All Wired Up

It's been an interesting week, as if I'm not having enough "fun", my heart decided to take my body for an unexpected "joy ride", resulting in me requiring a "Holter Test". For those of you unfamiliar with this medical test, it monitors the heart's activity, generally over a 24 hour period. Small patches were stuck onto my chest which connected to electrodes. The wires are attached to a small battery operated recording monitor (the size of a pack of playing cards) and was hooked onto my waistband. It's helpful to the doctor if one writes down any strange palpitations or symptoms along with the time of day they occurred and what activity one was doing, as this can then be compared with the read-out from the monitor's recording. Wearing the Holter was no big deal, but when my husband asked if I'd like to go out for coffee (knowing I hadn't been out all week) I reluctantly declined. The wires kept on hanging down below my shirt, and no matter how I tried to tuck them inside my clothing they were very conspicuous making my not so slim figure even more bumpy and oddly shaped than normal. I felt like some sort of science project gone wrong, apart from that, YES I would loved to have gone out.

How infuriating is it when your car makes a funny sound; you take it to the garage, yet once there, miraculously the noise disappears. You leave the garage puzzled, only to be driven mad by the returning mysterious noise on your way home. I'm normally a very positive thinker, but on this occasion, I was convinced during the 24 hours wearing the Holter, my heart would beat regularly, no palpitations or chest pains would occur, which had prompted the doctors to perform this test in the first place.

Mid afternoon, laying in bed resting, all of a sudden the whole episode I'd been complaining about, began. I've never before been so pleased to be in pain!  Unlike my car with the odd knocking noise that was never discovered at the garage, my heart kindly obliged and the palpitations began along with a sharp pain down my arm. "Great" I thought, finally captured on a monitor! As if this wasn't proof enough, I was also awoken at 01:00 with yet another episode, and although would normally find it highly disturbing, I was relieved there would be a second incident recorded.

When suffering from a serious disease, it's very easy to attribute any new symptoms to that illness, overlooking the fact there may be something new and unconnected going on. Never dismiss or make light of new symptoms. Make sure you write them down and report to your doctor as soon as possible. One normally associates heart attacks with the male gender, but the number of women who suffer heart attacks is far higher than you would imagine. Thankfully I did not have a heart attack, but will have to wait for the results to find out what is happening. Trust your instincts, you know your body better than anyone. If you feel something is wrong, don't let it slide.

I have had great difficulty in writing recently, for my condition became worse over the last few days, making it physically difficult to type, and I hope you'll not judge my article this week too harshly for it was written in extremely hard circumstances. Anyone suffering Parkinson's or who has had experience with this disease, I am sure will understand the great effort it took to write, what to others may appear a simple article. "Parkinson's waits for no man" is the title of my latest article in The Huffington Post if you'd like to take a look. Enjoy your weekend and I'll be here come rain or shine once again next Friday.