Keep Your Heart
I had the lovely experience of a 24 hour heart Holter monitor
yesterday and today. Thankfully, the results are normal, I have no
arrhythmias, which is a pretty big deal when you're married to an
electrophysiologist. Even better, I can start slowly tapering down the
prednisone.
It really was not a big deal to wear the monitor. Six stickers on your chest reading the heart from different angles are wired to a little beeper-like box. I had an activity journal to keep, and documented sleep, activities and any "episodes." The push for the heart monitor came because yesterday was the 8th day or so that I have had rapid heartbeat experiences, feeling as if my heart is thumping out of my chest. Daily, it had gotten progressively worse, and flared up while I was either eating or if any kind of excitement escalated. During my warm up at the gym yesterday, my heart rate suddenly jumped up, and after a text to Mike, had me in the doctor's office getting the stickers on in no time.
"The heart is so innervated," Mike said earlier, "as in, connected by nerves."
Really.
This vividly reminds me of my post, Unplugged, from back in October. At least this time, I didn't have a team of nurses running in every time I thought of something that increased my heart rate.
So, I can hopefully chalk up these episodes with my heart to the amount of prednisone I am taking. If I taper completely off of the prednisone, as my neurologist mentioned, we will know it is the cellcept that is the culprit of the palpitations. My hope is that now as I begin to wean down I will continue to be stable with swallowing and speaking, hoping my background cellcept can keep the harmony going.
So as your nerves are shot or as your own versions of prednisone "up your heart rate" and drive you into a tizzy, I would encourage you to "keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life." Prov 4:23.
On this eve of Valentine's Day, may your heart beat steadily and calmly.
It really was not a big deal to wear the monitor. Six stickers on your chest reading the heart from different angles are wired to a little beeper-like box. I had an activity journal to keep, and documented sleep, activities and any "episodes." The push for the heart monitor came because yesterday was the 8th day or so that I have had rapid heartbeat experiences, feeling as if my heart is thumping out of my chest. Daily, it had gotten progressively worse, and flared up while I was either eating or if any kind of excitement escalated. During my warm up at the gym yesterday, my heart rate suddenly jumped up, and after a text to Mike, had me in the doctor's office getting the stickers on in no time.
"The heart is so innervated," Mike said earlier, "as in, connected by nerves."
Really.
This vividly reminds me of my post, Unplugged, from back in October. At least this time, I didn't have a team of nurses running in every time I thought of something that increased my heart rate.
So, I can hopefully chalk up these episodes with my heart to the amount of prednisone I am taking. If I taper completely off of the prednisone, as my neurologist mentioned, we will know it is the cellcept that is the culprit of the palpitations. My hope is that now as I begin to wean down I will continue to be stable with swallowing and speaking, hoping my background cellcept can keep the harmony going.
So as your nerves are shot or as your own versions of prednisone "up your heart rate" and drive you into a tizzy, I would encourage you to "keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life." Prov 4:23.
On this eve of Valentine's Day, may your heart beat steadily and calmly.
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