Heart Trouble

[TheKnight]

I was rushed to the Hospital on Wednesday 25th by my mother in the morning.
As I was getting ready for work I started to have very bad chest pains and my heart felt like someone was stabbing me, and I could not feel my entire left side.

I quickly took some aspirin as I thought I was having a heart attack.
After getting to the hospital they rushed me in and hooked me up to an EKG machine stat, as well as hooked up and IV, drew blood and later did some Xrays.

After a good 4hours in the hospital I am now home and on pain medications. I am to follow up with a cardiologist ASAP.
They told me everything was clear and it was not a heart attack, but it was Anormal Chest Pain from the muscles around my heart putting pressure on my heart and to follow up with a cardiologist.

This has been going on for a good 3-4months now and involves issues at work, among other things which I can't get into for legal reasons. The pressure on me has been tremendous and a certain incident at my manager training class pushed me over the edge, and made an already bad condition with my heart ten times worse.

My heart has been hurting for quite some time (even when I'm asleep) and the doctors think genetics are playing a factor aside from the obvious stress issues.

I wanted to let you folks know that I'm out of commission for awhile and that's
why you have not seen me in game of late. I'm not sure when I'll be back in game, as my recovery is going very slowly.

I'll be back eventually, but I'm not pushing myself as I don't want another relapse which would damage my body further and might kill me in the process.

I'd like to thank my friends for their continued support such as, The Renegades, Slashing Sunflower, and anyone else who wishes me well.

Take care of yourselves my friends, until we meet again.

Regards

[Erica]

Dont know you, but heres hoping you have a speedy and good recovery. Keep us posted when you can, good luck, from a fellow AC gamer.

[Kid]

Take care Theknight

[conserve12]

Take care man, hope you recover fast. :)

[TheKnight]

Thanks for the support guys. I won't know what the diagnoses is until I have a stress test done on the 23 of this month. They are backed up that much, so until then I'm on pain pills and other meds to control these attacks.

I had another attack on Monday 30 and was again rushed to the hospital.
They hooked me up to more tests, EKG's, did blood work, hooked me up to an oxygen tank, did more chest xrays etc.

The good news is the doctors are saying it's not life threatening, but it's still taking a huge toll on my body after each attack as it feels like a full blown heart attack each time and I'm in serious pain.

Hopefully they get to the bottom of this after the stress test is done and this nightmare can finally be over.

Again thanks for the support and kind words.

Regards

[TheKnight]

I wanted to update you all on my current health.
I am doing a bit better then before, but I am still having pains
in my heart now and again. The doctors are thinking it could be an ulcer, but are unsure until the stress test is completed. I'll be going on my stress test the 23rd of this month,
and will post the results here.

I want to continue to thank everyone who have supported me and prayed for me during this trying time, my deepest thanks goes out to all of you out there.

I am back in game now, and will be running the hard version of harbinger on Saturday @ 5pm est on Solclaim. I also have vacation starting up on the 19th-25th of this month, so I will have time to run plenty of public quests.

I will however not be going at my old pace, and I need to take care of more pressing issues during my vacation, but as I have free time I will be in game running public quests. Expect this weekend to be a busy one, as I will be running quite a few quests. Look for my announcements on /cg, and /lfg in game during this weekend.

Again I want to thank all of you for your continued support, prays, and kind words.
I am back in the swing of things, although a bit slower then before.

Regards

[Erica]

Welcome back to the game Knight.

[TheKnight]

Thanks Erica, it's good to be back.
And thank you all for your support, prays, and well wishes during this time, it means a lot to me.


Regards

[Paraduck]

I'm glad to hear you're doing better. :)

[TheKnight]

So I am para, so am I.
Although I won't know the full story until the 23rd of this month, when I go for my stress test at the hospital and the doctors can see what caused my two attacks.

The good news is it's not life threatening. The bad news is the doctors have no idea what's causing it until after this stress test is done, to narrow down the possible cause.

I had the full signs of a full blown heart attack, left side was totally numb, chest hurt, could not breath etc etc. And yet they say my heart is totally fine.

I just want this to finally be over, and get some good news for a change.
The bright side to this is, I'm finally on vacation from work for a week starting this Saturday, so I'll be able to rest up and finally get some much needed downtime.

Thanks again for the support all, I'll keep you guys updated on my results from the test and status.

Regards

[Django]

You're a good guy TK, hope everything works out for you.

[TheKnight]

Thanks for the support Django, it's much appreciated. I'll keep you guys updated on my status.

Regards

[Atarax]

We're real glad that you're back TK! Always good to have you on SC. You're a stand up guy and a great quest leader.

[TheKnight]

Thanks you for those kind words Sergeant, it's good to be back. The outpouring of support has been amazing, and I want to thank each and every one of you who have wished me well on my road to recovery.

Now more then ever I know why I continue to play this game even after 7+years, the fantastic community, close dev ties/interactions, and just fantastic game play. This community has become like a second family to me.

I thank you all for your kind words, prays, and support, it has helped a great deal during this trying time in my life with my health problems.

Regards

[TheKnight]

Update on my condition:

Today Wednesday 23rd, 2007 I had my stress test done at the local hospital.
Took about 4hours in total, and the results of the ekg part of the stress test itself came back excellent.

I did have very bad vertigo afterwards (which they say it's normal to have slight vertigo on a dead stop from a treadmill but not that extreme), and the pain in my heart gradually increased throughout the ekg test, the faster it got.

Once my heart rate was up to the right level, (190 I believe) they told me I could stop or keep going. And if I kept going, it would only enhance the readings and accuracy of the test.

I went for another 15minutes or so at full speed, and capped out at the end, which was when I got the real bad vertigo, weak kneed, and sweating like a race horse, which they said should not happen.

The doctors where confused, as my bloodpreassure was normal as was my pulse, but it still hit me like a ton of bricks. They had me sit down, gave me some water, a towel to dry off with, and then told me to lay down for a bit until my heart rate dropped down some more.


Everything was fine until literally a min or two before they stopped the treadmill, and then boom it hit me like a cannon ball out of nowhere. Which they said was not normal at all.

I now have to wait for a few days until I get the results back from the isotope scans part of the nuclear stress test to see if there is poor blood flow in my heart itself. So I'm not out of the woods quite yet.

I'll continue to keep you guys updated on my condition, as it's now a waiting game to find out just what is going on that is causing this to happen.
I should know by either Thursday or Friday this week, so I'll post again when I have some more news.

Again thanks for the kind words, prays, and support throughout all of this guys, it has really meant a lot to me in this trying time in my life. I never forget those who are kind to me, and you guys have been fantastic and supportive throughout all of this. I for one am very glad to be apart of such an awesome community.

Regards

[TheKnight]

I have not gotten my test results back yet this week. More then likely I'll get them next week, since this is a holiday weekend. I'll post the results when I have them.

Again thanks for the support guys.

Regards

[TheKnight]

Update:

I finally got my results in from the hospital and I have some good news and some bad news for all of you.

First the good news: My test results where all normal. I passed my EKG test with flying colors, and there is nothing wrong with my heart. The doctor said I was in excellent health and had above normal cardio function for my age (I'm 29), as well as above normal results based on the standard measurements.

The test was a three part phase:

Phase 1: Where they inject you with the nuclear material, and scan you with the imaging devise.

Phase 2: Where they put you on a treadmill and they make you walk, speed walk, and run for a period of 20minutes to get your heart rate up to the desired level.

Phase 3: Where they again scan you with the imaging devise to see if there is any blockage in your heart or veins, poor blood flow etc.


I was doing fine on Phase 2 of the test all the way through, and even went an extra 15minutes past the required stage of the test so they could get more detailed readings.
I told them I hit my limit after 15minutes and they slowed the treadmill down.
Right when the treadmill stopped, I had a massive amount of vertigo, was sweating like a race horse, the pain in my heart skyrocketed, and I had to sit down immediately.

The doctors had no idea what the hell was going on, as everything was fine throughout the whole test such as; bloodpreassure, pulse, respiratory function, and then in a split second... boom it hit me like a ton of bricks.

They asked me multiple times if I was ok, and I kept telling them I'm not sure.
After they had me lie down, my heart rate eventually dropped to normal levels and they released me to the third phase of the test.

They told me it's normal to have slight vertigo when the treadmill stops, but my reaction was definitely not normal by any means.


So the bad news is: They did not find the cause of my heart trouble and why I had all the symptoms of a heart attack twice now. They said it could be from two possible causes:

I. Neurological
II. Muscular

I am to follow up with my family doctor to find out where we go from here. They informed me it's not life threatening, but if it continues to happen to return to the hospital for treatment.

Whether I need muscle relaxants, or there is a problem with my nervous system, I won't find out until more tests are done and they get to the bottom of this.

The worst part of it is over thank god, as my heart itself is fine and that relived 10tons of pressure right there. Now it's on to more testing to see if they can narrow down the cause of these blasted attacks.

I want to personally thank each and every one of you for all of the kind words, support, prays, and outpouring of support during my battle with this. The outpouring of support has been amazing, and I have been deeply moved by this. I will keep you guys updated on this as I get more test results, as this looks like it's going to take quite awhile, until they figure out what's going on.

Again my deepest thanks and appreciation to all the support, kind words, and prays I have received from all of you. The worst part of this is over, as I'm still here standing at the end of the day.

As the old saying goes, "That which does not kill you, makes you stronger".

Regards

[Logan Conrad]

I'll add you to my prayers.