A New Health Base Line

I had another 34 going on 84 "Grandpa Dan" experience this week...

I've been having some sporadic, often times intense chest pains on and off, and can feel strain up in my neck, followed by massive sweating. This was occurring at rest, not just when I was at the gym. Typical initial signs of potential heart issues. I was at my primary care doc yesterday to go over a few things, and after discussing the recurring chest pains she decided to an ECG/EKG. Something on that test result triggered the need to do a full cardio stress test to make sure I didn't have a blocked artery(ies) etc. So major strings were pulled and I got in to see a cardiologist and an echo cardiographer today to do a full work up.

I had a series of ultra sounds on my heart, and then did the extremely strenuous treadmill stress test where they get your heart rate up to within 5 from cardiac arrest. You have to sign a waiver that 1 in 5,000 people die from doing cardiac stress tests, but you can also “kill over” if you don’t do it as well. You start off at 0.0 incline and 1.2 stroll . You are hooked up to 23 different things on your chest, neck, back and sides. Every 90 seconds they take your blood pressure, and every three minutes the incline and speed go up until you can’t take it anymore. For my height and weight a heart beat in excess of 190 would trigger cardiac arrest. They brought me all the way up to 185 with defibrillators close by. Once I got to my 185 rate, which was at a 9.0+ incline at 8.0+ mph, I had to run and maintain that for 10 minutes. I was totally gasping for air and sweat was splashing off the treadmill and on the back wall and floor. Who knew one could sweat that much. And to top this off, I came down with bronchitis this week and was hacking up my lungs the entire time with no arm to cover my mouth since I had to hang on for dear life.

Then you hop back on the table and do another round of ultrasounds while your heart is "angry,” so they can compare resting heart images and blood flow with “angry” heart images and blood flow. No blockage, but I do have slight arrhythmia so this has been equating to the weird hot flash like symptoms I've had where I'll have a few seconds of extreme heart racing, followed by shots of pain and sweats. Most often times triggered by stress or anxiety. Work has been interesting as of late, so it has been more of a stressor than it typically is. I don’t need to go into details on this front.

I don't need an angioplasty or anything. And at this point, I do not need to take a medicinal regulator. I think the stress of work and such coupled with arrhythmia was causing the issue. Now I have a new health base line to go by. And, now that I’m getting “old” have to see a cardiologist once a year and look for ways to de-stress in my life. And with slight arrhythmia this can snowball in to a large scale cardiac issue of not monitored. Looks like I’ll take up yoga in the short term.

It was great having a cardiologist that I already know extremely well on a professional level, as cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery is one of many clients I oversee marketing efforts for at work. He told me that if I would have had this issue a year ago, prior to me dropping 65 pounds I would have been hospitalized with a blocked artery, based on my ECG/EKG from two years back. The reduction in weight is naturally making my blood pressure go down, and the change Holly and I have made in eating habits is helping alleviate plaque in my arteries naturally, by staying away from certain foods or processed items. I'm now just that much more inspired to keep dropping weight like a banshee. This has been a nice wake up call for me.

Since this test earlier today, I’ve had approximately 24 glasses of water. Talk about fatigue and dehydration. F-U-Fun Times!