Heartfarts and more doctor crap

This past weekend had another frustrating problem, severe heart palpitations. Not the kind one can ignore. It started on Friday, and at first I shrugged it off since I get them off and on and the cardiologist said they are harmless. But when they were constant and wouldn't go away, it was alarming. I tried drinking lots of water, thinking maybe I wasn't hydrated enough. I tried eating a couple of bananas, thinking that maybe my potassium was low again like it sometimes gets. Nope...that didn't help. I tried laying down which made it worse. I wrote letters trying to ignore it. It wasn't just palpitations anymore by evening and my heart was pounding, blood pressure soaring when it had been low for so long. I didn't want to go to the ER because I just had a whole battery of heart tests and all that was found was mild enlargement of the left ventricle, and occasional extra beats, or missed beats. The cardiologist said those things were not anything to be concerned about and sent me on my way. Well, I began to think maybe it's one of combined medicines I am on. I phoned my Rheumatologist and she said oh no...it's nothing she has prescribed. Then she told me to go immediately to the ER. I didn't want to go to the ER because you can die waiting in the ER or symptoms go away while you are waiting forever to be checked out. So, I phoned my family doctor. Of course, he wasn't in this Saturday. He is never around when I need him. So had to go see one of the doctors in our group who I like the least. He did an EKG and said he heard the irregular beating, and the EKG showed no heart damage, but also showed skipped and extra beats. SO he sent me to the frickin' hospital anyway to get a 24-hour holster heart monitor and had to wear that thing for overnight. He also told me to stop the newest two medications while doing this test. I still had irregular beating but not at all as bad as it was. If I had been wearing it on Friday when all this was happening, they might have been like what the heck! I took the monitor back on Sunday and am waiting for results, which will probably show what the cardiogram showed.

I have started back on the meds and no "heartfarts." The Rheumatologist phoned me back and said to go back on them gradually. So far,so good.

Maybe me cheating on my diet lately was part of it. I have been overdoing it on the salt lately. I ordered a cheese pizza for myself Thursday evening when Jon was working late, then my son had some when he got home from work, then I ate the leftovers on Friday. I LOVE LOVE LOVE cheese pizza from the pizzeria, but it is so high in sodium and so greasy. Homemade is just not the same. Pizza MUST be salty/greasy to be real pizza. Guess I am going to have to wait to have some when I can order for everyone and just have a couple of pieces, not as much as I ate.

Maybe it was also stress causing it. I have a son getting ready to move out and is filling up my livingroom with packed boxes so have that mess and I haven't even taken my tree and decorations down yet, so it's getting crowded in there. Then have been fighting with doctors' billing offices, trying to figure out why certain things are not covered on our insurance, who mysterious doctors are who are not on the plan but who want money from us when I don't even remember seeing them. Then there are those who don't understand how insurance works, that if they are under contract with an insurance company, they are supposed to accept the insurance discount and NOT try to get that discount from the patient. It's maddening that it is going on for so long. The hospital and everyone legitimately on the insurance plan has been paid. Now we have dangling shysters. Only in the medical field can one steal people blindly, and do it legally. Charge whatever they want whether they did anything or not. That is what is wrong with the health care in this country. The government allows physicians, technicians, specialists, etc. to charge whatever the hell they want and whether they do anything or not, and even when they screw up. If you take your car in for repairs, and they do it wrong . . . you don't pay. But not with the medical profession. They can accidentally almost kill a patient and still receive their money. That sucks. They can scratch their heads and say "I dunno" and still get their money.

So, maybe it was a combination of several things...Lupus combined with cheating on my diet combined with stress. The doctors say that stress causes Lupus/RA flares, then they have Nazi billing departments that could give someone a heart attack from the frustration.

Ok...that's my rant for today. Better settle down before my heart farts come back!