Went to bed last night and fell asleep without painkiller. Sometime within two hours I awoke to tachycardia. This time it was persistent. After a half-hour of this, my wife drove me to the VA emergency room.
This was the first time they actually saw it for themselves. In times past, it had always been too brief and too inconsistent to show up on their instruments. It did begin to slow just a bit — tapering was an entirely new experience for me. In times past, it was some 10-15 minutes, and then suddenly stopped and went back to normal.
I was shuffled through EKG and CT scan for the heart and lungs. They found no blood clots, so could take no action. By this time my pulse remained in a somewhat elevated rate in 80-90 BPM. They sent me home and I have more appointments coming on this issue alone, but as I type this the heart rate remains elevated. I’m not a happy camper.
For now, my wife and I theorize that the cause is likely food-related. We are pulling back to a known safe diet and praying this thing gets flushed out or we can find some way to get my heart back into its previous normal state.
Pray with us.
Update: Review of the CT scan indicates I have a gall stone. Currently I have no symptoms, so I suppose I’ll need to keep from making things worse.
Update 2: Shortly after that last paragraph above, I was hit with another episode of tachycardia. According to our instructions, we returned to the ER and this time the Cardiology folks decided to fit me with a heart monitor. Those used to be big bulky affairs with a short operating time. I have this nifty little chip stuck to my chest up near the shoulder and it will record for 14 days. I don’t hope for another episode, but if if comes, we can capture it.
Prayers coming your way, Ed.
You both have them! Lifting you up from this point on.