a pain woke me up

Tuesday night about 1:30, I was asleep, dreaming I had a pain and as it moved up to my back in my dream, the pain woke me up. It was fairly high up between my shoulder blades right about where my heart is. My afib was going nuts, heartbeat really fast and irregular. The pain wasn’t terrible, I’ve had back spasms worse than this was, but it was enough to wake me up. Whoa, what the fuck is this. Am I having a heart attack? I sat up on the edge of the bed wondering if I should put some clothes on (I sleep naked) in case I had to call the EMTs. I got up and went to the bathroom, went back to bed and propped myself up a little, googled heart attack in women on my phone and of all the symptoms the pain in my back was the only one. I could feel the afib in my chest but it didn’t feel like it was being squeezed, wasn’t hard to breathe, no pain in my jaw or in my arm, not nauseous. It subsided a little while I played solitaire trying to calm the afib down some. Pain flared back up so I sat on the edge of the bed again trying to decided what, if anything, to do, and this time sat up completely in bed against the wall trying to distract myself with other games until the pain subsided and I laid down and went back to sleep. If you’re wondering where Marc was during this, we sleep in separate bedrooms because his snoring keeps me awake and with the dog and sometimes the cat, that double bed is just too small.

Miraculously, I woke up Wednesday morning, afib still active. After breakfast I worked outside for two hours digging up newly sprouted pecan and oak trees or cutting them at ground level and spraying a little poison on the exposed cut so they wouldn’t come back which they will do it you just cut them down. Came in about 1 PM hot, soaked, and sweaty and the afib was still a little active. Usually some physical activity will calm it down. It finally settled down into a nice sinus rhythm about 5:30. And then sometime during the night Wednesday night it started back up and I’ve been in afib since though not as intense as Tuesday night.

I did go ahead and go to SHARE Thursday morning and talked to one of the volunteers who had had a heart attack last year, asking about her experience. I told her what I had experienced and she encouraged me to call my doctor and if it happened again and didn’t stop after a few minutes to go to the ER. So when I got home I timed my pulse, at least 100 bpm, a little faster I think with skips or extra beats. I called my doctor’s office and talked to the nurse, ran it all by her. I had my regular biannual appointment scheduled for the 29th but she rescheduled me for next Wednesday the 22nd and told me that if it happens again or I get lightheaded and feel like I’m going to pass out before Wednesday and doesn’t stop after a few minutes to go to the ER and have them contact the office and to just take it easy until my appointment. By Thursday evening I didn’t feel very well, breaking out in sweats which are also a symptom of heart attack but also of afib and I do that a lot even sitting in the air conditioned house. I’d been in afib since Tuesday night with one short break and was starting to stress out, pretty freaked out about the whole thing. I went to bed and propped myself up playing games on my phone, really kind of afraid to go to sleep, until my heart settled down some, still a little fast but not too irregular

Friday morning…still alive! And feeling better, heart rate down to 86 bpm. If I make it through til next Wednesday without going to the ER I imagine the doctor is going to want to do a complete cardiac workup. I’ve only had that done once and that was 7 years ago right after I first started having episodes of afib during our trip to Hawaii but got a clean bill of health then.

So that’s what’s happening with me and now I need to take my mind off it because I’m starting to feel a little stressed out about it. A heart attack is not on my to do list.