Wednesday, October 12, 2011

A Terrifying Night


We all have days when we want to destroy our alarm clocks and curl back up in our warm comfy bed, shutting out the world and refusing to let time pass.  I have these days from time to time, but rarely back-to-back.  Well, this entire week has been one, giant, curl-up-and-let-the-world-disappear day. 

For me, Autumn has always been a time to slow down and reflect (as previously posted).  This Autumn seems to be the exact opposite.  I also realize that I’m not the only one experiencing this right now.  I’ve been talking to numerous people who just feel like life is extremely difficult right now, or that it is moving way too fast and they are struggling to keep up.  I’m overwhelmed, plain and simple.  I’ve got a lot of things (not being put in the blog) going on in my life, and it’s causing me to stress out. 

I’m not sure if it was the stress, the antibiotic, or another problem altogether, but last night I experienced one of the scariest things I’ve ever had happen to me.  I woke up from a dream with a sharp pain in my chest.  It was a weird dream, but it wasn’t a nightmare, so I don’t think it was fear that woke me up.  Regardless, I started feeling my heart beating in my head and chest, and it felt…weird.   When I checked my pulse, I realized my heart was in some REALLY crazy rhythm.  It was beating extremely fast, skipping beats, adding double beats, and just plain terrifying me. 

Having never had this happen before, and having pain in my chest, I woke my husband up and we started to drive all the way to hospital (20 minutes away).  I am very reluctant to enter hospitals, but this episode downright scared me.  I couldn’t get my heart rate below 150 and it was beating really strangely, so I figured it was better safe than sorry to get checked out. 

Then, about a block away from the hospital, my heart rate returned to a normal rhythm and was beating about 80 beats a minute.  It happened all of the sudden, and then I felt fine.  So we waited a few minutes to see if it was going to continue beating regularly, and sure enough it did.  We then turned around and headed back home, where I proceeded to stay up from fear for the rest of the night. 

This whole event was so weird and terrifying.  My heart rate has been elevated since waking up from a nap this morning (it’s staying about 120) but my heart rate always runs a bit fast, so I’m not worrying about just the fast rate now. I just can’t figure out what happened.  I have been known to have panic attacks, but they have never changed the rhythm of my heart before, and I’ve been attack-free for months now.  I’m not drinking caffeine, and I drank plenty of water last night.  I honestly don’t know, but I do know I’m more than little worried of it happening again. 

I’m not posting this to my other blog as I really don’t need a lot of people knowing about this, but I did want to ask my fellow cysters/fibros if they have ever experienced anything like this.  I’m hoping I’m not alone on this one.

Until then, I’m going to go back to bed, curl up with a good book, and forget the problems I have to face for just one more day.  

6 comments:

  1. I would definitely call the doctor and see what they have to say. It sounds like a panic attack to me... who knows, though! I have woken up with severe chest pain before, and sometimes a pounding/weird heart, but not irregular beats. Good luck!

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  2. Thank you so much for responding! That's interesting that you've been woken up with pain/pounding heart too. I have CF clinic tomorrow, so I'll bring it up to her. I really appreciate the response :)

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  3. I was going to suggest caffeine until you said you hadn't had any. That used to happen to me during the day sometimes in college, when I was drinking lots of caffeine all the time. I hope your doctor has an idea on how to prevent it from happening again, let us know what clinic says.

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  4. Yikes, that does sound scary! I hope you're feeling better - at least you have clinic tomorrow so you can bring it up then. Say hi to Penny for me. :-) Let us know how clinic goes, good luck!

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  5. Scary! Please let us know what you find out. It is good it went away and i am glad you are feeling better.

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  6. Kristin, Colleen, and Inhaling, thank you so much for your responses.
    Kristin - Until you mentioned your story, I hadn't thought about the fact that I had a bit of a latte last night. I have been without caffeine for a few weeks, so I wonder if the combination of caffeine and Levaquin (which states it can enhance the effects of caffeine) may have been the problem.

    Colleen - Thank you so much. I'm definitely bringing it up with Penny and Dr. Strek. I will let her know you said Hi :)

    Inhaling Hope - Thank you very much. I will update after I find out what the doctor says. Maybe it was just a fluke thing!

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