Thread Drift

[maillotpois]

Oh man, Nanci - here I was struggling not to play with Babel fish all day and now you give us this!!!

Lise - god news about the medical tests. However, for me having to cut back caffeine would be EXTREMELY difficult. I only have one a day, though...

[Lise]

Lise - good news about the medical tests. However, for me having to cut back caffeine would be EXTREMELY difficult. I only have one a day, though...

Yeah, it's a question of you can drink that caffeine, but you'll feel like there's dark matter collapsing into itself in your chest every couple of minutes... (like the dramatic astronomy analogy?! )...or you can cut back on the caffeine. Blech. Well, which is worse? OK, the feeling of my heart misfiring is preeeetty darned unpleasant! I bought some decaf French Roast last night. Of course, I had just stocked the freezer with regular French Roast! ARGH!

[chickwhorips]

lise - glad to hear things came back good.

[DrBee]

I only have one a day, though...

Uhhhhhhh - would that be one 5-shot latte? That's cheating! I believe you've earned it, though.

[DrBee]

Lordy girls - I worked a long day today. Tomorrow won't be much better. This is the time of year when I do all of my projects at work. The fish are finally big enough to sample. I go non-stop from now until March!

Chick - Snap is right. You could be the captain - bears and all. I seem to have magnetic abilities - attracting cars.

Lise - are you going to report the problems today to your doctor. It might help put the puzzle pieces together. Take it easy!

[Lise]

Yeah, yeah...blech. It is impossible to say "when this started" because I've had similar feelings before, just attributed it to other things, like gallstones, heat, fatigue. The doc said she thought it was benign, and probably due to hormonal changes of peri-menopause. I'm going to do some searching in the medical literature about PVCs/menopause/athletes. It is wierd to see the EKG. I'm no expert, but I know what normal looks like. So mine looks like ... normal, normal, normal, wiggley!, normal, normal... I want to smack myself in the chest like the old Marcus Welby episode.

Kind of makes me feel a bit better about not feeling great in the chest when I run--if my heart's skipping all those beats, how could I feel good? I'm still doing the Pleasant Prairie Tri (unless the echo shows I shouldn't for some reason), but I'm going to take it easier on the run. Not be ashamed if I can't run the whole thing. I suck at the swim--that's always just survive and get out of the water--I love the bike, so no problem there--and, well, if I can't run much, I can't run much. We shall see. I'm praying for relatively cool weather that weekend. That will help.
........................
Ironically, I think "Team Danger" came about because various members would be ruled out from donating bone marrow, or put on some "maybe, maybe not" list. Mine was gallstones at the time. Now we can add Wiggley! heartrate to my qualifications as a Team Danger member. I'm not even going near those Team Emboli girls. They might be recruiting.

[winddance]

Lise, what's a PVC?

[Lise]

Lise, what's a PVC?

Ah, sorry. Premature Ventricular Contraction.

From my old anatomy text: "A form of arrhythmia which arises when a small region of the heart becomes more excitable than normal, causing an occasional abnormal impulse to be generated between normal impulses. The region from which the abnormal impulse is generated is called an ectopic focus...ectopic foci may be caused by emotional stress, excessive intake of stimulants such as caffeine or nicotine, lack of sleep, and local ischemic areas of cardiac muscle."

Doesn't say anything about peri-menopause, but the book was published in 1984... I've got some research to do in the current literature.

So...let's review. Emotional stress? Check. Blame that stupid guy from April. Excessive intake of caffeine? Well, some intake, at least. No nicotine, of course. Lack of sleep? Well, duh! I'm a midwife! Ischemic areas of cardiac muscle? I certainly hope not. I'd think that would be painful. The echocardiogram next Tuesday is an ultrasound of the heart muscle. It will show if there are any structural reasons for this.

I am used to just pushing through things--we have a saying in midwifery, "You can do anything for 12 hours." (Most of us have worked both 24 and 12 hour shifts. 12 is better.) But...not really. As SK and MP know, you can't control some things. Heck, I know this from my endometriosis and infertility. But my heart? You kind of count on that to just keep steady on. I'll keep you guys (and yes, my doc, too!) posted. Thanks for your loving concern. L.

[KnottedYet]

Giving up caffiene? NO. Give up running? OK.

Just leave me the caffiene!

Glad you're tracking this one down, Lise. (I keep seeing PVC and thinking "polyvinyl chloride")