in which one side of my heart throws a party and the other side watches with disgust

(August 4)

I saw the heart doctor today. May I say it is amazing that they can look at a bunch of numbers and tell me right off what's going on? Apparently my heart monitor would alert the doctor even when I hadn't pressed anything, just if something weird was going on. So actually she did catch one of my palpations--just not one I felt.

Apparently my palpations are perfectly normal. What happens (as I understand it) is that the side of my heart which keeps the beat is on the top-left. However, from time to time the top-right of my heart decides to throw a party and speeds up, taking over the thump-thump. Then that side gets sick of the party and throws responsibility back on the other side. And life goes on. Nothing harmful or dangerous about it.

We also talked about my chest pains (which have gotten so bad at times that I've almost cried). When I have an "attack," it feels like my ribs are squeezing in and digging into my lungs very slowly. The worst it got was when it had been aching badly most of the day and I ran across the street. When I got to the other side, I couldn't breathe and was in a lot of pain. My doctor says this isn't related to my heart, though. She thinks it could be that I have Fibromyalgia or arthritis in my ribs, so that it hurts for my ribs to move when I breathe deeply. She thinks that the new medication I'm on will help.

She also told me some of the signs that I should be looking for, and encouraged me to call her if anything comes up.

So that's covered and over, for now at least.