WOW, close call yesterday. Last week I had another bi-annual follow up stress echo at my new cardiologist's. Old one moved to Germany....traitor! LOL
Anyhow, last Monday I set a record at that facility for the best stress echo they had ever seen. To put it in perspective, I was well into stage 6 of the test. Most men my age only get to 4. Most high school track athletes only get into the higher stages of 5. Before I was finished nearly the entire office was in there watching me. The doc was super pleased and said I need no surgery for some time. My heart was exceeding 100% maximum efficiency. OMEGA 3 RULES!!!
He had only one concern and that was he wanted to get my pressure down a little. It's not high mind but actually low. But since my ventricle is not dialated (another good thing) he wanted to artifically dialate it just a little to give the heart some relief. So he doubled my blood pressure medicine. I was on the min, 10mg, but he had me go up to 20mg. "You won't see ANY side effects." he says!
Fast foward to yesterday morning. I was out in my shop sand blasting the POS Bravada for her new paint job, feeling just peachy. I go inside to take a shower. I was shaving in the shower so I had been in a little longer than usual and the water got a little too hot apparently. All of sudden I started to feel kinda funny....a LOT funny. Acutally not funny at all.
My vision got real funky. I was seeing lights and everything got bright. I got REAL dizzy and my hearing got weird. Everything seemed louder but muffled....if that makes sense. Then....down I went. I wasn't unconscious but damn near it. I was fighting for all I was worth to stay conscious. I called to my wife and she hardly heard me. She didn't think anything was wrong so took a few minutes to come in, but when she saw me she flipped. I had her turn off the water and she called the Dr. I told her not to call 911 I thought (in my "GREAT" mental state) that it would pass. Turns out it did, but anyway. When I looked down at my chest my heart was literally heaving and my heart was beating nearly out of my chest and irregularly. My wife noticed it too. She said later she could see it all the way up into my neck.
I managed to crawl into my den and lay down on the couch. I tried to regulate my breathing and eventually I regained my composure.
I didn't want an ambulance so I had my wife drive me to the ER. 8 hours later (they forgot a bunch of us....good thing in a heart situation huh?) the highly educated ER Dr. came too the same conslusion I did. The increased med along with the hot shower (caution with hot showers and STAY OUT of hot tubs if you have heart problems) caused my blood pressure to drop rapidly and into a dangerous zone. My hearts wasn't able to supply my brain with enough blood so I got dizzy and nearly fainted. My body sensing that increased my heart rate, but given the issues, my heart couldn't deliver and so kept pumping harder and faster.
To make a long story...well a little less long. I'm fine today and am following up with both of MY doctors but if you take any sort of inhibitor medicines that either drop your blood pressure or thin you blood, be VERY careful of anything that can magnify it like hot tubs, alcohol, caffeine, etc. I actually thought I was having a heart attack yesterday and so did my wife.
Really makes you sit back and think about what's REALLY important in your life.
Anyhow, last Monday I set a record at that facility for the best stress echo they had ever seen. To put it in perspective, I was well into stage 6 of the test. Most men my age only get to 4. Most high school track athletes only get into the higher stages of 5. Before I was finished nearly the entire office was in there watching me. The doc was super pleased and said I need no surgery for some time. My heart was exceeding 100% maximum efficiency. OMEGA 3 RULES!!!
He had only one concern and that was he wanted to get my pressure down a little. It's not high mind but actually low. But since my ventricle is not dialated (another good thing) he wanted to artifically dialate it just a little to give the heart some relief. So he doubled my blood pressure medicine. I was on the min, 10mg, but he had me go up to 20mg. "You won't see ANY side effects." he says!
Fast foward to yesterday morning. I was out in my shop sand blasting the POS Bravada for her new paint job, feeling just peachy. I go inside to take a shower. I was shaving in the shower so I had been in a little longer than usual and the water got a little too hot apparently. All of sudden I started to feel kinda funny....a LOT funny. Acutally not funny at all.
My vision got real funky. I was seeing lights and everything got bright. I got REAL dizzy and my hearing got weird. Everything seemed louder but muffled....if that makes sense. Then....down I went. I wasn't unconscious but damn near it. I was fighting for all I was worth to stay conscious. I called to my wife and she hardly heard me. She didn't think anything was wrong so took a few minutes to come in, but when she saw me she flipped. I had her turn off the water and she called the Dr. I told her not to call 911 I thought (in my "GREAT" mental state) that it would pass. Turns out it did, but anyway. When I looked down at my chest my heart was literally heaving and my heart was beating nearly out of my chest and irregularly. My wife noticed it too. She said later she could see it all the way up into my neck.
I managed to crawl into my den and lay down on the couch. I tried to regulate my breathing and eventually I regained my composure.
I didn't want an ambulance so I had my wife drive me to the ER. 8 hours later (they forgot a bunch of us....good thing in a heart situation huh?) the highly educated ER Dr. came too the same conslusion I did. The increased med along with the hot shower (caution with hot showers and STAY OUT of hot tubs if you have heart problems) caused my blood pressure to drop rapidly and into a dangerous zone. My hearts wasn't able to supply my brain with enough blood so I got dizzy and nearly fainted. My body sensing that increased my heart rate, but given the issues, my heart couldn't deliver and so kept pumping harder and faster.
To make a long story...well a little less long. I'm fine today and am following up with both of MY doctors but if you take any sort of inhibitor medicines that either drop your blood pressure or thin you blood, be VERY careful of anything that can magnify it like hot tubs, alcohol, caffeine, etc. I actually thought I was having a heart attack yesterday and so did my wife.
Really makes you sit back and think about what's REALLY important in your life.
You should have called 911, PERIOD! They could have regulated your heart right there and you wouldn't have waited in the Hospital waiting room and NOBODY would have forgotten you! I read a paper a couple of years ago from Johns Hopkins stating the statistics of how many MEN die becuase they are embarrased to call 911.
