Doctor, Doctor, Give Me The News...

I am pretty sure that not many 27 year olds can say that they have been to a cardiologist, let alone FOUR ... I, on the other hand, can. Hooray for me! After informing my doctor of what happened yesterday, they wanted to see me first thing this morning. So, I went and they told me that it was another episode of vasal-vagal syncope (how's that for a name?) which I am prone to - obvious from the tilt table test that I had about a year and a half ago (and passed with flying colors, meaning I passed out within about 5 minutes of it, when it should be a 45 min test) - nothing is 'wrong with me' or whatever (I beg to differ!), but it is just something that I need to watch. Basically my heart is working really hard, like the chamber walls banging into each other, and then when I stop, my brain tells the heart to stop working so hard - which causes the blood to rush away from the heart and pool if you are not still moving, which is apparently the wrong thing for your brain to tell your heart to do.

So, he gave me a prescription for a beta blocker, which will essentially not let my heart work as hard. I asked him if this would affect my performance or anything that I do at the gym or otherwise and he said no - he has lots of marathoner and triathlete patients on it and they say that their heart rate just doesn't go as high but other than that they can do everything they normally did. I don't know but its a start I guess. He didn't like the other options of drugs that the last doctor talked about with me (one of which was prozac or zoloft - yikes) so he said to try this. He gave me the lowest possible dosage and said to cut it in half and start with that. So we'll see what happens.

He also said that even a little dehydration, being tired, and time changes/zones can affect it because your body is thrown off its normal routine, so I guess I'm just one of those people that needs to be extremely aware of what I'm doing! The good news is that when I went to pick up my prescription at Costco tonight, it only cost $2.79. Finally something in the medical world that doesn't cost and arm and a leg!

And now, some of the hilarious comments people have made to me regarding this:

"Why do you keep going to the gym if you keep passing out there?" -Tom, my boss

"At least you can say that you passed out in the arms of a man..." -Mike, my other boss (and to be exact, it was an Italian man)

"If you don't make it out alive, can I have your townhouse?" -Matt, my partially-wishful-thinking brother

"You should ask your doctor if the medication will affect your ability to love, since your heart isn't working as much as it did." -Matt again, always thinking of reality

On the bright side, I did go to the gym after work today and ran 5 miles on the treadmill - no lightheadeness and no passing out. Now that's a beautiful thing :)