well,
it appears there is nothing wrong with me (or my heart that is). the cardiologist said everything looked normal, the electrical pulses and sinus rhythm looked normal, the muscle appeared normal and strong. the only thing he noticed was the membrane between the left and right atria was thin and i potentially have something called a Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO) that 25% of adults have. it isn't life-threatening and things should be fine. there is still the possibility a small hole exists, but unless i have consistent symptoms there's nothing to worry about.
i am currently wearing a Holter Monitor (a 24-hour EKG device) in order to attempt to capture the bizarre and disconcerting arrhythmia that i experience. i will be taking a treadmill/stress EKG test on Monday and will follow up in two weeks to see if there is anything they find from these new tests.
it appears all the symptoms (apart from the arrhythmia) were due to stress and panic. i'm wondering if my wife's episode just 4 weeks ago played a part in this. now that she's well and back to normal i probably started to relax and all the emotions and pent up nerves and anxiety just flooded through my body causing my heart to race and i panicked.
i'm also prone to panic attacks and high anxiety. it's one of the fabulous Barrett traits along with a very big....well...nevermind.
anyway, it appears things are well.
for those of you hoping this was the end of justin.barrett, sorry suckas!it'll take more than a bum heart to get rid of this guy.
for those well-wishers out there, thank you!
i might have a weak heart, but there ain't no keeping this bastard down. for too long, at least.
ha!
8 comments:
why did you have to wear one, casey? heart issues?
yes, my heart has a bizarre arrhythmia every now and again. scary. i just want to make sure it's not anything that needs to be taken care of.
sleep tonight won't be fun at all.
are you well? i hope you are. health issues suck. some deal with them fine, but i'm not one of those lucky folks.
no problem...glad you're not having them.
my father is on Xanax because he couldn't get his under control. most of his brothers have them, too.
i had a few this past week and it was the reason i went to the ER. it TOTALLY feels like what i think a heart attack would feel like.
i cannot imagine having them for 3 days straight. wow.
ugh.
glad you're fine now. stay that way, bro. we've lots of debating and writing and annoying each other to do! :)
that's good news, justin. as you said, probably just a build up of stress. the body can do some very odd things when it's stressed.
my sister had to wear a holter monitor a few months back when she had a fibrilation episode, but her holter monitor was a tiny little thing and certainly wouldn't impede sleep. they must have given you the old-fashioned one! haha!
casey -- you're confusing that halter TOP you like to wear, with a holter MONITOR. they aren't the same thing!
no glenn, I think the cops caught rearick last friday night in something more fetching...
justin!
That's great news!
My mom had to wear one of those a few years ago. It all turned out fine.
:)
my holter was pretty small. but, there were 7 pads stuck to my chest and abdomen. they didn't impeded sleep except when i rolled over and one of the pads starting to unstick and it pulled some hair around my nipple. ouch.
taking those things off, too, is no fun. i feel bad for those unfortunate troglodyte types (Owen) with mounds of chest hair. obviously, they have to shave those gorillas, but when that hair grows back...yikes. i suppose there are a few advantages to being mostly hairless. :)
I have no chest hair, j. I am a finely tuned athlete, and need to be aerodynamic when I shake up the world, which I regularly do.
yes, a finely-tuned athlete. i like that. i'm a would-be swimmer. a quasi-bicyclist. i can't be having all kinds of aerodynamically poor body hair covering me.
i tried to shake up the world once, but it exploded in my face.
sorry. that was lame.
i'll go now.
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