My Local GP Surgery, Episode 2
I got in from work one evening, and something just wasn't quite right. I felt as if I had just taken part in a marathon, my heart was racing and I felt decidedly shaky. I dismissed it, and carried on as normal.

After another day or so of this, I realised that it wasn't good, and that I should probably do something about it, so to the doctors I went.

The doctor who saw me was actually really good, one of the few at the surgery who had an idea of what was going on. "How much caffeine do you have?" was the first question. The answer was quite a bit, so the doc's response was an understandable: "stop it at once". He mentioned that it wasn't doing me any good, but it probably wasn't the only thing making me feel odd, and asked me about my stress levels. He then timed my pulse, listened to my heart and checked my blood pressure and got a bit concerned - I was very close to 100 bpm. I was rushed off to get blood tests done at the hospital.

All the results came back normal, thank heavens.

Careful monitoring at home produced a range of 80-100 at rest on a regular basis over the coming weeks, so my doctor requested that I came back in for an ECG at the surgery, so I did. At thsi point, my experience with my surgery went back to the usual level of service.

I had the test, which took her about 20 minutes to get it all set up, and then some time for me to sit there all hooked up whilst the test ran. Eventually, the nurse left the room to "process the data" or something. About an hour later, she returns: "Oh, sorry, I forgot you were in here! The results show you have a very fast heart rate at the moment. If this remains like this, I suggest you make an appointment with the doctor"

Well, yes, thank you for that very astute observation, I wondered what was wrong with me...

I decided to give up with them at that point. and go with the Doctor's original advice of cutting out caffeine (now THAT was difficult and made me feel like utter crap for a few weeks) and I addressed what was stressing me out - mainly family issues and work, as seems to be the norm' these days. My heart rate returned to normal, and as an added bonus migraine attacks that I would get on a regular basis were reduced.
( theoriginalsteve <this space intentionally left blank>, Tue 16 Mar 2010, 11:56, Reply)