So for the past two days I've been having weird chest / heart discomfort things. Over the weekend Rob's grandfather had emergency open heart surgery (triple bypass - he's doing well) and I guess that's gotten me a little stressed and a little sensitive to heart concerns. But at the same time I was going "Am I becoming a hypochondriac?"

Yesterday i was feeling a little light headed; today pretty much all afternoon I felt anxious - that physical feeling of nervousness / anxiousness that until this evening I thought everyone experienced. Apparently not everyone does. But you know, generally feeling like your heart is beating to fast.

The thing is, past post not withstanding, there isn't really anything in my life to justify a couple hours of anxiety I don't think.

So finally this evening I called my Mom. She's been to the ER twice in the past six months; the second time turned out to be gallstones, but the first time it was for heart stuff. After talking to her, I think that what I'm experiencing is probably the same as what she's been having.

She said that the time she went to the doctor her heart was pounding for two and a half hours like she was really anxious, but that she's experienced the sensation often over the course of her life - heart pounding in situations when it didn't really seem called for. Like sitting at home watching nothing in particular on TV. The doctor said that basically her heart was misfiring. The left side of your heart beats and then your right, but in her case, the timing was off and the two beats were running into each other. They hooked her up to the EKG or whatever to test her heart rate, and detected the irregular rhthym, but also determined that when she exercised it went away. So the doctor's solution was simple: exercise more. He gave her some blood pressure medication temporarily and now she's not even taking that. He said it was largely a stress induced phenomenon.

It was an interesting explanation actually. He said that in days of yore, when a human was feeling fear / anxiety / worry it was because there was some physical danger in front of him - say a hungry lion. The appropriate response to such a fear was a physical one - i.e. spear the lion. So the body produced adreneline, which helped it respond faster and stronger. These days, we sit at desks and worry about intangibles, but our reactions aren't physical, so the producing adreneline rush causes problems.

It was very interesting to hear her say that, because I've felt for some months now this feeling of heaviness on my chest . . . very very faint, nothing major, just something that generally provoked in me the desire to go run or burst into some major cardio activity, because when I was active the feeling went away. I spent 7 years becoming a strong athlete, and then spent the 7 following years slowly becoming more and more inactive. Last year I still went to the gym some, went and roller bladed some, and I was playing with little kids - definitely a physical activity! But this year I've hit rock bottom, as far of an extreme from the highschool basketball player that I was as I can possibly get. So since the doctor's main prognosis was "stress and lack of exercise" being the problem for my Mom, it seems reasonable that I, having similar symptoms with similar physical attributes, also suffering from "stress and lack of exercise", would be having the same problem.

Especially since I take after my mother in a number of ways which, as I've come to learn more about women's health at the coaxing of my sisters, are very important. We're the same physical build and both have similar blood sugar issues, two factors which are very important in determining risk for heart disease. And we both tend to have low blood pressure.

Anyway I realize it can be dangerous to do this whole self-prognosis thing; I need to get Cornell's health form filled out anyway to get back on their health plan, so I figure I'll schedule a regular check up with my doc to get that taken care of and I'll bring this issue up with her at the same time.

In the meantime, I think sleeping so I can exercise in the morning is a good first step. :-)