kcbrad is in the hospital

Best wishes, get well soon.

Thanks Robman and Jwin for keeping us up to date.

 

Get well soon KC! My prayers go out to you and your family.

 

Get well soon Kc!! It's not the same here without you!

 

She says Thank You to everyone! Im sure she will chime in herself when shes back home!

 

KC .... we really miss you here, you are so much part of our community and please know that we are all thinking about you and wishing you the very best. PLEASE get better soon!!! I send my prayers from Spain.
And thanks to you RedGambit for keeping us posted!!!!!

 

Ack! Get better soon KC. You are missed.
I hope somebody is bringing you food as I can't imagine a hospital having any vegan food you are used to.

matt

 

Get well soon kc! Your in my thoughts and prayers.

 

Alas, the maladies of life. I pray faith will sustain you.

 

Thank you for this thread and all the well wishes. Reading all these messages brought tears to my eyes. It really means a lot to know how much you all care for your forum friend! This situation has been very scary for me.

This is going to be long winded, because it helps me to express it. Here's what happened (in case y'all are wondering): About a week ago (I've lost track of time) I started experiencing flip flopping in my heart (palpitations). Everyone gets those now and then, but mine were constant. Several flip flops a minute. I chalked it up to stress, as I've been under a lot lately. Several days passed and the flip flops got even more frequent and stronger. On Thursday my heart was racing and wouldn't stop. I was dizzy and vomitting. I went to the ER and my heart rate was 155 and my blood pressure was 160/120 (that is very high!). After giving me an IV, taking blood and giving me A LOT (wooo I was loopy, as some of you know if you were texting me!) of anti-anxiety medication they started getting concerned because my heart rate was not going down. I had a set of chest Xrays and a Ct scan to check for blood clots. Everything came back okay. But they admitted me to the hospital because my heart rate would not come down and I was having so many PVCs (premature ventricular heart contractions).

They admitted me to the Critical Care Unit. Spent two days (I think lol, I totally lost track of time) in the CCU before they moved me out - whew. The CCU is not a fun place to be. While there I had constant potassium IV because my potassium was low. Potassium is extremely painful to get via IV. I was crying a lot. And vomitting a lot. I was also hooked up to a heart rate monitor and had blood taken every few hours. I also had another set of chest Xrays, stomach Xrays, and another barium swallow CT scan to check out my intestines. Barium is DISGUSTING!!! I had to drink two huge jugs of it. I also had an echo cardiogram. Anyway, nothing serious was found from those tests, just an elevated white blood cell count.

Although my heart rate lying down was 120-125, and upon standing 145, with practically constant PVCs, nothing serious was found so they moved me out of the Critical Care Unit. By this point I hadn't slept in over 48 hours. I was restricted from food because of the vomitting, and then slowly put on a clear liquid diet. This was horrible, since I'm vegetarian and all they would give me to eat is gelatin and chicken broth. Since they couldn't find anything "seriously" wrong with my heart, they started giving me beta blockers to lower my heart rate. It takes awhile to start working. My lying down heart rate is now 85-95 but jumps up to 110 or so just from sitting. Standing brings it to 120. I can't stand for a long time as I almost faint. Three minutes is about my maximum.

The gist of it is they have no idea what I have, but think it might be Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. It's a fairly new syndrome that doctors don't know much about. But it is when your heart rate jumps up extremely high upon any type of movement, often causing PVCs, fainting and vomitting. The only medication for it are beta blockers and they don't always work. I'm going to see a cardiologist as soon as possible to hopefully get a definitive answer. Being bed ridden at 25 years old is not something I want.

This is a really scary issue. Feels like my heart is going to just stop. I've never been poked and prodded so much. the back of my hands and insides of my elbows are so sore and purple. Ahhh this is horrible! Anyways, thanks for reading and thanks for all the kind words. It really means a lot! I'll update whenever I know more.

 

Thanks for the update, hopefully the cardiologist will get you back on track. Wishing for the best.