MAYBE I NEED EIH ANONYMOUS?

I’m thinking what I’d really like is to meet some other people with my same heart condition. People who have been active adults cut down to size by a heart attack they never in a million years thought they would suffer. I would like to have some dialog with those people to see if we could piece together some answers not so much about our conditions (researchers have provided SOME stuff on that) but how they cope, how they continue to be active, and if they, like me, have chest pain sometimes so severe they think about going to the ER even though they have just paid off that last visit (and subsequent admission) there. You know, kind of like AA except for people like me living with Exertion-Induced Hypertension.

I’m not what you would call a scaredy cat. Just ask my friends. Tomorrow, I leave for a 4-day journey by myself to witness for myself the chaos in Yosemite created by twice the normal snowfall. I swear I’ll just be doing a small amount of hiking, checking out the ruined bridges and the flooded trails but I spent a good part of the day calming a friend down by teaching him how to use an app that lets me ‘ping’ my location to him every once in a while (as long as I have wifi).  He worries about me.

Sometimes, I just want to forget I have ‘conditions’ in my life. The most serious, the heart condition, means that I have to be extra careful about doing things I used to take for granted – like moving heavy furniture, lifting heavy boxes, going all out at High Intensity Interval Training. That sort of thing. 

Last weekend I spent the better part of three days lying around recovering from the move of the last bit of my heavier belongings from one house to another. I even called in a few of my troops. Mostly they are strong, independent women like me. Except a decade younger and sans heart condition. They get me but they worry about me; they fussed at me when I tried to lift something, reminding me that’s what they were there for. And I kept feeling older, and older, and older. I paid for that episode with an attack of what I think is unstable angina for which the docs can’t seem to find a reason (except all that heavy lifting) – or any help - for.

Truth. I AM older. I’m your average active 64-year-old. I’ve lived an active life that has given me all kinds of bad knees, sore hips, bruises, a dark spot on my leg from a kayaking accident, a bad neck from a head-on collision when I was in my indestructible 20s, blah, blah, blah. I was seriously counting on adding a few more of those ailments to my story repertoire but my heart clearly doesn’t want to cooperate. Its early warning signal is always that boring unstable angina followed by a few days in bed.

Unstable angina. My nemesis. Nothing stops me in my tracks like unstable angina. For one thing, once the pain starts traveling from my heart around my chest under my left arm to my back, down my left arm and up my neck, visions of lying on the cold floor of my bathroom trying to yoga breathe my way out of a heart attack enters my consciousness.  Seriously, having a heart attack by yourself with your phone in another room, without meds or help takes a whole lot of freaking courage. Or cussidness. Not sure.

Anyway, this isn’t about that heart attack. It’s about the unstable angina. The thing is, this diagnosis of Exertion-Induced Hypertension is kind of new and not a whole lot of stuff has been written about it by people like me – the ones who have it. Actually very little has been written by anyone not in the research field– hence this blog post and its sharing on my Facebook page for Exertion-induced Hypertension.

So what I want to know is whether any of those people sharing the same diagnosis has this unstable angina and if they also feel frustrated by their cardiologist suggesting that since nothing shows up on the test, it’s probably just one of the other 16 reasons someone can have severe chest pain. I’ll bet that cardiologist does not have a very clear vision of lying on that cold floor for an hour thinking he was going to die next.

I’m absolutely sure there are other people with other conditions that also have the same worries and concerns. I’m sure that at least some of them seek out the experiences of others to make their lives better. I’m hoping that my public FB page will spur others on to add comments and thoughts about their own experience with this particular heart condition. You don’t have to be embarrassed. It’s not like we have an STD, you know.

In the meantime, I hope my friends and family read this and spread the word. I know they are eager to help me. My mates have all pretty much asked the question “So you could have a heart attack on this backpack (or hike or trip or whatever)?”. And they pretty much have agreed to take me along anyway after I’ve shrugged my shoulders in a definite “I don’t have the foggiest clue”. Just think what a little more information would mean to me and to them.

Now that I have decided I might like to and could possibly wake up to many tomorrows, I’d like to hone in on how I can safely do that. So, send me your suggestions. I’ll even rub lavender on a live chicken (as long as it doesn’t hurt the chicken) all the while drumming a jungle beat if it seems like something that could work. Otherwise, I’ll just keep on religiously taking my life-keeping medication which works to keep me safe until the next dose all the while I may be doing a few unsafe things. And my mates will mostly tag along with me when they can, knowing I’m not going to be silly about it. Mornings are my favorite time of day and I like sunrises just as much (maybe more) than the next gal.

#exerciseinducedhypertension #livinginsteadofjustnotdying #feelingsorryformyself #heartcondition