Guest lurkerspeaks Posted March 24, 2012 Posted March 24, 2012 I just had a medical scare which made me re-evaluate a few things.. Some background-- I am a fairly healthy guy, just 51 years old--non smoker, non drug user, and very light drinker. Other than being overweight, I am generally in good physical shape. I do have a history of heart issues in my family. Father had two bypass surgeries, mother had minor heart issues and cholesterol trouble. Three older siblings have all had heart attacks around 50 years of age..but they all were smokers, some were drug users..I am neither.. I had what I thought was the flu...after a few days of bed rest and no real improvement, I made a trip to urgent care. The doctor said it was a bronchial/sinus type infection and prescribed some antibiotics. During the visit, my blood pressure was running high. It could be caused by some of the over the counter meds I had been taking, but I should follow up with my regular doctor in a few days. Four days later, after seeing quite an improvement from the antibiotics, I returned to my regular doctor to followup..At first, blood pressure came back very normal..then pulse was very low, but sporadic. A listen to my heart revealed irregular behavior. An EKG was taken and within minutes I had several doctors in the room telling me I had a very rapid, irregular heartbeat. I had not noticed any symptoms on my own. Doctor proceeded to tell me the "what ifs" and that I needed to go to the hospital immediately. I was not even allowed to drive myself, they had to call paramedics to transport me by ambulance. Regular heartbeats should be 60-100 per minute. When I got to the hospital, mine was beating 167 times per minute. the things that kept running thru my mind is that I live alone. I have no family in the city in which I live. I have no real close friends I can count on close by. It is a scary thought to be alone under those circumstances. Yes, I have family across the country. Yes, I have good friends around the country, but no one LOCAL I can count on. Long story short, I spent the night at the hospital. They put me on a couple of different meds to slow my heart and thin my blood. I arrived at the hospital around 11am, and they did not finally get my heartbeat stabilized until around 3am. And all this time, I honestly did not notice any "symptoms" that would have made me question my health. I was discharged approximately 26 hours after my arrival at the hospital. I will be doing extensive followup with a cardiologist this coming week to try to determine what happened and why it happened, so we can prevent it from occuring again. Don't take things for granted. We never know what the next week will bring, or the next day, or even the next hour. Don't take your health for granted. Get regular checkups. Follow your doctor's advice. Have a plan in place. What would you do IF.......????? Sadly, none of us are immortal. If there is something you have been putting off doing, by all means, do it..Hate the thought of "bucket lists", but for the first time ever, I have realized what they really are..Don't take things for granted. Quote
Members ihpguy Posted March 24, 2012 Members Posted March 24, 2012 Sounds similar to what I have had for the past 15 years. Controlled fairly well with meds, rest and diet. Quote
Guest FourAces Posted March 24, 2012 Posted March 24, 2012 Lurker so sorry to hear what you went through. It must have been very scary. I'm happy that the medication seems to have the issue under control and hope you have no further incidents. Quote
Guest hitoallusa Posted March 24, 2012 Posted March 24, 2012 I'm glad that you are ok, Lurker. I hope you feel better soon. Please let us know if there is anything we can do for you. Hugs~~ Quote
Guest EXPAT Posted March 25, 2012 Posted March 25, 2012 I'm also glad you're ok. Maybe it was anxiety for some reason? Quote
Members JKane Posted March 25, 2012 Members Posted March 25, 2012 ...the things that kept running thru my mind is that I live alone. I have no family in the city in which I live. I have no real close friends I can count on close by. It is a scary thought to be alone under those circumstances. This is something I'm concerned about too, and I'd guess many other gay guys are as well! It's hard to imagine myself in a marriage-type relationship (even if it wasn't explicitly outlawed under my state's "proposition 8"). So once my mother passes I won't even have siblings should something go wrong. No idea how to plan a will or much more importantly who should make decisions should I be medically or mentally incapacitated... But I'm glad you're doing better, Lurker! Quote
TotallyOz Posted March 25, 2012 Posted March 25, 2012 I am glad you are doing better. So sorry to hear about the scare. I know that must be scarry to go into the doc and end up with that many hours. You are in my thoughts ! Quote
Members seattlebottom Posted March 25, 2012 Members Posted March 25, 2012 I had a huge panic attack a couple of years back at work and thought I was going to die. Although it wasn't life threatening, I hadn't given a second thought when I got up that morning that it may have been my last day on earth. It certainly put a damper on things but it also made me realize that I had to take care of matters before the inevitable happens. Quote
Guest EXPAT Posted March 25, 2012 Posted March 25, 2012 The reason I suggested anxiety is because I also had a panic attack of sorts a couple of years ago and thought I was having chest pains and I went to the emergency room. But there was nothing wrong. They kept me overnight to make sure and I had varying heart rates and my EKG was normal over and over again. So they ruled it as an anxiety attack for some reason. The only other time I had a panic attack was when I had to have a full spinal MRI and as soon as I went into the MRI tube I couldn't take the tight quarters and my heart rate sky rocketed. I had to eventually come back under valium which of course helped immensely and I had no problem then. Quote
Guest lurkerspeaks Posted March 28, 2012 Posted March 28, 2012 As a followup.. I saw the cardiologist on Monday, and everything looked normal. Had a nuclear stress test this morning, then a followup with the cardiologist. Everything again looks normal with the exception of me being fat and out of shape. (DUH).. Have sleep apnea test scheduled for Friday night. Good news is I lost 4 lbs since Monday.. Quote
Guest hitoallusa Posted March 28, 2012 Posted March 28, 2012 Sometimes bad things happen to bring a good news. I'm glad that you are doing ok! Hope you feel much better soon. Hugs~~~ As a followup.. I saw the cardiologist on Monday, and everything looked normal. Had a nuclear stress test this morning, then a followup with the cardiologist. Everything again looks normal with the exception of me being fat and out of shape. (DUH).. Have sleep apnea test scheduled for Friday night. Good news is I lost 4 lbs since Monday.. Quote
caeron Posted March 28, 2012 Posted March 28, 2012 2 years ago, my wife woke up with a bloody lip, and reddish spots on her body. She wanted to blow it off, but I'm a doctor's kid, and I thought it wasn't right, so went to the hospital much to her annoyance. She did blood work and what not, they said it was probably nothing, and we left. A couple of hours later we got a call to come back to the hospital. They admitted her immediately, with a platlet count of 1. Normal is in the range of 150 to 400. Anything below 20 is life threatening. You can spontaneously bleed to death. She spent several days in the ICU, and the first 24 hours it dropped from 1 to 0. I listened in horror as the doctors discussed the risks of her bleeding out, and how to handle it. The first 48 hours were touch and go. Then she started to get better. The doctors told us repeatedly that this form of blood problem, once it started, was typically chronic, and would likely require removal of her spleen, and there is a chance even that wouldn't cure it. But she just got better, and that was the end of it. Inexplicable. Terrifying. Then gone. I listened to the Carmina Burana a lot after that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Fortuna for those who don't know the translation of the original latin... It has made life all the sweeter to have come so incredibly close to death and walked away. I hope your experience is the same, and that it just goes away... Quote
Guest FourAces Posted March 28, 2012 Posted March 28, 2012 As a followup.. I saw the cardiologist on Monday, and everything looked normal. Had a nuclear stress test this morning, then a followup with the cardiologist. Everything again looks normal with the exception of me being fat and out of shape. (DUH).. Have sleep apnea test scheduled for Friday night. Good news is I lost 4 lbs since Monday.. Lurker happy to hear the good news. Quote
Members OneFinger Posted March 29, 2012 Members Posted March 29, 2012 As a followup.. I saw the cardiologist on Monday, and everything looked normal. Had a nuclear stress test this morning, then a followup with the cardiologist. Everything again looks normal with the exception of me being fat and out of shape. (DUH).. Have sleep apnea test scheduled for Friday night. Good news is I lost 4 lbs since Monday.. Very glad you're following up on this and getting all the test done. I was very overweight a few months ago and had sleep apena. The doc put me on a CPAP machine which made a great deal of difference. One of the best things that happened to me. I've since dropped 130 lbs and no longer need the CPAP. My diabetes symptoms are gone. No longer on high blood pressure meds. Heart problems are gone. My life is so much better than before. Please, keep on top of things. Do what ever is necessary to take back your medical health and get back to "normal". Since making changes in my life, I look and feel at least 10 years younger. It took a lot of deligence to drop the weight but well worth it. Best of luck and keep us posted. Quote
Guest CharliePS Posted March 29, 2012 Posted March 29, 2012 It's amazing how often scares like this turn out to be uneventful and unexplainable. A couple of years ago I had what appeared to be a mild intestinal virus, but it turned into terrible dizziness and loss of muscle control. All the usual tests showed nothing abnormal. Neither did the more drastic tests, like brain scans (one doctor felt sure I had a brain tumor) and MRIs on various areas of my body. After seeing different kinds of specialists, who could find nothing, I was told by my gastroenterologist that there are innumerable viruses for which there are no tests or standard descriptions of effects, and I had probably encountered one of them. He said the dizziness might take a long time to go away, but it probably would eventually, and we would never know what caused it. Sure enough, it took a couple of months, but the dizziness wore off and my motor control came back, with no treatment and no explanation. Let's hope your problem is the same kind of transitory mystery. But try to find a less traumatic diet. Quote
Members eeyore Posted March 30, 2012 Members Posted March 30, 2012 Lurker I'm glad to hear you are doing better. Keep us posted on your progress. I hope our paths might cross in Montreal this summer. Take care. Quote
