Detour

Thursday, July 30, I managed to move all the rest of the books over and set up the final two bookcases. It was hot, sweaty work but I wanted to get it done. I was going to take pictures on Friday and post them. Thursday night as I stood up to go to my bedroom I felt the room spin and said this is not good! I had an attack of vertigo complete with nausea and vomiting. Yuck! Worse though was the fact that my heart was thumping around in my chest. I told TopDad that something wasn't right and I wanted to go to the ER.

What they found was that my heart was in atrial fibrillation, which simply means it was out of regular rhythm; racing, pounding, pausing, etc. They got me on some medicine to slow and strengthen the heart to help it get back to normal. Unfortunately, the drug worked too good at slowing my heart and I had episodes of the beat dropping into the thirties. I felt like I'd been beat up, exhausted and tired. I was admitted to our local hospital and observed overnight. In the morning the attending physician ordered me transferred to Crieghton University Medical Center in Omaha for further evaluation by a cardiologist. Just before the EMT's got there to transport me, my heart "converted" into a normal rhythm. I still got transported and evaluated. I spent another night in the hospital in Omaha and underwent more tests. Nothing was found, no cause, no other problems, my heart is structurally in great shape. The cardiologist wants to me follow up with a stress test, but I got away with no meds, except I have to take a baby aspirin daily to prevent any clotting. My resting heart rate still goes quite low and the risk is for the pooling blood to clot and then get squeezed out with the next beat, which could cause a stroke. Lovely.

I'm home and other than some tiredness, I feel fine. There is no history of heart disease in my family. I asked if it was contagious? Perhaps I caught it from TopDad. The doctor laughed and said no. Then I chalked it up to cumulative stress and aging; the cardiologist agreed.

In the hospital I was tethered to an IV, an oxygen monitor, a heart monitor and blood pressure cuff. Not fun. Here I am in my fashionable hospital get up.

I really appreciate the many prayers from family and friends in my behalf and know that they were answered. I am so not ready to graduate yet.