So, I was sitting at work on Wednesday morning, just doing my thing when my heart started freaking out on me. Actually, this is a pretty normal occurrence. I’ve had pretty bad heart palpitations every summer since April of 2000 when I participated in the annual memorial Bataan Death March Marathon held at White Sands, New Mexico. They usually start up in the Spring and last until around mid to late August. Sometimes I’ll have up to 20 palpitations a minute. I’ve seen numerous (military) doctors about this and they all assured me I was just fine. Nothing at all to worry about.

Anyway, I was sitting at work and my heart just started flipping out. It was palpitating, fluttering, racing, and doing flip flops on the amazing trapeze. I was getting light headed and dizzy, couldn’t concentrate and was having problems breathing correctly. Naturally, I went home sick. After taking a nap I found that I actually felt worse, if that was possible. So, I drove myself down to the local emergency room and checked myself in. They found that my heart was beating at about 120 beats per minute. HOLY COW! It never beat that fast when I ran a freaking 2 mile PT test and all I was doing was lying there. So, out came the oxygen, and about a million wires hooked up to every part of my body. Three hours later I was sent home with some allergy medication and a consult to a Cardiologist.

Fast forward one day. The Cardiologist is actually taking me seriously. He puts me through all kinds of tests. An EKG, a heart sonogram, a stress test, a lung test, blood work, etc, etc, etc. So, what’s the end result? Apparently, I have a leaky valve in my heart. Nothing serious mind you, just a valve that lets a very small amount of blood back into the main chamber of my heart every time it beats. This, and there are various chemicals in my body that see fit to attack my heart from time to time making it palpitate. And oh yeah, I have a slight case of asthma that complicates the situation somewhat.

So, now I’m on medication. Heart medication that is. It seems to be working pretty well. No palpitations for the past couple of days. I’m just happy that someone is finally taking me seriously. No more sitting around with my fingers on my neck, checking my pulse wondering if the next heart beat is going to bring about instant death. It’s only a leaky valve after all.