularly stimulating happening. Still, any effect that can be suppressed is logically not irreversible, and as such I have some hope of a normal life again at some point in the future.
It may be some time off, it may take a lot of effort to get there, but I can at least imagine a day when it might happen. That's... better than yesterday, at least.
TLDR they did an x-ray, and some more blood tests, and an ECG, and 6 hours later said no, almost certainly not angina, also none of the chest pain today was a heart attack. In fact it would be shockingly rare for a patient to show up with unstable angina without any history of exertion-induced angina, and they consider me very low risk for heart problems. Which is more conclusive than anything else I've had so far and reassures me that the last 5 days of intermittent achey chests weren't cardiac events either.
They apologised for not telling me what it was, but at least I have some clue what it is not; i.e. life threatening. There's a possibility that the pain is just random and poorly timed muscle inflammation between my ribs. Wouldn't be the first time.
Which is of course, good news.
One of the doctors even asked if the palpitations are linked to eating, to which my answer was yes, definitely, but my GP seems very suspicious about the link and I was starting to doubt my own belief in it. They nodded and said it's common. Which is also interesting, although it does make me want to press my GP for a referral to cardiology so's I can talk to someone who's heard of the problem. The only thing similar I'm aware of is vagal aFib - which would be unpleasant, but also not a death sentence. I've dealt with enough medical dramas in my life to recognise that aFib is something to be managed, not something to give up on life in despair because of.
Meanwhile, beta blockers - they do work, as long as I take them every 12-15 hours or so. Gets a little bumpitty if I leave it longer than that and there's anything particularly stimulating happening. Still, any effect that can be suppressed is logically not irreversible, and as such I have some hope of a normal life again at some point in the future.
It may be some time off, it may take a lot of effort to get there, but I can at least imagine a day when it might happen. That's... better than yesterday, at least.
Maybe just me, but I feel like those could have done with being on the essential list...
Or it could actually all be stress, and maybe I've gotten a link to meals in my head and as such meals are now causing me background anxiety that I'm not even aware of and its raising my chance of an episode. I can't tell right now, which is why I'm finding to so frustrating that I can't get the tests that would tell me either way sorted :(
I got a situation where my heart will beat erratically.
It potentially is from a nerve in the "make the heart beat" chain that's possibly damaged.
It is aggravating when it trips.
Doctor told me that if that is the case, will probably not be life threatening, and there's not much that can be done about it.