Straight from the Heart

So I’ve had this racing heartbeat thing for a while, as in a number of years. I don’t remember when it started. But my heart would beat rapidly for a few seconds and then return to normal. No big deal. But over the years the frequency of this occurrence has grown, as have the length of the episodes. So, lately, it’s been happening about every week and a half. But it usually goes away after about a half hour. Just about the time I think about going in to the emergency room, my heart decides to return to normal.

Kaiser Permanente is the name of our large health farm. When I researched this condition on their website, it says something like, “When you get it, bear down like you’re having a tremendous bowel movement,” or something like, “just take a deep breath and relax.” Neither of those techniques work. It never said anything like, “If your heart races for more than 20 minutes, seek emergency medical help immediately.”

So, since Kaiser treated this condition with a whimsical attitude, I did, until last Thursday. I was awakened by my heart beating at 180 bpm at 4:50 a.m. It’s an uncomfortable feeling that leaves you out-of-breath and light headed. So I went downstairs and turned on the TV and decided to wait it out. Besides, it would gone after 30-45 minutes. Right?

At 7:00 a.m. it’s still running hard and now I’m very out of breath and exhausted. My heart is telling my brain that I’ve been sprinting for over two hours. And my chest is really tight and painful. So now maybe it’s time to go to the emergency room. My loving wife was more than happy to take me so off we go.

I arrive and no sooner do I sit down than they call me in. Before my shirt is off they have at least three of those sticky EKG pads on me. The rest go on before I lay back. I’m now hooked up to a monitor and the ER doctor quickly diagnoses me with Paroxysmal Supraventricular Tachycardia with an ectopic heartbeat thrown in just for fun. My heart was now running at an official 176 bpm.

Now that know what it is, time to get rid of it. The doctor has me bring my knees to my chest, stick my thumb in my mouth, and bear down like I’m having a bowel movement (the doctor must have read the same website I did). But it didn’t work. So he had me try it again. Still nothing.

He then stuck a big needle in my arm and started an IV. He gave me a dose of something called Adenosine. “This is going to make you feel a little funny.” It actually made me feel like I was going to die. Immediately I felt incredibly out of breath and my severe hyperventilating did no good. This was because my heart entered a state called ventricular asystole. Basically, it stops for a few seconds, leaving the brain without any oxygen delivery system, thus causing the hyperventilating and the feeling of eminent death. “This is going to make you feel a little funny.” How’s about, “We’re going to give you a horrible drug that will stop your heart from beating for a few seconds. But it won’t feel like a few seconds to you. It will feels like several minutes. Hopefully your heart will recover on its own. If not, we’ll wait for you to go comatose and then we’ll shock your heart with those electric paddles you see on T.V.”

Thankfully it worked and my heart slowed to about 95 bpm. They monitored me for about 2 hours and pumped me full of fluids until my bladder was stretched to the size of a volleyball. They sent me home with instructions on what to do and a new medicine to keep it from happening again. My wife drove us home and I took a long nap. Adventure over. Or was it?