Because some of you (Including my parents who found out about my medical adventures via this journal. In hindsight a phone call would have been wise. Sorry Mom and Dad!) may be curious about how that whole heart monitor thing turned out, I offer the following update.
I’ve heard nothing from the doctors.
This is actually good news. If there was something wrong with my heart, they would have called me. Instead I get to wait a week for my primary care doctor to tell me that my heart is completely healthy. I kind of expected this. It feels like the palpitations are symptomatic rather than causative.
Non-terrifying explanations for my symptoms:
Pregnancy — Nope. We’ve ruled this one out.
Early stages of menopause — I’m young for this, but it isn’t unheard of.
Anxiety — I don’t like this one. In order to fix it I would have to slow down when I really want to get well so that I can go faster.
Hypoglycemia
I’m currently pursuing hypoglycemia as a theory because I can do my own empirical testing. I had a very anxious/palpitatious hour last night about an hour after eating a very sweet dessert. Today I’m having no sweets. Instead I’m snacking on nuts regularly (every 20-30 minutes) and drinking lots of water in addition to regular healthy meals. I was dragging this morning, but my energy has been picking up steadily and I’m feeling better. Granted that eating right will help almost any condition, but if I can make this problem go away merely by eating right, I count that as a win.
Up until a couple years ago, I used to get what I called anxiety attacks: There was a big rush of adrenaline, along with fight/flight feelings, my heart was racing, etc. Two years ago, the doc said I had elevated blood sugar. I’ve changed my diet, cutting out just about all processed food (especially anything with corn syrup), reducing my starches and eating more fruit/vegies (bleah). Still, haven’t had one attack since, and I haven’t cut back on my coffee (still three cups a day). Haven’t had my blood sugar tested in almost a year but I have lost 35 lbs so something’s happening.
In college I got heart palpitations regularly for a while. The only sure fix was a chiropractic adjustment. Turned out a couple of my ribs had twisted back ever so slightly and were irritating my heart. I got adjusted and they went away. Easy for me though- my dad’s a chiropractor.
My sister has hypoglycemia, and she experienced the whole heart palpitations, get hooked up to a heart monitor to check things out and find out nothing is wrong thing.