Here's an Update

It's been really long since I last post because I've been doing terrible. I feel like crap emotionally. I feel like crap physically. I cannot leave my house anymore because my heart rates are through the roof again. I've stopped florinef to see what would happen and I can already tell I'm not wasting so much potassium anymore. At one point I was taking up to 120 MEQ's of potassium a day just to keep myself from having chest pains and muscle cramps. Now I'm taking 20-40 MEQ's a day just to keep my levels up. I plan on started back on the florinef at 1/2 tab to just start over again. Maybe I overshot my correct dosage. I may be looking into the bio-identical aldosterone available from Canada.

This summer went from being incredible (planting flowers, taking walks, tanning) to just downright miserable. Now I am having low thyroid symptoms in addition to everything else. I look puffy. My eyes are so baggy, I look like I haven't slept for days. The weight gain is out of control. I need to go pants shopping again!

Since my heart rates have now reached into the 170-180's upon standing, I am seeing a cardiologist on Aug. 28 that specifically deals with POTS (Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome). A new echocardiogram I had done last week shows that I no longer have mitral valve prolapse, so that's pretty interesting. Nothing is physically wrong with the heart. The doctor can't blame it on that like the technician was telling me. "Oh this is probably all from mitral valve prolapse". I just nodded my head. Right!! I do not know ANYONE who's heart rate almost hits 200 when they stand. Give me a break. If everyone with MVP had this, then it wouldn't be so benign.

On Monday I am getting a Holter monitor placed on me for 24 hours and I plan on doing all the activities that make me feel like I'm going to die. I'm going to walk down to my flower bed and pull weeds. And I'll probably do the dishes and laundry. Gosh darnit, I hope it's a terrible heart day because I need this cardiologist to see what hell I go through on a daily basis. I cannot take this shit anymore.

My husband has been feeling sick, so that's not making things any better either. 2 sick people in a relationship causes a lot of tension especially when we are both too sick to keep the house up and running. Work has been stressful and nothing seems to be going right. This hormone replacement bullshit has not been going good for him either. He now has the rapid heart rate upon standing and I'm scared for him. What if florinef doesn't work for him either? Then what?

Guess we're moving somewhere cold.