I didn't want to do it again, but...

I wore the 48 hour halter, and other than a couple of blips on the results, everything seemed fine. I followed up with my doctor and was told there was nothing of concern on the test. However, my blood pressure was showing some high points the last few times I had been in the office, so he added Adalat (20mg) to medications and told me I could increase it if the racing heart continued to be a problem (up to 60mg). Adalat helps control blood pressure and helps keep your heart beat regular.

The doctor in the ER had sent a referral to a cardiologist, and my doctor actually suggested that I follow up with the cardiologist to make sure I was on their radar. That goodness for small favors. I called the cardiologist's office about a week later, and they had not even received the referral.

Two weeks after the follow up with my family doctor, I was at a function. To be honest, I was presenting at the function, so I was under a bit of pressure that I normally would not be. As we were doing our presentations, my heart started racing, I had to take slow deep breaths, and over the hour that I was in the midst of the presentation, there were several times I didn't think I would be able take the next step. I felt weak, and short of breath...but I had NO pain.

Through all of this, there was never any pain. Only shortness of breath, and perhaps a "heaviness" in my chest that I felt was causing me to be breathless.

I finished up the presentation, and during the social hour afterwards I told a friend I was struggling. She wanted me to go to the hospital, but I really thought that since the function was over, my heart would slow down and relax. It did, somewhat. I drove her home and as I was heading to the hospital my heart started racing again, I started to feel lightheaded. I didn't think it was a good idear for me to be driving, but at that point, it was late and there was no one that could take over for me. I did think about pulling over and calling a cab to take me the rest of the way. I had a cell phone. My rational was that by the time a cab or an ambulance got to me, I would already have made it to the hospital and be in the right place if this was really an emergency.

I do not advise anyone to do that. My friend had offerred to take me to the hospital. I thought I would be ok, but I should have just let her take me - for safety's sake.

When I arrived at the hospital I walked in to the Triage because the person that was just with the nurse was leaving. She took me right away, and got me to the emergency care immediately. My blood pressure and heart rate were way to high.

I had the comfort of having a nurse one on one (yeah, that really isn't a good sign). The slowed down my heart, took blood tests, and monitored me closely. The gave me more low dose asprin, too.

My blood came back and they found that my potassium was depleted (my blood pressure medication includes something to help with water retention). I was told that when something is going on with the heart, a lot of times they find a patient's potassium is low.

My heart was very angry that night. When they finally were able to get it to slow down a bit, I mentioned to the nurse that I could feel my heart starting to race again. She said the rate was just over 90 so that wasn't too bad (remember, my normal heart rate is about 58-65 bpm so my heart was speeding up). I was given more meds and they started slamming potassium into me orally and through IV. They also added magnesium by IV.

I finally went home at about 6:30. I had arrived about 10:30 the previous evening. Before I left, I asked the doctor in the ER if he could confirm that my referral had gone to the cardiologist because it had not been received. He confirmed it had been sent.

Two days later I called the cardiologists office, they still had not received the referral. So, I called the ER department and told them the referral had not been received. The ER staff assured me that there must be some mistake, but he was going to fax it over himself to make sure it got there.

***NOTE***the first referral went in January, the fax went (supposedly) in February - this is May and I still have not heard from that cardiologists office.

BE YOUR OWN ADVOCATE! FOLLOW UP! If you can't do it, find someone - a friend, a family member - someone - who will do it for you.