The long detailed version of the story

I know I have my health problems here and there but I would otherwise like to think I live a pretty healthy lifestyle. I walk every day. I go to the gym and work out for two hours 3 days a week and go to Cardio Barre once or twice a week depending on scheduling. My weight characteristics (BMI, Muscle Mass, Fat %, weight) are all in range of an athlete level (excellent-the best level you can have). I'm energetic having to chase two toddlers around. I probably eat too much salt and carbs but that's it. I probably get too little sleep some days. And I have some stress in my life. Who doesn't? I had an EKG a few weeks ago when I was having chest pains and it came back normal. He said I had a healthy heart and I just had a bad case of acid reflux. So why did what happen last Sunday happen?

The story is long and I'm going to leave some stuff out but here is the summary. Sunday was a typical day here. Church then lunch, etc. My sister was flying in on Sunday to spend two weeks with us. I hadn't seen her in almost two years. Before lunch, I told Scott I just didn't feel right. He told me to sit down and he would make lunch. He said he would take the boys to the airport to pick up Lauren so I could rest and they would leave in 15-20 minutes. I sat down on the couch and I couldn't pinpoint what was wrong. Something just didn't feel right. From here, the story is foggy but I will tell it the best I can remember and what was told to me. My head was foggy and I felt like I was going to pass out. I couldn't figure out why I felt like I was going to pass out because I was sitting down not exerting any energy. Scott came in to check on me and then it happened. I told him something was wrong. I fell to my left and started seizing. My jaw was moving uncontrolled and my tongue was hanging out of my mouth. My right arm was twitching as well. Scott called 911. The fire department was the first to arrive. One fireman took the boys in the kitchen and played Monster Trucks with them. They were having a blast playing with their heroes. At this time, I started seizing again. The paramedics were here now. I couldn't answer all of their questions but the ones that I could talk through, I stuttered uncontrollably. It was as if I had absolutely no control over my body. I was put on the stretcher and escorted to the ambulance. On the way there, I passed the boys and I was aware enough to talk to them and tell them (with instruction) that "mommy is going to be ok. I will see you soon," (Not realizing this would be the last time I would see them for four days).

I was in the ambulance and I remember looking out the window and seeing several neighbors trying to get a peak of the newest gossip on the block. My resting heart rate was 170s at this time and the paramedic wanted to get it down. I had to do a syringe exercise to lower it. That is where you blow into the syringe to try to move it. I did this and my blood pressure bottomed out to 50/31. At this time, the paramedic put his hand on my arm and said, "Hun, I don't want to scare you but this is really bad." He got on his phone and was speaking to the emergency room telling them all my stats and that he had an urgent case coming in. He thought I had internal bleeding since my body went numb. He told me I was going to be ok but don’t be alarmed if I go into an emergency surgery. I got to the emergency room and there were so many people around me. I had another seizure there and my chart showed the same details (jaw moving uncontrolled with tongue moving in and out and right leg twitching). The head nurse said she thought I was not seizing because I didn't have incontinence. But the paramedics disagreed with her. This is still a debate and I should get my EEG read today to determine this. They stabilized my blood pressure in the emergency room and I was taken for a chest X-ray, 2 EKGs, a chest and head CT with contrast and a heart Echo. Everything came back "normal" with the exception of having some fluid around my heart. That wasn't a concern as it was just inflammation and could be fixed easily. My resting heart rate was still in the 170s range. I was admitted to the hospital at this point. My sister who was at the airport (not having a clue of what had just happened) just landed calling Scott telling him she was waiting outside. He was flustered and didn't have time to think to call anyone so he instructed her to take a taxi to Simi Valley Hospital and he would explain everything when she got there.

Everything from here on out is pretty boring. My blood pressure runs very low but my resting heart rate is very high. I haven't had any seizures since Sunday. I was basically on bed rest for almost 4 days. I had my blood drawn several times a day. I was hooked to IV lines and heart monitors. While sleeping, my heart raced at night and I would have to be woken up to relax. Every time I stood up to do anything, a nurse would come running into the room to see what I was doing because my heart rate would sky rocket. Therefore, I was not allowed to take a shower the entire time I was there. This did not make me happy! The boys were not allowed to visit because nobody was allowed to visit under the age of 16 because of flu season. After taking some new medicine, I was able to walk around the cardiac floor. I am 30 and I did not see anyone else admitted that looked younger than 80 on my floor. I knew my case was serious but it made me feel very blessed that I felt somewhat normal and not in the hospital feeling sick. Things could be worse.

I was assigned to a fantastic cardiologist. Everyone has told me he is the best in the West and he is virtually impossible to get. Basically nobody can figure out why all of this has happened to me. It is very possible that I have always had this condition but never had the symptoms to this degree. And now those symptoms have become hard to control. I am a "mystery fluke" as Dr. Soni would put it. Now is just trying to figure out how to control my heart rate without dropping my blood pressure anymore. Being basically on bed rest and having the stats that I did, I explained that once I get home, life is NOT like this. I have a 2 and 3 year old and relaxing is not an option.

Sometimes no news is good news. In this case being discharged and not knowing anything is not typically a discharge that one prefers. I was given two medications to take. One raises my blood pressure but brings down my heart rate. The other also lowers my heart rate but lowers my blood pressure as well. The nurses refused to follow doctor’s orders and give me the medicine to lower my blood pressure. But I'm supposed to take this at home by myself??? This is scary. I am happy that I am supposed to eat a lot of salt. I had to have the doctor repeat this several times for Scott as he always tells me I put too much salt on everything. :) Salt raises your blood pressure.

I'm home. I'm taking my medicine. My blood pressure is running on the low side but almost normal. It is 71/50 this morning. Normal are stats lower than 120/80.It is considered too low if either number falls below 80/60. My heart rate resting is 132. Normal resting heart rate is 84. I can be seen as outpatient now. I may have a lot of outpatient appointments but at-least I can be home with my family. Scott stayed with me during my stay so you can imagine how excited the boys were when they saw me. Now I'm concerned as to when I can go back to living a "normal" life. Working out is not an option for some time. Every time I stand up, I get extremely lightheaded and dizzy. My resting heart rate is in cardio level (as if I were running) right now so we wouldn't want to test what it would be if I exerted myself.

I have to plan now for the future. My biggest worry is this happening again when Scott is gone. What would have happened if this happened 20 minutes later on Sunday? I am scared since we don't know anything. Thank goodness my sister is here and what a blessing she was that we had someone to stay with the boys so Scott could be with me. And we are thankful that I am not home alone now. Our boys are too young to know what to do if this happens again. Now I have to come up with a plan of what to do once I don't have another adult here. I have been speaking to my neighbor who is a registered nurse whose specialty was in cardiothoracics but now is a stay at home mom. She suggested us checking in time several times a day. This is extremely hard for me to rely on others. We move around too much to establish good relationships with neighbors. I have learned to rely on myself too much and now I have to change that for the safety of our family.

I am very blessed to have wonderful family and friends. I most certainly thank God every day for what I have and my health. I believe in the power of prayer. I thank all of you who have prayed for us and we thank you for all the warm wishes we received. We still ask that you continue to pray for us. We pray that this medicine works and we figure out how to go back to living a normal, healthy, active lifestyle. And we pray the doctors figure all of this out. Thank you!