Heart Monitor Results Are...Sort of In?

I called my doctor's office a few minutes ago, to see if they had the results from the heart monitor thing yet. I didn't talk to the doctor herself - I think the woman on the phone was a nurse? I'm not sure. Maybe not, since she didn't know what some of the words in the report meant. Anyway, she said that they did get the results, and they're scheduling me for a stress test next week.

Okay, I don't really know what any of this means, big picture wise, but here is what she said. My heart is in sinus rhythm, which is good. My average heart rate was 85, which for me is about normal, I think (it's almost always in the 80s when I take it, even years ago when I was younger and much thinner). But there were "frequent PVCs," and they want me to take a stress test, I think to find out if there is a cardiac disease looming, or if the PVCs are just a normal thing that happen sometimes.

And here is where I admit that I totally had to look up the term PVC, and it stands for Premature Ventricular Contraction. Basically, it's exactly what it felt like - my heart sometimes just beats a second time sooner than it should.

It's funny - I wasn't really worried about this at all before. I even forgot to call on Friday to see if they had my results. But now? I'm kind of worried. This isn't fun.

So that's where we are. I have to be at the hospital on Tuesday at 6:45 a.m., which is pretty torturous, since it means I'll have to be up at around 5:00. And I have to walk on a treadmill while electrodes are stuck to my skin. But we'll see what it says. I haven't worked out in a couple of weeks (the gym has been closed because the trainer had surgery, and I've been bad and haven't worked out at home), but when I was still going, my heart never felt weird when working out at all. It doesn't even flutter there, usually. So we'll see.

Oh, and it's only fluttered maybe 1-4 times a day for the last four days. It's been nice, having the flutters slow down and thinking that they may be going away. Now here's hoping that it really is all nothing, and that the stress test will prove that. Because while the web page I read to find out about PVCs said in most cases they meant nothing, it also used the term "sudden death" a few times, and I don't like that term at all. So we're hoping for nothing being wrong, obviously.

Heart Monitor

I went yesterday afternoon and had the monitor put on. I was questioning whether or not I should bother, because of course the very day I was scheduled to do it, my heart only fluttered a few times all morning, and those times were very slight - much less forceful than they had been even the day before.

But of course it was a good thing I went through with it, because my heart fluttered quite a few times last evening and this morning, so it should have recorded a good number of instances.

Having it put on went pretty quickly and easily - at least as much as any medical appointment can. The woman doing it just stuck five electrodes onto me - one on each side, at about the shoulder end of my clavicle, one on each ribcage, under my breasts, and one between my breasts. Then she put tape over the electrodes, to help keep them in place. Simple, easy, and I drove back to work with wires running from my chest to the small monitor, which I tucked into my pocket.

After wearing it for 24 hours, Jim helped me take it off this afternoon, and I'm glad he was here to do it, because taking all that off was fairly painful - like ripping off a Band-Aid that is really stuck on well, for four of them, but the one between my breasts hurt so much more than that! Ouch. But they came off, and now I'm wire free.

I'll take it back on Monday to the doctor's office, and then I'll get results whenever they're ready - I think she said it can take about a week. So I'll let you all know what I find out whenever I hear from them.

I'm a little worried about it, of course, because anything abnormal with the heart is just scary. But I'm not too worried. I'm not having any shortness of breath, no dizziness, no chest pain - just the flutters. I'll just be very happy and grateful if (when) I find out that it's nothing to worry about.

For now, though, I'm going to enjoy the rest of the weekend with Jim. He's off, after working almost non-stop for a couple of weeks, and I had been missing him something awful. But now he's here, and we put up most of the Christmas decorations tonight, and it just looks so nice in here now. So I'll have a nice, wire free rest of the weekend. :)

Weighing In Once Again!

I weighed myself this morning, and I lost a tiny bit more, yay! I'm at 220.5 today. :) That's only a 3/4 pound loss since the last time I weighed in (on October 29th), but it's a 1 1/2 pound loss since Monday, so I'm still happy with myself. November seems to have been a total waste, though. I can't do that with anymore months! Time is running out.

Anyway, I'm happy with this loss. I hope to be down to about 218 by next Friday, which by the way happens to be the 10th - exactly nine months before my wedding! If I'm at 218 on Friday, I'll have nine months left to lose either 83 or 78 pounds, depending on what final weight I end up settling on (135 or 140). It's definitely something that can be done, but there isn't any wiggle room for lost months anymore!

This afternoon I go to get the halter monitor on. I have to get it at 2:30, and I'll be wearing it for 24 hours. Then hopefully next week I'll have some answers as to what the heck is going on!

In which I go to the doctor, maybe for good reason, maybe not, who knows?

So I talked to Jim about the heart flutter thing, and he told me in very different words that a trip to the doctor may be a good idea, and if he had to take me himself on his day off, he would. :)

I called the doctor's office this morning, and got an appointment at 11:30. When I told the doctor what was going on, she said they'd do an EKG in the office. There's only one problem - you have to be laying down and still for the EKG, and this flutter thing only happens when I'm moving around. (This doctor's office doesn't have a stress test set-up.) But I walked up and down the halls and got it fluttering, they hooked up the electrodes and I laid down, and of course my heart was beating all normal by then, so it read normal.

She told me I could go see a cardiologist, or I could get them to set me up with a 24 hour halter monitor. I chose to go with the monitor. I have to go tomorrow at 2:30 to get it hooked up, and apparently I'll keep it on until 2:30 on Saturday (I wonder if I can shower with it on? Or take it off to shower and put it back on?), and then next week they'll read it and tell me if anything is happening when it flutters, or if all is normal.

Also, I know I shouldn't weigh myself everyday, but I tend to when I'm behaving. I was VERY good at home last night. So good! I was proud of myself. And this morning the scale was down a pound, woo! I love when being good pays off. :)

Doing Well

Last night I heated up a TV dinner (Lean Cuisine cheese ravioli), sat down at my desk and started to eat, and then went, "Oops!" Then I got up and went to the dining room and ate at the table. Hee.

But that little slip aside, I've done very well with my new rules so far. I had two snacks at work on Monday afternoon, instead of the one I said I was allowed, but it fit into my calories, so I didn't beat myself up over it.

So far so good! I just wanted to check in to let you know the rules were working so far. :)

I also went to the gym on Monday, after three weeks away (I feel like I should hide after admitting that). I was bad! I decided to take a week off, and then my knee started hurting (it still does a little, by the way, but not as bad), so I took that week off, and then it was Thanksgiving week and the gym was closed two out of the three days I could have gone, and I decided not to go the one day I could have (last Monday).

Ahem. I feel like I'm in confession. I went back on Monday, though, so I'm getting back on track with it!

I do have one concern now, though. Since mid-week last week (about a day or two before Thanksgiving), I have been feeling what I'm calling heart flutters. My heart seems to jump or flip (I know it's not really flipping, but it almost feels like it is), or flutter, sometimes. It doesn't do it when I'm sitting at my desk at work all day, but when I get up and walk around, it does. It doesn't hurt, it just feels funny. I also don't have any lightheadedness, dizziness or shortness of breath, so I don't think anything serious is wrong. Still, it's unsettling, and I'm thinking I need to go back to the doctor. I don't want to, and I can't afford the $20 co-pay right now, but I might have to do it anyway. Oh, and it didn't do it at all when I was on the elliptical on Monday, which I thought was strange (it does when I walk, but not when I am basically running on that thing? Why?).

Does anyone who reads this have experience with this type of thing? If so, I'll take any words of comfort or caution or whatever that you may have to share.