Killer week...

...literally. Kind of. It's a long story.

Here's how it goes:

On Wednesday I felt weird. I woke up feeling like I was having indigestion or something and it got worse as the day went on. I just thought, "Oh, it's heart burn or something. I'll take some tums when I get home from school and I'll be fine." Well, my body had other ideas.

I was sitting peacefully in my last class of the day listening to a lecture about the Spanish Inquisition when the pain in my chest/abdomen started to get worse, especially when I breathed (like a sharp stabbing pain). "Meh," I thought. "I've had this kind of pain before with the pleurisy. Since the weather is changing, its probably just that."

Except, then the pain wasn't just in my chest anymore. My upper back left should started to have this dull ache. Next thing I know my fingers in my left hand are tingling and my heart is racing like crazy. Have you ever watched your computer as it overheats from too many applications or something? You can hear it working like crazy and you know that any second its just going to give out and you'll get the blue screen of death when you try to turn it back on. That's what my heart felt like.

So, I politely excused myself from class and went to reception where the administrative assistant and the director of the program were working on something and calmly told them that I may be experiencing a heart attack.

Yep. You read that right. That's what I thought was happening.

Anyway, so we called the EMTs. By the time they had arrived almost all the symptoms were gone except the tingling and the sharp pain upon breathing. They were definitely concerned. They said that since the symptoms had mostly gone away, I didn't need to go with them in the ambulance, but I did need to go to the hospital that afternoon. They were mostly concerned because I am taking a beta-blocker medication which is supposed to keep my heart rate low (usually I am at around 55bpm resting). The fact that my HR was (what I estimated to be) well over 100bpm just sitting in class with no stressors and with my previous history of heart disease, I needed to get stuff checked out.

So, the EMTs left, we had a quick lunch at the school and then Leslie, the director, took me to the ER of a hospital that the EMTs had recommended for heart related issues. The doctor there didn't see anything strange in my blood (heart enzymes, specifically) nor any blips on my EKG, so I was sent home with a pain medication (since it still hurt to breathe).

Good. Maybe it was just a random thing that wont happen again?

That night, about an hour after going to sleep, I was awoken by tingling in my right hand. From what I know of heart-related stuff, I didn't think this could be related, so I just tried to shift my position, thinking I was pinching a nerve in my sleep or something. I tried this for about 5 minutes and it wouldn't go away.

Then my heart started racing again. GREAT. I took 2 aspirin really quick, just in case it was a heart attack, and my Spanish dad, Miguel, took me to the ER of a hospital near to my house where Leslie met us.

The doctor was a jerk. By the time I had arrived at the ER the tachycardia (racing heart) had stopped and I just had the tingling fingers. He told me I could wait (since he had soooo much to do... not. I was one of 2 people in the waiting room and there was no one in the back). They finally did an EKG and the doctor, before even examining me or asking me any questions, decided from those results that I was just a histrionic young woman who didn't need to be in the ER. He grudgingly admitted me to the hospital for observation, according to protocol.

Observation in Spain is not the same as observation in the US. I was not hooked up to ANY machines, just an IV. They wouldn't even have known if I was having irregular rhythms or anything. Bad medicine.

The next morning, they took blood and did an echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart). The heart anatomy looked good - it has improved a lot since my surgery. The blood tests, however, did reveal a spike in Tropinin (the most important heart enzyme). It is supposed to be >0.01ng/ml. Upon admission it was 0.02ng/ml and in the morning it was 0.01ng/ml. So something DEFINITELY happened.

I didn't get to see the attending doctor until 3pm. He was just as confused by the results as the rest of us and definitely concerned given my history. However, as nothing new had developed, he changed the dosage of some of my medications and sent me home with orders to have a Holter EKG for the next 24 hours. I did the 24 hours with the Holter EKG on but didn't feel any palpitations during that time. I'm going in on Tuesday for the results of that test and a consult with the same doctor who discharged me from the hospital.

Since then, I haven't had any palpitations, just tingly fingers randomly for the following few days but as of right now (Sunday early afternoon), it has been almost 24 hours since any type of tingling. I'm currently feeling good. I'm a bit tired, probably due to the increased dose of my beta-blocker medication and from being in the hospital and I have been feeling a bit nauseous, but basically back to normal. I've been in a lot of contact with my dad (who has dedicated his entire career to heart-related medical problems) and my cardiac surgeon. What they think possibly happened is that I had some inflammation around my heart - a secondary infection caused by a sinus infection that I had last week. They think that this inflammation aggravated my already sensitive heart. They both (and the cardiologist here) think that the electrical currents in my heart weren't flowing correctly around the patch that was put in place 1.5 years ago and the circular current that resulted caused the tachycardia. However, they can't diagnose this unless I have another episode of tachycardia and they can capture it on the EKG. If this is the problem, it sounded like the cardiologist said it could be a very easy fix with some sort of IV catheter procedure. :)

I know that most of you were completely in the dark, but for those of you who did know, thank you for your prayers :) I think that my parents and the staff here were more concerned than I was, which usually is the case. I'm a pretty laid back sick person haha

Anyway, so I'm hoping it was just a little blip on the radar that is done with now. I'm hoping that for the last 12 days that I'm in Spain I can just be normal and enjoy my time here. Prayers for the last 2 weeks to be uneventful (medically) and for safe travels on the way back to the States would be appreciated. I'm hoping that if anything happens again it will be when I am safely back at home and I can be properly monitored, diagnosed, and treated by my own doctors, with my family around me, and in my own language (although I did surprisingly well and was told several times that my Spanish is very good :D).

12 days!

xoxox Alannah