Yup, I went to the ER of my local horrorspital (indeed, they are!) after experiencing cardiac arrhythmia/palpitations that I could not control even with dropper after dropper (I'd say 10 droppers in 30 minutes) of straight cayenne tincture- mine, made according to Uny's specs. Of course the tincture was hot, but not all that hot because I have been building up a tolerance for cayenne over several months... My choices were to stay home and risk dying out of foolishness, or go and risk foolishness at the hands of doctors who know nothing about me. Figured I could handle the doctors, but wasn't so powerful as to handle death yet. :) I told Herb Brain to dial down, and off we went.

Got there, admitted, triage, hooked up to heart monitor, began "treatment" as a heart patient, ER doctor says "I'll treat you as 'heart' but I'm not convinced you're 'heart.'" Vitals show temp is normal, blood pressure a little elevated at 133/80- I tell them this is high for me but I am scared right now. Heart rate remains steady at 78-80... the whole entire time I am there. Even when I feel like I am experiencing palpitations, like soft heartbeats mixed with some pounding, my heart never wavers on the screen. Weird. They ask all the history questions, and hover around the dystrophy diagnosis for awhile. Blood draws for CBC and cardio markers. I'm asked about thyroid (should be fine, I say). They give me 4 baby aspirin. Ah- vasodilation. I can take White Willow Bark and achieve the same thing.

OK, numbers come back. ER doctor decides she wants to play Dr. House on the TV show. She doesn't know what she's seeing. I say, "I'll play pre-med student. Tell me everything you're thinking."

She says, "Your CBC came back fine." I am secretly rejoicing, because last time I had blood work done was Nov 2007, and then I was showing marked anemia, and low potassium and calcium levels. So yay me, the Incurables Program has done me some good. :)

She says "Do you know what creatine kinase is?" I say, "Yes." For those of you who don't, here's what Wiki says:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creatine_kinase


She says that there are 3 markers they use to determine if a person has had a heart attack or not, or is having heart issues. One is the general CKMM (creatine kinase- and if anybody didn't take the time to read the link, CK is an enzyme created in muscles which breaks down ATP-a protein- to make ADP- another protein, in muscle tissues) level. A second is CKMB, which checks for creatine kinase levels specifically in the heart muscles. The third, triponan, is a specific heart enzyme which will be elevated only in the case of some kind of heart disease or trauma.

OK, so in a CK test, doctors are looking for the presence of creatine kinase protein enzymes floating around in the bloodstream because muscle cells/tissue which have broken down or been damaged leak CK into the bloodstream. The enzymes are created in the muscle cells, metabolized in the liver, and carried out by the kidneys. When the doctor told me this, I started paying attention.

Normal people have very low levels of any of these enzymes. Normal for females is between 10-80 whatever units, and males is about 20-150.

I had a CKMM (general muscle) level of 1522, 15 times higher than normal. My CKMB (Heart muscle) was 22.1, 4 times higher than normal. My triponan level (damage from a heart attack) was 0.01. This isn't a heart problem. I said "Yay! Happy heart!"

But I'm still presenting with these symptoms, and I have these crazy CK levels. I already knew that high CK levels were a symptom of muscular dystrophy, and you betcha I've been researching all this stuff for several years, trying to come up with a solution. Lady Dr. House said, "the only way a normal person could have these numbers is if they ran a marathon in 100 degree weather. If I saw these numbers in a normal person, I'd be freaking out because your kidneys would be about to shut down. But this is the way you roll." I said, "yeah, my kidneys are obviously not shutting down." But I tucked a little note in the Herb Brain- "kidney flushes: stat!" She decided to do another round of blood work in 3 hours to see if there were any changes. She ordered an EKG, which was clean.

http://www.creatinejournal.com/creatine-supplement-creatine-kinase/


I told Dr. House I was into herbs and had taken cayenne tincture this morning. She told me, honestly, she didn't know anything about cayenne, but she'd google it. When she came back when the second round of tests were ready, she said "cayenne seems to be a stimulant." I concurred. :) But her thoughts were that the cayenne may have set off the palpitations, and she suggested that I might want to lay off of it. She said the only thing she saw on the internet were positives about cayenne, but these were people selling it. She said I needed to check the little insert that comes with it for adverse side effects. I said I make my own, and pretty much so does everybody else. She asked me what was in it, and I said organic African Bird Peppers and organic Habanero Peppers in a vodka menstrum, she shouted "Vodka?" And looked puzzled.

I was very good, y'all. :)

The second round of blood work was virtually unchanged. She was surprised, like "how are you alive?" but I wasn't surprised at all. So she ordered a bag of saline solution- the ol' IV drip. I figured I was on NBM (nothing by mouth). Darn, because I was hungry and thirsty, although I had drunk a pint of water with the cayenne that morning. I also figured out she didn't know what to do next. She ordered a THIRD round of blood samples. Up goes my anxiety, because I'm sitting in here with a woman who doesn't know what the heck she's doing, and that could mean anything. I've been here 6 hours, and now I'm being fed salt water through an IV drip. Ah, now it's a CAT Scan with the whole light up the body with Iodine thing. She wants to rule out a PE (pulmonary embolism). I have a long talk with the techie before I let him shoot me up with stuff I know nothing about and submit myself to my 5th CAT Scan in 3 years. Herb Brain: Cancer Prevention protocol!

That comes back negative/perfect, so- no blood clots (hurray mostly raw vegan diet, juice fasting, bowel cleansing, and blood detox tincture!) but Dr. House is running out of things to do. She leaves again. I'm getting nervous because about this point they get the knives out.

Fortunately- sort of- Dr. Cardio shows up and starts trashing the ER doctor. I think "breach of professional etiquette, pompous arse," and then he starts sexually harassing me. I came very close to slapping him. Jerk. However, he admitted me "upstairs overnight for observation," which rescued me from the girl who liked to play doctor.

"Upstairs," I get vitals done every two hours and blood drawn (CBC & cardio) every 3 hours all through the night. I am also patched into a constant heart monitor. BP 120/80 or lower. Lowest was 115/59, very normal for me. Pulse 100%, heart rate regular at 78-80. Temp 97.9-98.5. I eat a regular dinner- fun conversation trying to tell the nurse what a mostly raw vegan was, but that I would cheat on Rudy's BBQ if anyone brought some to me. RN put me on a regular diet. The options were regular, AHA, ADA, soft, or liquid. Hospital food is hospital food. OK, Colon Cleanse when I get home. UT v. Tech game on TV. Good game.

Hubby decides to go home after the game, since the kids were home alone. I have small anxiety attack & call the nurse's station so they can watch it. They ARE watching me, and nothing is showing up on the heart monitor. My HR is steady still at 80, even though I am feeling panicky. RN reassures that I am fine and asks if I want a sleeping aid. I just want to read.

Shift change, new nurse. An angel. She talks to me at length about her "story," similar to mine. About high stress environments causing anxiety, which causes palpitations and other health issues. She says "You can't be liking this," and tells me she changed everything in her life after her scare. "Just sayin'."

I can't sleep with all the noise, and ask for a mild sedative (didn't have any Nerve Sedative with me). I get an Ambien. I get awakened at 3:30 AM for another BP and blood sample. I get awakened at 7:30 AM with breakfast.

I had my morning prayer time, and I was moved with compassion to pray for the elderly woman in the room next to me. She was have an extremely difficult time, was in constant pain, was vomiting a lot, absolutely in misery at the end of her days. I could see her in my spirit, and it was like the Holy Spirit was telling me exactly how to pray for this old woman. My heart was full of compassion for her, and I started crying as I interceded on her behalf and sent her healing energy.

The nurse popped in and asked if I was OK. My heart monitor was going off at the nurse's station. My emotions were triggering palpitations. I told the nurse I had been moved to pray for this woman and was crying for her. The nurse said to keep praying. :) I also prayed, "Lord, make me healthy so I don't end up like that at the end of my days."

Dr. Jerk showed up at 10:30 AM to release me. More blatant sexual references. Some REALLY interesting news- my CK levels had dropped 500 points from yesterday. What was different? I was completely relaxed- up till I had to be on my guard with Dr. Jerk.

So I did a Google search, Uny, and found this:

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/112418624/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0


Diagnosis: anxiety/panic attack. Heart itself seems to be fine. (good heart!)

Prescribed 10 mg Lexapro 30 days rf 1 and nitro glycerin for me to carry around in case of chest pains- which I never presented with. 1 baby aspirin a day, Tylenol as needed. Wants me to do a treadmill stress test with my PCG in 1-2 weeks.

Discharge info included instructions for handling the flu. Did I want a flu shot? NO. For anxiety I am to pace myself (lol), rest if shortness of breath occurs, and I'm not supposed to drive until my doctor says it's OK. I'm supposed to be on a low sodium AHA diet (then why the saline solution earlier?). I'm supposed to drink my water, exercise (walk), but don't perspire.

OK, this is long and I need to call it a night. Tomorrow I am going to go through the Save Your Life manual and Tom's site to see what I can figure out about all this. I'll post my findings in this thread when I'm done, and we can take it from there.

TTYS,

Wings