Lana picked me up around 9:30 am. I was in the doctor's office before 10am. I just rested on the couch while I waited. I didn't feel much like reading while I waited. My fatigue has been slowly getting worse all week. They called me back into the room at about 1030. It is too fatiguing to set up so I went ahead and layed down.
A little after 1100 the PA student came in and we got started. Dr. Li poked his head in and said he wanted to do something a little different today, he wanted my hooked up to the heart monitor while we did the various blood pressure checks. It turned out to be a good thing as during the entire process my heart rate would rapidly change. One moment it would be at 70 then it would jump up to 130's then it would drop back down to the 70's and 80's, then it would jump back up to 140's, 150's and even 160's. Then three different times my heart rate would be way up and then boom, it would rapidly drop down to 35 and the low 40's. It freaked the PA student out a little. She asked me if I was okay. I was a little freaked out too. In this entire four year process I have never seen my heart rate go up and down so rapidly nor so dramatically. It was very bizarre.
Well here are the results:
Lying 10 minutes: blood pressure = 108/54, heart rate = 74
Standing 3 minutes: blood pressure = 122/80, heart rate = 126
Standing 10 minutes: blood pressure = 80/54 (I was a little woozy), heart rate = 126-142
They ran off rhythm strips and tried to catch my heart when it was at the really high heart rates and then when it was at the really low heart rates.
Dr. Li said it was most bizarre and the only thing he could figure was that it was the malfunction of my autonomic nervous system. Most bizarre we all agreed. He stated that in the information he was going to sent to Vanderbilt he was going to document the huge heart rate variences during this office visit.
Needless to say, I was very tired after that and did take my beta blocker before I left the office.
So, I need to go through this one more time when I go to Vanderbilt. Flying in this condition--yuck!
So, Dan took me home and I hit the couch. I did feel better by evening, still not real punky, but better off.
The moral of the story is that the beta blockers I take to control my heart rate, truly do give me quality of life.