Since the word has been traveling (it got a little help by an announcement by my sweet hubby on facebook) about my health, I thought I should just go ahead and blog about it. I had been thinking about blogging about it anyway, because it has been a fairly significant part of our summer and I like to keep records of such things, but I didn't want to worry anyone. However, in the process of not worrying anyone, I also don't have anyone who knows who can pray for me.
I have been in the ER three times in the past month. The latter two of those were for the same issue...or at least the same symptoms. The first one I was having some stomach issues and some pain that was not going away. We did a CT and an ultrasound for my gall bladder all which came back fine. The stomach pain left, I was feeling great and two days later I was back in the ER again. This time I got to go in an ambulance. Anytime you have tingling in all your extremities and left shoulder pain and feel as though you are going to pass out when you are lying down it is time to all 911. I got to the ER and they found (drumroll please)....absolutely nothing wrong with me. All the tests came back perfectly fine and I was back on my way home in just a few hours. We chalked it up to possible low blood sugar or low blood pressure. The following days I would occassionally have a few fainting spells (a friend & I joked that maybe I need to loosen my corset and start carrying smelling salts) but nothing like what happened the first time. Then this past Monday "it" happened again. I headed to the doctor's office this time where they determined it was either stress/anxiety attacks or heart palpitations or arrhythmia (I am learning how to spell a new word :) ). Since I have no additional new stresses in my life and we like to eliminate the most harmful first they decided to put me on a 30-day heart monitor. I didn't speak to my regular doctor; the guys I saw wanted to speak to my regular doctor who was on vacation before we began the monitor. Soooo, no monitor as of yet have I seen. Aanndd, yesterday I was back in the ER. Same symptoms...chest pain, fainting, nausea...if you look up heart attack, I pretty much had all the symptoms except maybe sweating. I don't think I was sweating. Then again, it was at least 90 degrees outside so maybe it is weird that I wasn't sweating. Anyway, this time they found (drumroll please)...nothing. Well, not absolutely nothing. They did detect a Premature Atrial Complexes (PAC) that was pretty consistent. This could mean nothing or it could be a sign of something more serious.
Today (hopefully today) I go in for a stress test. I have learned much about the heart and detection tests. While I haven't had a heart attack, that doesn't mean there still might not be a blockage. It just means that if there is a blockage there has been no heart damage. The stress test will show if there is a blockage. We are not anticipating a blockage because I have absolutely no risk factors except for family histroy. If there isn't a blockage then we proceed with the monitor to find out what the heck is going on in there.
Thank you so much for your prayers. We have tried to keep it relaxed around here, but as you can imagine, when you are dealing with possible heart issues, it causes some pause.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
July in pictures...
We will start at the end of the July and work toward the beginning since I didn't plan out appropriately when I posted the pictures. Last week we took a family trip to Chicago for a few days. It was fun and we made memories...maybe not all the kind of memories you would like (such as vomit and the like). But despite the stomach virus that refused to leave us alone, we had a great time.
We took the kids for their first trip on the train. We rode a couple of different lines so that they could experience an elevated train and a subway. They much preferred the elevated variety. John said the elevated train was like riding on a zip line...not that he has ever experienced a zip line.
This is John's first Chicago dog. He was the only one we could convince to try it and he LOVED it! Ashley tried her first Italian beef sandwich and felt the same way John felt about his hot dog. The other two children...well, they were experiencing the wretched stomach bug so they took it easy in the food department. We were going to try some Chicago pizza, but that will have to be another trip because, again, the bug.
The day we went eating, we also went shopping. We hit the two favorites for our kids...the Lego store and the American Girl store. We also hit up the Disney Store and the Hershey store before it got too hot to walk around downtown anymore. On the way out of town Joe and I hit up our favorites...Bass Pro and IKEA. (Soon we are going to have a Bass Pro only 20 minutes away...guess who wishes it was going to be open in time for his birthday!)
The second day in Chicago (we are working backwards, remember? Shopping and eating were on the third day) we went to the Field Museum. What an incredible museum. We would have loved to spent a little bit more time there, but alas this was the worst day of the aforementioned bug. I will say that they have very nice bathrooms...and I could tell you where they are at on every floor. This was Joe's favorite museum of all time and we are hoping to go back sometime this fall just the two of us. The kids enjoyed it, but not nearly enough to stop and read every sign. This was Nathan's favorite museum. To quote him "The Field Museum was great and my favorite mom! You know, except for the times I wasn't feeling very good."
The first day in Chicago we went to the Museum of Science and Industry. The above picture is in the ship section which was really cool. The kids' favorites at this one were the tour of the Pioneer Zephyr train, the submarine and the fairy castle. The castle was unbelievable, but it was all pretty cool.
In front of the Zephyr waiting on our tour to start. We all felt pretty good on this day, so you would be on your own as far as bathrooms are concerned. Couldn't tell you where they were and kind of like that....
We spent some family time in July. John and Sara spent some time at Grandma and Grandpa Horn's. When we were dropping them off we all got to play with Grandpa's bird dog puppies.
The kids and I spent some time with my mom and dad. We did bike rides and swam at their neighbor's pool. The girls also treated us to a fashion show.
We started out July with a celebration of our country. We had a picnic with friends and headed downtown in our small town to see the fireworks. They were really good this year. Here are the kids enjoying them.
We took the kids for their first trip on the train. We rode a couple of different lines so that they could experience an elevated train and a subway. They much preferred the elevated variety. John said the elevated train was like riding on a zip line...not that he has ever experienced a zip line. This is John's first Chicago dog. He was the only one we could convince to try it and he LOVED it! Ashley tried her first Italian beef sandwich and felt the same way John felt about his hot dog. The other two children...well, they were experiencing the wretched stomach bug so they took it easy in the food department. We were going to try some Chicago pizza, but that will have to be another trip because, again, the bug.The day we went eating, we also went shopping. We hit the two favorites for our kids...the Lego store and the American Girl store. We also hit up the Disney Store and the Hershey store before it got too hot to walk around downtown anymore. On the way out of town Joe and I hit up our favorites...Bass Pro and IKEA. (Soon we are going to have a Bass Pro only 20 minutes away...guess who wishes it was going to be open in time for his birthday!)
The second day in Chicago (we are working backwards, remember? Shopping and eating were on the third day) we went to the Field Museum. What an incredible museum. We would have loved to spent a little bit more time there, but alas this was the worst day of the aforementioned bug. I will say that they have very nice bathrooms...and I could tell you where they are at on every floor. This was Joe's favorite museum of all time and we are hoping to go back sometime this fall just the two of us. The kids enjoyed it, but not nearly enough to stop and read every sign. This was Nathan's favorite museum. To quote him "The Field Museum was great and my favorite mom! You know, except for the times I wasn't feeling very good."The first day in Chicago we went to the Museum of Science and Industry. The above picture is in the ship section which was really cool. The kids' favorites at this one were the tour of the Pioneer Zephyr train, the submarine and the fairy castle. The castle was unbelievable, but it was all pretty cool.
In front of the Zephyr waiting on our tour to start. We all felt pretty good on this day, so you would be on your own as far as bathrooms are concerned. Couldn't tell you where they were and kind of like that....
We spent some family time in July. John and Sara spent some time at Grandma and Grandpa Horn's. When we were dropping them off we all got to play with Grandpa's bird dog puppies.
The kids and I spent some time with my mom and dad. We did bike rides and swam at their neighbor's pool. The girls also treated us to a fashion show.
We started out July with a celebration of our country. We had a picnic with friends and headed downtown in our small town to see the fireworks. They were really good this year. Here are the kids enjoying them.Sunday, July 24, 2011
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