Dylan’s Cardiac Holiday:

…or why you shouldn't stop taking your blood pressure and cholesterol medication thinking its just going to be okay.
From:  Noodles and Beef

 I had a weird pressure in my chest yesterday.  I’m not a stranger to this cramping-pressing-sludgy chest feeling, but it was particularly bad.  Normally it goes away after I catch my breath.  But now it was so bad I couldn't catch my breath.

Chuck insisted we go to the ER and have it checked out.  I’m so glad we did.  Thank you, Chuck.

Turns out my heart was beating incorrectly.  My blood pressure was out of control, my cholesterol was back to its old high of ~400.  The cardiologist suspects a combination of stress, stimulants, and my elevated BP and LDL triggered this episode.

There were a couple options to correct my erratic heartbeat:

Shock my heart back into correct rhythm with defibrillator

Lower my BP and see if it corrects itself

They put me on an IV drip of my old BP medicine and around 4 am my heart started beating correctly.  Phew!

Once that was under control I went through a handful of tests to identify the cause.  Blood panels, three EKGs, and an echo of my heart. The “echo” was surreal.  I got to watch it beat inside me via sonigram.  And watch the blood flow live.  It was pretty awesome.  And there are no defects of my heart or weird sized ventricles, so that's good.

This all could have been avoided if I just took my meds like I’m supposed to.  Sigh.  I stopped taking them back in March when Dad died because I wanted to be able to drink my sorrows away (can’t mix with alcohol)…and I couldn't feel any difference so I just stopped taking them.

Oh well.  Lesson learned.  And here’s what I need to do to get better:

• No gym for three days.
• No work for a week.
• Two more echos and that thing where you run on a treadmill and they watch your heart for leaks.
• Take my meds like I’m supposed to.