Heartbroken, but at least my heart is not broken

photo credit: @hayleymurrayphoto

TL;DR: I had a little bit of a health scare earlier last week and had to cancel my trip to Boston over the weekend. I was super-bummed, but I am alright.

I probably wasn’t the most pleasant to be around the last few days. I was moping around the house all weekend because I was actually supposed to be in Boston. Remember that I had made plans to finally meet up again with my long-time friend Cathy from Sydney, Australia? And in Boston of all places! Our friendship was supposed to come full circle.

It’s wild to think that we’ve known each other since we were teenagers and that we’ve kept up all these years. We started out as pen friends back in the day – pre-Internet – and initially bonded over our mutual love for New Kids on the Block, who are from Boston, in case you didn’t know. Hence, the full circle moment, because without NKOTB, we probably would have never connected, and to meet up in Boston would have been a dream come true. I don’t think it can be taken for granted that our friendship survived this long, especially because it was all based on letter writing for such a long time.

But I didn’t go Boston.

We had been counting down the days to this reunion for weeks. Then, things went awry earlier last week, when I had a little health scare and had to cancel my trip at the last minute. 

(BTW, this is the second year in a row that I had to cancel a fun trip to see friends, and I am very much over it.) 

So what happened?

I mentioned it in my Weekly Run Down post yesterday: I had a wonderful early morning run on Tuesday morning and felt great. I went to work, had a normal day, and was about to wrap up in the late afternoon, when – out of the blue – I suddenly experienced heart palpitations, chest pressure, and lightheadedness. I was the last one at the office and got a bit anxious. I’ve never passed out before but I imagined that this was what it would feel like shortly before you do.

Don’t worry, I did not pass out. The whole episode lasted for maybe 10-15 minutes until I started to feel better and was able to leave and drive home. 

You’re probably wondering why I didn’t go straight to the ER. Let me explain.

A little backstory

The main reason was that I had heart palpitations before (in 2019 for the first time) and had gotten an echocardiogram and stress test done at the time, with no unusual results. However, episodes of chest pressure/discomfort persisted. In late 2021, during another episode, I went to the ER to get checked out again. 

I spent 9 hours at the ER. They did the whole workup: ECG, echocardiogram, MRI, and troponin test (which is a protein found in heart muscle cells that is released into the bloodstream when the heart is damaged, such as during a heart attack) and ruled out any heart issues. Again.  

I distinctly remember that the discharge nurse brought me the good news and then asked if I still had chest pressure, as if the positive results of my tests had miraculously cured the symptom. When I answered in the affirmative, they basically shrugged their shoulders and suggested to follow up with my primary care physician. Unfortunately, my PCP didn’t really take me seriously because after all, my heart was fine!

I finally pushed for a referral to a gastroenterologist. I got an endoscopy done in early 2022 (no unusual results) and the GI doctor suspected my symptoms were related to GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disorder). I didn’t really have typical symptoms of heartburn (like burning or acid regurgitation), but I did have stomach pressure and chest discomfort on and off, and I had read that low stomach acid can mimic the same symptoms as excess stomach acid. So, I presented my theory that my symptoms were rather caused by low stomach acid (hypochloridia) and inquired about a stomach acid test (and there are more sophisticated ones than the baking soda test which I have done repeatedly at home and which is why I suspected hypochloridia in the first place).

I was instantly dismissed. The GI doctor said there was no such thing as low stomach acid, he didn’t know about hydrochloric acid (HCl) supplements, for that matter, and insisted I should just do a round of PPI (acid blocker) treatment. It was very frustrating. I ended up taking PPIs for two weeks, and they temporarily relieved some of my symptoms (which was to be expected), but it ultimately didn’t get to the root of the problem. Unfortunately, sometimes doctors just aim to mask problems, not fix them.

I had pretty much managed my symptoms on my own for the last few years through dietary changes and occasional supplementation with HCl. I had occasional episodes (multiple days) of chest pressure/discomfort and also many weeks of no symptoms. It was hard to pinpoint what triggered the episodes that did happen. Jon believes it’s at least partially stress-related, which I am willing to consider. I feel like I do a lot to keep myself happy and healthy and I usually don’t feel particularly stressed, but I do have a Type A personality and I can see how this could sometimes trigger physical responses when my body says “enough”.

Overall, my symptoms felt managable, albeit unfcomfortable sometimes, mainly because I also didn’t have palpitations for a long time. Chest discomfort is one thing, having it accompanied by palpitations and dizziness, is another. Even if it’s not cardiac-related, it FEELS like it is cardiac-related.

Fast forward to last week.

The chest pressure lingered, and I still felt a little shaky on Wednesday (not eating probably didn’t help). On Thursday morning, I called my doctor’s office to see if I could get a same-day appointment. Luckily, they could get me in right away. I saw a very nice, young nurse practitioner, and she was very attentive and very thorough. After I told her my history, she reassured me that she didn’t think anything was wrong with my heart, but she ordered an ECG, a lab test (for cholesterol and troponin), and also a chest X-ray to be sure. As predicted, all tests were negative. In fact, she said based on my results I had a very low risk of any cardiac events.

She still suggested considering getting a heart monitor for a few weeks, just to see if anything popped up on a long-term ECG (although she was pretty sure it wouldn’t), and she was also open to my theory that my symptoms might be caused by gastrointestinal issues. It felt good that someone was finally listening to me. Unfortunately, she’s not my PCP and I probably won’t see her again for a follow-up, but at least someone was taking me seriously. The other doctors so far have been of no use. They say my heart is fine and that is that. Of course, that is very reassuring, but also very frustrating.

Is it silly to expect someone to be interested in getting to the bottom of these scary, but apparently relatively harmless, symptoms?

I’ve been still experiencing light chest disomfort the last few days, and I’ve done a bit more research this weekend. I will share more about that with you, if you’re interested, but for now, let me just say: it’s been a huge bummer that I had to cancel my trip to Boston because of this.

Cathy and I ended up video chatting yesterday afternoon, and it was lovely to at least connect “in person” this way. We talked for two hours. The conversation flowed easily, even though we hadn’t actually spoken in a few years (just texted for the most part), and it just confirmed once again that friendship knows no distance and that with some people, you can just pick up where you left off. I know we would have had the best time this weekend in Boston. Hopefully, there’ll be another chance to meet up in the future.