bradycardia
by
, 03-29-2015 at 01:03 AM (14039 Views)
I blogged a couple of days ago. Amongst other things, I mentioned I had dizziness when standing.
Further blood test results are back. Like all the other results from earlier in the week, the latest test for electrolyte levels (sodium, potassium) are within range. But the ECG suggests my heart rate is too low. Evidently it was 46 beats per minute at rest in the examination room (ideal is 60-80bpm). A condition called bradycardia. Whilst the reasons behind that are as yet unclear, it is consistent with the dizziness.
This all learned 20 minutes ago when my family doctor here in China (a very capable German guy) just called me up. It is Sunday afternoon.
My doctor says he has already referred me to the head of cardiology over here. They want to do a 24-hour monitoring thing... but I can't organise it before I fly to the UK on Tuesday. He says he won't stop me from flying back - but with the strong hint that he'd considered it.
I've already hit Google. Everywhere I search, the term "bradycardia" seems to be solidly linked to "pacemaker". I am 46 years old, feeling pretty fit. I never saw that coming at all.
Immediate thoughts are bad. The doc says I must not scuba dive until the situation is resolved, if ever again. (He knew that my wife and I have a diving trip of a lifetime planned to Truk lagoon in the South Pacific this summer.) And my wife's job means we are due to relocate from China to America this year and so I'll have a company transfer medical in the coming weeks; I have no idea what the consequences of this will be for all that. Pretty worried... I'm actually shaking.
I don't know why I'm writing all this here. It really isn't my style to attention-seek. I think it helps to clarify my own thoughts... and I said in the last blog post that I'd report developments regarding the dizziness. (I only wrote about that in the first place because I thought dizziness was a thing that was not uncommon for sleeve patients, so figured it was worth documented as part of my story. Unfortunately, the reality may not be as straightforward as I'd originally thought - and this dizziness is likely unrelated to weight loss surgery.)
There's not much more to be done or said until I get back here at the end of April.