Do you have a follow up with the cardiologist?

That's great news! Doesn't sound like there is anything critical going on that more healing and more exercise won't help.

A lot of healing from PEs is just a waiting game. You wait for your body to dissolve the clots. You wait for your body to heal. There's really only so much you can do to speed the process along ... just like you can't make a broken leg heal any faster.

I'm not sure what other questions to suggest for the cardiologist, but definitely write down whatever you come up with. You might ask if you need any additional follow-up. Also, I always like this question: What symptoms should make me come back in? If you spend a lot of time wondering if you should go to the doctor, that question can give you some guidelines to follow.

I would point blank ask him if he's concerned that your resting heart rate is 100. Because like I said, 100 is usually considered still normal. I would ask him to give you guidelines for how high your heart rate should get during exercise.

Really, ask him about the things you've been concerned about here.

I think your results are great and I hope you let it give you a bit of peace of mind.

I'm glad to hear that your report aboout the major stuff was good. Could you ask your cardiologist to confirm that your timeline for having tachycardia is normal, and how long it could take to resolve?

@rmb Yes, I see him next week. He told me at the last appt my heart rate should only increase by 10 points from resting to walking around if I'm not actually exercising. So I will ask him those questions you suggested.

@ce and Toss Those are good questions as well I appreciate it!

Renae, I'm happy to hear of the good results of your EKG.

Basically, healing is kind of a waiting game at this point. While I was in the early stages of recovery, I used to say that it was teaching me patience, because goodness knows I'm not patient by nature, but PE recovery left me no choice.

I don't mean to be insensitive, but I have to say that I really don't understand the constant concern over the heart rate. So it's on the high end of normal - so what? As you get consistent exercise again and build up your heart again, then the muscle will get stronger and not need to beat so frequently, your HR should go back down. I spent my whole life having episodes of tachycardia - it was called paroxysmal tachycardia, which meant it wasn't all the time, but it would happen on a semi-regular basis. It wasn't considered to be dangerous or anything that required specific treatment, it just was something I was used to. I mean, I'd just be sitting down doing nothing and suddenly my heart would start racing. Whatever, I'd just wait for it to pass. So maybe because of that, I'm having trouble understanding what, exactly, is the big reason to be afraid that your heart is beating a little bit faster than what you're used to right now? It's not as if the length of our life is determined by the number of times our heart beats.

Remember that things like this, it's all just kind of relative, and it's why the "normal" heart rate can vary so much from person to person. An athlete's heart might only beat 45-50 times a minute, but that's okay for them because their heart is so strong and used to the demands of exercise that when they're just doing normal things, it doesn't need to beat very often. Your heart muscle is exhausted from the load of the PE, and since it's probably not beating quite as strong per beat, it needs to beat more frequently to do its job. It's actually a pretty beautiful thing to consider how our body automatically makes up for deficiencies without us having to think or worry about it. You don't need to tell your heart to do its job, it just does it. The best thing I can recommend for you is to stop fretting over how it does its job. Focus on the things which are within your control, like building up your stamina for exercise again. I know you find it scary to exercise, but honestly that's your best bet for getting yourself back to normal again. If you're worried about your heart health, not exercising is the worst thing you can do to it, because then it has no reason to get better than it is now. My cardiologist was very, very clear with me that getting some activity in every day would be my best shot at feeling well again, and he had me exercising while I was in the cardiac ICU, even before I could get out of the bed. And while it was soooooo hard in the beginning for me, I do think it helped me to get as well as I did.

It does seem like to a large degree, you need to consciously work on putting the worry and stress out of your mind. I'm not sure what way you have to do that, but try to figure out how. For me, I just would think, well I know it's not going to kill me to take a walk at the park, or around the block, or whatever, and I just did it, and once I made the decision to go out and walk, I committed to the decision and didn't worry about it. Now, I'm not going to say a time or a hundred I didn't regret a little bit how much I decided to go or things like that, because I always try to push myself a little bit further than I think I can go. There were a couple of times when I had tried to do too much and I had to call my husband and ask him to pick me up in the car because I just couldn't make it back home again. But that didn't happen often, and even in those cases, well obviously those experiences didn't kill me anyway. I guess I tend to think, well since it didn't kill me, it's all good. Right or wrong, that's the way I tend to look at things. And honestly, even if I had to cut short a walk (which didn't happen very often anyway), I still felt like it was a success, because I got out there and did something good for my body and I survived it, so yay! And each time I did it, it gave me more confidence for the next time. We can't get brave if we don't put ourselves out there and try and push farther.

Are you by chance wearing a Fitbit or something that is taking your pulse regularly? It just seems like you're so aware of where it's at all the time. If you are, I might actually suggest that you stop using it right now. That's going to seem crazy to you, I know, if you are using one, because you feel like you need to know your numbers constantly. But the truth is you really don't. I personally think it's better to get out there and start to understand what your body feels when you're doing things, and learn to use that as your gauge for how much you can do, rather than some basically arbitrary numbers (that's true even if you're just taking your pulse yourself 50 times a day).

I think the advice regarding questions that the other ladies mentioned are all good questions. My original GP actually did give me a max heart rate that he wanted me to stop exercising when I reached that point, and just stand or sit until it went down again, before resuming walking. Ask your doctor if he has a recommendation as far as that goes, and whether he has any other recommendations or limitations he'd put on your exercise. Actually, I'd ask whether he things your symptoms you're feeling now are truly physical or whether it might be something more like are you experience post traumatic stress or something?

If you really and truly cannot deal with regular life without obsessing over the fact your heart rate is high, you could actually ask the doctor whether he thinks a beta blocker would be helpful. Personally, from what you've described here, I don't really think you need a beta blocker, but in low doses they're not usually going to hurt someone and people take them for lots of reasons - some actors even take them to help with stage fright. As with anything, it's not without risks, because it does usually lower blood pressure, and so if you were to take it, you might actually feel worse and more tired because of lower blood pressure. If I were in your situation, I don't think I'd want to go that route yet, because I don't think you've had long enough to see where time is going to take you physically, but it's an option to discuss with your doctor and get his take on it.

Your stress test results are really good, and I'm glad that they specifically mentioned not seeing problems with your circulation and that your heart rhythm was normal. That's fantastic! I had to wait several weeks before I got my results back from the stress test, and I was an absolute grouch the whole time I was waiting. And if it's any relief to you, my test did show some abnormalities from the beginning, including an electrical block and ischemia (lack of blood and oxygen) to the heart muscle. So even though those are the things the test is really meant to identify, they still showed up anyway. I only mention it because I hope it will give you move confidence in the results you've gotten.

I hope that the doctor will be able to ease any further concerns you have, and give you some guidance to get back to feeling well again.

@ShilosMommy This puts things in perspective. I sent you a message since I don't know how often you check back on old posts.