Tag: open heart surgery

Health

Day 5 Postoperative Pacemaker Update 

mistibludream

The past couple of days have been rough.  I have had sugar the last two days when I felt worse so I am hoping eliminating sugar again will help. I usually don’t have sugar in my diet but caved and had some dairy free Ben & Jerry’s almond ice cream. Basically, I have been having PACs, which feel like extra heart beats and bouts of Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia. I have had these issues prior to the pacemaker that I just got on June 8th (2017) but was unable to take medication due to chronic Bradycardia, a slow heart rate. Now that I have the pacemaker as a safety net, I am able to take medication to help with the other issues. At this point, I have to wait 6 weeks to let the pacemaker fully heal and the meds to kick in and then we can re-evaluate the situation and discuss a possible Cardiac Ablation, which would be my 5th. I would then be 100% paced. I am trying to be positive and hope that avoiding sugar will help calm things down and that my heart is just angry and still needs to heal and adjust. In these last two days I have had PACs every single minute, sometimes more, sometimes less and about 5-10 episodes of Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia (IST) each day. The IST will kick in randomly, often when I lie down from sitting up. My heart rate goes from 60s to 140s in seconds and my chest feels tight and constricted while my lips get cold and tingle or go numb. It is VERY uncomfortable and annoying, to say the least. The PACs sometimes will feel so strong that they jolt me out of bed. 

 I saw the doctor today and am still paced in the 80 percentile and they were surprised to see how often it kicked in. When my heart rate was higher from walking or with activity, it would have dropped and I could have passed out had the pace maker not been there. That is called Neurocardiogenic Syncope, which was confirmed in a Tilt Table Test I had a few weeks back. I am suffering from Dysautonomia but have not found the right doctor to determine why. I am currently trying to find a good rheumatologist to look into a proper diagnosis. Most signs point to Lupus (SLE) but nothing is set in stone. I definitely can tell how beneficial this pacemaker is and a life changer at that, I just really need to get the the bottom of what is causing my body to suffer. 

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I guess I just get worried because I also have had open heart surgery in 2011 for severe Aortic Insufficiency. I had my valve repaired and currently all 4 valves have mild insufficiency. I also have thickening on my aortic valve and a thickened heart muscle with slight left ventricular enlargement. With all of this and an undiagnosed auto immune disease, I sometimes have a hard time keeping my chin up. I also have recently discovered that I have multiple complex cysts on my thyroid, which will need to be biopsied for cancer. 

Never take your health for granted. It is really tough being patient and waiting AND WAITING for answers. In the mean time, I am home in bed and away from my salon. I would love to be back to work and travel and run around and feel free again. I am currently trying to get disability so that I can ensure medical coverage (since there will likely be billions of dollars in cuts for Medicaid) and qualify to go to the Mayo Clinic so that I can get the proper care and treatment that I have needed for a decade or so.

I think that is all for now. Rubix cube still being solved. To be continued….

Health

America Hates Me

mistibludream

Soon, the president of the Divided States of America will be cutting almost a trillion dollars for Medicaid cuts. As I often hear about the complaint for our tax dollars being spent on helping people like me, I never hear any disgruntled comments about the rest of our federal tax spending. We are just shuffling money from one area to another, from healthcare to Military and Defense. And state taxes? How dare we pay for those roads that we never drive on or the schools that our children don’t go to? America is not free, is it? 


Guys, only 28% of our taxes go towards healthcare. No one bitches about where the other 62% goes. Why is that? Do we need to educate ourselves more?


We are very privileged and I am grateful that I have the opportunity to bitch about getting the wrong Starbucks order, don’t get me wrong. I know it could be worse. However, I know it could be better. 


Almost 60 countries Have Universal Healthcare. Virtually all of Europe, included. The United States refuses to get on board. Here in America we feel that we work hard and must earn our right to be medically treated, granted we have a trust fund and come from wealth or were gifted with healthy DNA. Well, guess what? I work my ass off. I have never only had just one job. I do not come from a wealthy family and I was born with a rare disease. I have even gone to work in severe debilitating pain or irregular heart rhythms and just smiled and pulled through because I have a family to feed and a roof to keep over our heads. I have gone to work instead of the ER because I needed the money. I sometimes would spend days recovering from this… Shutting down my phone and crawling into bed, ordering pizza for the kids and hoping that I wake up the next day. Everytime I would get ahead I would get knocked back down and have to start over, scraping by. If I had my health, I would be rich from how damn hard I work and my infinite ambition. I don’t qualify for health insurance and I usually don’t qualify for Medicaid. Seldomly I get access to Medicaid and get the luxury of medical coverage for about 6 months but it is never enough time. 


I am what America hates. Your tax dollars paid for my open heart surgery. I digust you. This year, you win. Your votes will take away my coverage. And when that happens, I hope that you think about my children and the mother that you will take away from them so that you can afford a sweet new car with heated leather seats and Bluetooth and more military whatever. 


I have had some very close calls earlier this year and was often dismissed because I looked healthy. I have spent 32 years of my life looking for answers on my own while being medically neglected, year after year. Even recently, I had my Tilt Table Test and wore my usual light makeup and rosy blush. It is my daily routine. If I don’t cover my fatigued eyes and pale skin then I will be asked if I am sick or tired all day long. The nurse said I looked great and that likely this test would be a breeze for me. “She still has color,” he said seconds before my blood pressure bottomed out and my heart rate plummeted and I felt nauseous and horrible, to say the least. Maybe it’s Maybelline, because suddenly I was head down and being pumped with fluids. Shorty after, I went into hypoperfusion. I was stabilized quickly but despite how horrible I felt, I was relieved to have it all on paper and proof! Each and every ER visit, ambulance ride and hospital stay, dozens in The beginning of the year, my symptoms were dismissed as anxiety and I was prescribed Xanax and Valium and sent home to die because our healthcare is capitalism at it’s finest. It is corupt and unfair because we built it this way and refuse to do anything about it. We are blind. Wake up! 

Despite the 2011 open heart surgery scar and four cardiac ablations, I still was not taken seriously. Hypoperfusion, or Circulatory Shock,  was diagnosed by my neurologist after my clear brain MRI and EEG of my brain waves rules out seizures and any neurological disorders, as well as my recent positive Tilt Table Test, pointing back to cardiac. I went through so many years of tests and no answers but refused to believe that this was anxiety. I was the happiest I had ever been. Finally some progress but time is running out until coverage will end. 




At one point, I was diagnosed with Acid Reflux, which I do not have and was given medication for that. I was diagnosed with Anxiety and Panic Disorder and given drugs for that. I do not have anxiety. I refuse to take those drugs. Before ruling out seizures, I had debilitating migraines with auras and was given seizure medication. Turns out that all I had to do was cut out preservatives and dairy and my migraines went away. I can’t help but wonder how many people are sent home drugged up to die with a misdiagnosis? 



I have children, a business or two, a fiancé and I work very hard every chance I get, when my body allows it. Just because I look fine, does not mean that I don’t feel like shit and have chronic debilitating symptoms. I would be devastated to give up this fight and be home in bed all day, every day. Sometimes I feel like I should be but I have some much to live for and want to see as much of the world as possible,  even if each step hurts and I have to stop often. I will get back up and keep trekking. I am not giving up. 


Fortunately, my patience fizzled and I became an advocate for myself and finally made progress in a diagnosis to get proper management and treatment. My next step is a pacemaker and defibrillator on June 8th but there still needs to be an answer as to what the underlying issue could be. Currently, I am waiting on results for Elhers Danlos Syndrome and Marfan. I recently requested ANA blood work and tested positive, meaning I have one of 120 autoimmune diseases. 


My goal is to help raise awareness to doctors and medical staff about rare diseases and that when you hear hooves, sometimes it could be a zebra. I want to inspire others to get healthy and educate themselves on nutrition and what our bodies need to thrive and learn how to not walk away from doctors without answers. 


I hope that I can still fight this battle or open someone’s eyes to how wrong this government is. I just want to live. I am not ready to go. Please consider people like me before you strip what is left of our medical coverage. Please think abouty soon to be husband and my three children before you ban me from healthcare equality. I am never going to give up but I may die trying. 

Health

What is normal?

mistibludream

Throughout my entire life, I have been living with chronic ailments. I remember being in  grade school screaming in pain from stomach issues. 


I remember when I was 7 years old, running around and my heart felt like it a hummingbird and I would get dizzy. The adults said that it was normal to have your heart rate increase when you run around. My softball coach in 4th grade would tell me to keep going. What they did not know is that my heart was in the 250 beats per minute range. When I was 15, the school nurse finally caught on. Supraventricular Tachycardia. They said I would outgrow it but it got worse and more frequent. It would happen 20 times a day. It was exhausting. But, this was my normal. 


I have always suffered from migraines, chronic pain, depression and fatigue. Every day I had a complaint and after years of being told I was just a hypochondriac, I stopped bitching about it. This was my normal. Normal was insomnia. Normal was waking up at 4am every morning in pain. Normal hurts. I’m normal. Suck it up, Misti! 

I discovered CBD Oil after a recent two month long streak in and out of ambulance rides, ERs and hospital admissions. “Everything is fine”, they said. “This is anxiety”, they laughed. I never felt worse and I thought my life was coming to an end. I went back to the hospitals I had been to, down to the the medical records department and got copies of every single record from the last two months. No, I was not having anxiety attacks. My neutrophils were dangerously low, lymphocytes high, my bun/creatinine was very elevated… to name a few. My 30 day heart rhythm monitor was a scary mess. The nurses and doctor mocked me out the door, dismissing my concerns. “Everything is normal.” Needless to say, my third electrophysiologist is the one. Third one is a charm, I guess. Everything was not normal. My body was giving up on me. I was withering away and living in fear of each day being my last day on Earth. I have three amazing children and the love of my life by my side to fight for. 


*Photo by Arlene Jacobs

After countless hours of research and second and third opinions, I demanded to get my ANA tested, which determines if you have an autoimmune disease. Though, they thought it was excessive and unnecessary, they placed the lab orders anyway. It was positive. 


Had I known this 15 years ago, before 4 cardiac ablations, one open heart surgery, preterm pregnancies, endometrial ablation, hysterectomy consults, years of self medicating with marijuana and wine, chronic episodes of depression, decades of minimal sleep to the point where I had sleep paralysis, endless pain and so on…. I could have gotten the right treatment and care and changed my diet and learned how to manage my health conditions. 



I should not be here. If I listened to my doctors and did not put up a fight, I could be dead. If I did not take aspirin each time I began heart attack symptoms, I may have not made it. I was having vasospasms, spasms of the arteries and vascular system, which was constricting blood flow to my heart and extremities. I was going into circulatory shock from sinus node did function. And to think, they suggested Xanax and sent me out the door!

I have not been back to the ER in a month, since my last hospital admission, which lasted 5 days of no answers. I imagine it is a number of reasons: new heart medications, CBD oil, bedside essential oil diffuser, removing sugar and preservatives from my diet, finding  out my allergies and triggers. CBD is a huge anti-inflammatory and helps with pain, nauseous, spasms, and sleep disorders, which are a few of my medical issues. I sleep so much better! I can keep my heart rate down and blood pressure lowered and stay calm and relaxed. My menstrual cycle is no big deal now. Leg cramps and pain throughout my body is now managed and I am in much better spirits! CBD oil is such an important alternative to the slew of pharmaceutical drugs that have been pushed my way. 

Every day is a new day. I take each day at a time, treat my body right and eat healthy. I still have a lot of pain and now need a pacemaker but at least I am getting answer. I even got genetic testing for Elhers Danlos Syndrome which is also something I pushed during my endless research since I fit the criteria very well. 

Doctors look and me and say I look great. I look healthy. I look fine. 

I cannot stress enough how important it is to be your own advocate and educate yourself. Put up a fight! Take care of your body.