Worked from home today, some. Daytime TV is pretty bland. The same commercials, same courtroom drama, same medicine ads, same soap operas, same useless content over and over.
Habs came over to work some in the afternoon. A nice change of pace for him. This turned into a trip to Torchy's.
Kelc and I watched some more Six Feet Under.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
2013.01.23 Wednesday
Another day home, but by myself in the morning. Honestly, felt a little uncomfortable being without somebody in case something happened, but decided to focus on other things, like the Price is Right.
My mom took a half day at work, showed up around lunchtime to spend the other half of her day fixing up some food and hanging out with me. Moms are awesome. Brother showed up to see how things were going. Everybody got to enjoy the good home cooking.
Watched 3 more episodes of Six Feet Under with Kelc, then bed time.
My mom took a half day at work, showed up around lunchtime to spend the other half of her day fixing up some food and hanging out with me. Moms are awesome. Brother showed up to see how things were going. Everybody got to enjoy the good home cooking.
Watched 3 more episodes of Six Feet Under with Kelc, then bed time.
2013.01.22 Tuesday
Didn't sleep much last night. Partially kitty, partial chest pain. This sucks.
Kelc had another day off from work. Didn't really move around a whole lot. Watched daytime tv, random naps. Made some phone calls to set up things with doctors and whatnot.
Had some evening visitors. Watched Hot Rod with Korey and Lyle.
Started watching Six Feet Under with Kelc.
Another day done.
Kelc had another day off from work. Didn't really move around a whole lot. Watched daytime tv, random naps. Made some phone calls to set up things with doctors and whatnot.
Had some evening visitors. Watched Hot Rod with Korey and Lyle.
Started watching Six Feet Under with Kelc.
Another day done.
2013.01.21 Monday
Yet again, not getting much sleep. Also slightly stressed about this stress test. Will this cause another "event"? They suck so much, I fear having to experience that again.
Stress Test Part 1: Heart imaging. Went down to some area of the hospital where they have big machines that do fancy things. This one had a table to lay down on, then the table moves up and over towards some plates. The plates move in within a few inches of the area in question, and take snapshots somehow. I have no idea how that worked, but apparently that worked.
Stress Test Part 2: Treadmill. They wheeled me over to a room with a few stations of treadmills and tables. I got hooked up to a fancy EKG machine that also measured blood pressure and blood oxygen levels. First we had to wait for a doctor to be present in case something happens, but also to monitor the readings to see if anything is out of whack. Then we started the test. Stage 1 was just walking at a slow pace. Stage 2 was right under what I consider a brisk walk. Stage 3 is supposed to be like a jog, but my stride was just long enough to be awkward. I couldn't decide if I wanted to walk with large steps or jog. I survived those three stages well enough to be pushed to the optional Stage 4, which is more like an actual run. (Side note: one reason I never really liked treadmills is that I could never find a setting that felt normal, and at this point that is still true.) This stage was much shorter, but just trying to push my heart up into the intense range to see if anything weird is happening. Everything worked out ok, except for the fact that I feel malnourished and dehydrated. After Stage 4, got bumped down to a slow walk pace to relax. I felt like I was able to catch my breath in a couple minutes, but I could see that my heart rate was still going at 150-160. I went to sit on the table, and my heart was still going 150. Nurses chatted with me for a bit, trying to distract me some, but I could hear the beeping and see the number, and I almost started to panic again. This sucks.
Stress Test Part 3: Once the heart rate started dipping into the 140s, they decided that was good enough and I need to go chow down on some fat-loaded food. Why is this part of the test? I have no idea. They gave me a meal of ham+cheese sandwich with mayo, cashews, ruffles, sugar cookie, and regular milk. I had a hard time eating again. (By the way, I think it's funny that the hospital considers these foods fat-loaded and heart-stressing.)
Stress Test Part 4: Heart imaging. They wheeled me back down to the imaging area. Same machine with plates. More pictures. At this point, I'm pretty sleepy. The table for the machine is more comfortable than the hospital bed I've been stuck in. I drift in and out of sleep this time around.
Mid day, enjoyed a meal of funky meatloaf and broccoli and mashed potatoes. I guess it wasn't really that bad, but nothing sounds as appetizing as home-fried bacon.
Afternoon rolled around. Results from the stress test and various cardiograms showed that nothing is glaringly wrong. They are setting me up with a heart monitor, but released me to go home.
Rode home with Kelc. Feeling bad, but tolerable. I think now that a good factor in this is psychological. Thinking about possible terrible outcomes doesn't really do me any good. I have to actively focus on relaxing and clearing out anything causing stress.
Stress Test Part 1: Heart imaging. Went down to some area of the hospital where they have big machines that do fancy things. This one had a table to lay down on, then the table moves up and over towards some plates. The plates move in within a few inches of the area in question, and take snapshots somehow. I have no idea how that worked, but apparently that worked.
Stress Test Part 2: Treadmill. They wheeled me over to a room with a few stations of treadmills and tables. I got hooked up to a fancy EKG machine that also measured blood pressure and blood oxygen levels. First we had to wait for a doctor to be present in case something happens, but also to monitor the readings to see if anything is out of whack. Then we started the test. Stage 1 was just walking at a slow pace. Stage 2 was right under what I consider a brisk walk. Stage 3 is supposed to be like a jog, but my stride was just long enough to be awkward. I couldn't decide if I wanted to walk with large steps or jog. I survived those three stages well enough to be pushed to the optional Stage 4, which is more like an actual run. (Side note: one reason I never really liked treadmills is that I could never find a setting that felt normal, and at this point that is still true.) This stage was much shorter, but just trying to push my heart up into the intense range to see if anything weird is happening. Everything worked out ok, except for the fact that I feel malnourished and dehydrated. After Stage 4, got bumped down to a slow walk pace to relax. I felt like I was able to catch my breath in a couple minutes, but I could see that my heart rate was still going at 150-160. I went to sit on the table, and my heart was still going 150. Nurses chatted with me for a bit, trying to distract me some, but I could hear the beeping and see the number, and I almost started to panic again. This sucks.
Stress Test Part 3: Once the heart rate started dipping into the 140s, they decided that was good enough and I need to go chow down on some fat-loaded food. Why is this part of the test? I have no idea. They gave me a meal of ham+cheese sandwich with mayo, cashews, ruffles, sugar cookie, and regular milk. I had a hard time eating again. (By the way, I think it's funny that the hospital considers these foods fat-loaded and heart-stressing.)
Stress Test Part 4: Heart imaging. They wheeled me back down to the imaging area. Same machine with plates. More pictures. At this point, I'm pretty sleepy. The table for the machine is more comfortable than the hospital bed I've been stuck in. I drift in and out of sleep this time around.
Mid day, enjoyed a meal of funky meatloaf and broccoli and mashed potatoes. I guess it wasn't really that bad, but nothing sounds as appetizing as home-fried bacon.
Afternoon rolled around. Results from the stress test and various cardiograms showed that nothing is glaringly wrong. They are setting me up with a heart monitor, but released me to go home.
Rode home with Kelc. Feeling bad, but tolerable. I think now that a good factor in this is psychological. Thinking about possible terrible outcomes doesn't really do me any good. I have to actively focus on relaxing and clearing out anything causing stress.
2013.01.20 Sunday
Arrived at the hospital to climb into a bed. Had three more people try to get an artery sample. My arms have been stuck many times by this point.
They put me on some remote monitors, so if my heart starts to do something weird they can see it. My chest ached all night, so I didn't get much sleep. Kelc spent the night and powered through on a mini bed.
Woke up to more blood samples. Didn't have much of an appetite for breakfast, but they brought me eggs, bacon, coffee, juice, and a muffin.
Mid morning, a lady came by with a fancy ultrasound machine. Normally these are used to look at the womb. When looking at the heart, they call them Echo-cardiograms. To get a good picture, they have to jab the probe in between ribs. It's not comfortable, but compared to everything else it was cakewalk.
Early afternoon, a cardiologist stopped by. He only looked at the electro-cardiograms. Everything looks "normal". They weren't able to capture the event actually happening, so no definitive explanation of what caused the racing heart. One theory: remnant flu symptoms and not fully recovering. Another theory: extra wiring in the heart causing a type of feedback loop of electrical impulses. Another theory: this is all a dream.
Family visited. Kelc went home to get some time with Kitty, rest, recharge.
At some times throughout the day, lunch and dinner were served. I really didn't have an appetite, and felt like my heart could start racing at any moment, but I tried to eat something. I'm probably going to lose weight from this visit.
Doctors came by in the evening to say that I'm not allowed to eat or drink after dinner, definitely not after midnight. Gotta get some rest for a stress test in the morning.
They put me on some remote monitors, so if my heart starts to do something weird they can see it. My chest ached all night, so I didn't get much sleep. Kelc spent the night and powered through on a mini bed.
Woke up to more blood samples. Didn't have much of an appetite for breakfast, but they brought me eggs, bacon, coffee, juice, and a muffin.
Mid morning, a lady came by with a fancy ultrasound machine. Normally these are used to look at the womb. When looking at the heart, they call them Echo-cardiograms. To get a good picture, they have to jab the probe in between ribs. It's not comfortable, but compared to everything else it was cakewalk.
Early afternoon, a cardiologist stopped by. He only looked at the electro-cardiograms. Everything looks "normal". They weren't able to capture the event actually happening, so no definitive explanation of what caused the racing heart. One theory: remnant flu symptoms and not fully recovering. Another theory: extra wiring in the heart causing a type of feedback loop of electrical impulses. Another theory: this is all a dream.
Family visited. Kelc went home to get some time with Kitty, rest, recharge.
At some times throughout the day, lunch and dinner were served. I really didn't have an appetite, and felt like my heart could start racing at any moment, but I tried to eat something. I'm probably going to lose weight from this visit.
Doctors came by in the evening to say that I'm not allowed to eat or drink after dinner, definitely not after midnight. Gotta get some rest for a stress test in the morning.
2013.01.19 Saturday
Woke up to some texts from my parents about a day trip to some property in the family. Sounds like fun, so I got up, got dressed, and drank a cup of coffee while playing some games.
Here's where things took a weird turn.
I started feeling funny. My chest felt funky (it had been for the past few days, but I attributed that to phlegm remnants from the flu). When I checked my heart rate, sure enough it was cruising along at something like 160bpm. This was quite alarming, so I kind of started panicking. Probably didn't help at all. I started pacing around the house and trying to focus on calm, deep breaths to bring the heart into check, all while waiting for my parents to arrive to pick me up.
When they arrived, I explained that I wasn't feeling well and we should hang out for a bit to see what is happening. In the meantime I hooked up my running heart rate monitor to keep an eye on the rate. Took me about an hour to come down to a normal pace. While we were chatting and waiting around, my dad received a text from a family relative explaining that they had other plans for the day, so we wouldn't be able to get through the gates to the property anyways.
Decided to ride over with my parents to their house. Spent the day there, ate some soup and watched TV. Heart doing fine.
Went to Salsas for dinner. Everything going fine until the conclusion of the meal. My heart started pounding again. Wtf. My parents and I both agreed that this isn't normal, and that we should probably get to a clinic. Luckily there is a clinic not that far down the road...oh but wait...it closes early on weekends. Fffffffff...
At this point, I'm riding around town with a heart rate monitor beeping between 180-185, my limbs are going numb, and I think I'm dying.
Ended up in the Emergency room. Numerous doctors/nurses poked and prodded things into my arms, put stickers on my chest, and told me their names. Everything happened so fast, hard to really remember what happened when. Eventually they pumped some sort of full-body sedative into a vein. Things started calming down, except for the heart rate. The highest they captured my heart rate was at 165. When I left, I was still pumping around 130. Chest ached a lot.
They decided to send me over to another hospital where they have cardiologists. That means...Ambulance ride.
Here's where things took a weird turn.
I started feeling funny. My chest felt funky (it had been for the past few days, but I attributed that to phlegm remnants from the flu). When I checked my heart rate, sure enough it was cruising along at something like 160bpm. This was quite alarming, so I kind of started panicking. Probably didn't help at all. I started pacing around the house and trying to focus on calm, deep breaths to bring the heart into check, all while waiting for my parents to arrive to pick me up.
When they arrived, I explained that I wasn't feeling well and we should hang out for a bit to see what is happening. In the meantime I hooked up my running heart rate monitor to keep an eye on the rate. Took me about an hour to come down to a normal pace. While we were chatting and waiting around, my dad received a text from a family relative explaining that they had other plans for the day, so we wouldn't be able to get through the gates to the property anyways.
Decided to ride over with my parents to their house. Spent the day there, ate some soup and watched TV. Heart doing fine.
Went to Salsas for dinner. Everything going fine until the conclusion of the meal. My heart started pounding again. Wtf. My parents and I both agreed that this isn't normal, and that we should probably get to a clinic. Luckily there is a clinic not that far down the road...oh but wait...it closes early on weekends. Fffffffff...
At this point, I'm riding around town with a heart rate monitor beeping between 180-185, my limbs are going numb, and I think I'm dying.
Ended up in the Emergency room. Numerous doctors/nurses poked and prodded things into my arms, put stickers on my chest, and told me their names. Everything happened so fast, hard to really remember what happened when. Eventually they pumped some sort of full-body sedative into a vein. Things started calming down, except for the heart rate. The highest they captured my heart rate was at 165. When I left, I was still pumping around 130. Chest ached a lot.
They decided to send me over to another hospital where they have cardiologists. That means...Ambulance ride.
2013.01.18 Friday
A day off. Cleaned up some around the house, then installed a keyboard drawer. By itself it doesn't really sound that difficult, but really was kinda challenging since I had to hold up everything while drilling and screwing from under the desk.
Spent a good chunk of the day playing games, dealing with paperwork, cleaning, and playing with kitty.
Cooked up some sausage for dinner and watched some TV.
Spent a good chunk of the day playing games, dealing with paperwork, cleaning, and playing with kitty.
Cooked up some sausage for dinner and watched some TV.
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