I had just reported having issues with anemia and possible arrhythmia, and low and behold I had another hard to breath episode this morning. This time John was home so he was able to take me to the local clinic to get an EKG almost during the episode. I say almost because it started as I was getting ready (had just gotten out of the shower and was about to dry my hair), so I wasn't dressed and had to spend at least 15 minutes laying down to just catch my breath enough to put on clothes.
Then we went straight to the office, my hair in a messy non-styled air dry look (yuck!), but they had to squeeze me in among their other appointments. Granted, I called on our way and they did get me in pretty quick. However, then the EKG machine wasn't working. They hooked me up and it didn't work, so then they tried new sticky things and it still didn't work, so then they hauled in a different machine and got me all "stickerified" again. Finally it took its 5-second reading, which was normal. Was it normal because it took so long and my episode was over? Was it normal because my heart is just fine and it's not causing these episodes? Or was it apparently normal because it only took a 5-second snapshot!? The end result was that I will now get to wear a Holter monitor for a 24-hour period to see if they detect anything fishy that way. I will not be able to shower or bathe while it's on, so I scheduled the appointment to get it fitted on me for tomorrow morning after I have a shower so I can be nice and clean for the subsequent 24 hours.
Besides the heart as a possible cause of my palpitations and difficulty breathing, low blood pressure might be another cause. That takes me back to what usually causes my lightheadedness, regardless of if I'm pregnant (as I mentioned before). Well, my BP today was 92/56, so they are also wondering if that has something to do with it. Plus I hadn't eaten yet, nor had much to drink, given I'd just gotten up and out of the shower. So those factors could have also been at play...the mystery continues!
The good news is that they did my blood work again and found that my anemia has improved (my hemoglobin was right back up in the normal range!), after having taken the Slow Fe for just 3 days! My last blood draw, just 5 days before, showed the mild anemia, which is why I got started on the Slow Fe. While it's caused me some queasiness and other digestive system side effects, it sure did the trick on getting my red blood cell count back up in a hurry!
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