sae
08-27-2015, 12:22 AM
Yesterday I received some of the greatest clarity about my anxiety and it didn't come from a head dr. The past few weeks I have been shuffling around to different doctors trying to diagnose this mysterious shoulder ailment that was originally thought to be a torn rotator cuff. It went from sore to completely unusable... then came the headaches.
They would vary in intensity, these headaches, but it was always there. A gnawing pain on the right side of my head. It became so intense I couldn't function anymore. I couldn't read, or drive, or see well out of my right eye. I was prescribed Reglan after it was thought to be a migraine.
Reglan... is... awful. I had mood swings. I would be fine one minute, cursing and crying the next. My stomach growled and gurgled constantly and worst of all my anxiety went through the roof. Suddenly I was back to secluding myself in my house. The headache mostly still remained although the pain meds seemed to give some relief.
My clinic recently shuffled me to a different GP. She poked and prodded at my shoulder, twisted my neck around a bit and remarked at how impossibly tense my muscles were on my right side. Upon looking over my medication list she noticed the stupid high dose of statin I was prescribed and insisted I see my cardiologist immediately.
I have a cardiologist that has to be booked 3 months in advance. He's good at digging around in my heart when need be but not so great if I need to see one quickly. Luckily my new GP came through and set an appointment with a local cardiologist willing to not only see me the next day but see me at half cost ( which is amazing since I am not insured.)
The new cardiologist is a delightfully old school teaching doctor so my visit yesterday included a handful of med students watching as I received the standard echo and consultation. The echo was going great until he found Flappy.
Flappy is the pet name I have given to my misshapen heart valve. I see it each time I get an echo but no one had made any special remarks about it. Then the cardiologist asked about anxiety, did I have bouts of palpitations and sweating, difficulty breathing and such. Yes to all of it. He went on to explain I had a clear Mitral Valve prolapse, something I was probably born with. When the valve begins to struggle with the blood supply my heart rate speeds up to compensate until the blood flow is regulated again.
The heart compensating for the failings of ol' Flappy create the very symptoms of panic attacks. To make matters worse I have been taking triple the recommended dosage of Statin drugs for years. The high dose is most likely the reason my shoulder finally seized up, and my muscles have hurt so badly for so long.
I took my first muscle relaxer, and my new lowered Statin last night. It wasn't long before I could turn my head again, and the headache melted away to a dull pressure. Before long my eyes became heavy and I decided for the first time in many months to sleep in a bed.
I have not been able to lie down and sleep in a bed since the beginning of this year. Everything hurt and I woke constantly when I tried. I chalked it up to being a big old slice of fat girl and relegated myself to sleeping in a recliner. Not last night, though.
I woke late this morning, still in bed, feeling only the very edges of pain in my muscles. My headache was almost non-existent and perhaps thanks to a stronger beta blocker I didn't wake up to heart racing panic either. It's only been one day, but already I have felt better physically than I have in a very long time.
They would vary in intensity, these headaches, but it was always there. A gnawing pain on the right side of my head. It became so intense I couldn't function anymore. I couldn't read, or drive, or see well out of my right eye. I was prescribed Reglan after it was thought to be a migraine.
Reglan... is... awful. I had mood swings. I would be fine one minute, cursing and crying the next. My stomach growled and gurgled constantly and worst of all my anxiety went through the roof. Suddenly I was back to secluding myself in my house. The headache mostly still remained although the pain meds seemed to give some relief.
My clinic recently shuffled me to a different GP. She poked and prodded at my shoulder, twisted my neck around a bit and remarked at how impossibly tense my muscles were on my right side. Upon looking over my medication list she noticed the stupid high dose of statin I was prescribed and insisted I see my cardiologist immediately.
I have a cardiologist that has to be booked 3 months in advance. He's good at digging around in my heart when need be but not so great if I need to see one quickly. Luckily my new GP came through and set an appointment with a local cardiologist willing to not only see me the next day but see me at half cost ( which is amazing since I am not insured.)
The new cardiologist is a delightfully old school teaching doctor so my visit yesterday included a handful of med students watching as I received the standard echo and consultation. The echo was going great until he found Flappy.
Flappy is the pet name I have given to my misshapen heart valve. I see it each time I get an echo but no one had made any special remarks about it. Then the cardiologist asked about anxiety, did I have bouts of palpitations and sweating, difficulty breathing and such. Yes to all of it. He went on to explain I had a clear Mitral Valve prolapse, something I was probably born with. When the valve begins to struggle with the blood supply my heart rate speeds up to compensate until the blood flow is regulated again.
The heart compensating for the failings of ol' Flappy create the very symptoms of panic attacks. To make matters worse I have been taking triple the recommended dosage of Statin drugs for years. The high dose is most likely the reason my shoulder finally seized up, and my muscles have hurt so badly for so long.
I took my first muscle relaxer, and my new lowered Statin last night. It wasn't long before I could turn my head again, and the headache melted away to a dull pressure. Before long my eyes became heavy and I decided for the first time in many months to sleep in a bed.
I have not been able to lie down and sleep in a bed since the beginning of this year. Everything hurt and I woke constantly when I tried. I chalked it up to being a big old slice of fat girl and relegated myself to sleeping in a recliner. Not last night, though.
I woke late this morning, still in bed, feeling only the very edges of pain in my muscles. My headache was almost non-existent and perhaps thanks to a stronger beta blocker I didn't wake up to heart racing panic either. It's only been one day, but already I have felt better physically than I have in a very long time.