Heart Tachycardia

When I was 17 years old, I often times found myself becoming more and more prone to fainting and just suddenly feeling unwell with no explanations as to why. Then, one day I was out having dinner with my family, when I became dizzy and shaky. My stepfather (who is a paramedic) took my heart rate and noticed that my BPM (beats per minute) was up to 113. This frustrating night at Braums will be what leads up to the struggles of today.

After my dinner situation, I started taking my heart rate three times a day. For the months that I did this, it was rarely under 80bpm. My mother and I decided that it was time to get this taken care of.

After a few doctors appointments, I was finally able to see a cardiologist. My mother and I walk up to the front desk, give them a name, but the desk lady continued looking to my mother instead of me. I looked around and realized that I was the youngest person in the entire building, with every patient being someone at least over 50 years old. The desk lady did not think this appointment was for me, but my mother. My mother had also caught on to this, so we cleared that up for her. Of course, like everyone else, she was shocked to see someone so young in the office.

I made it back into a room and the nurse came in to start her interrogation. After everything I told her, she gave me a response I will never forget.

“Most people your age who come in here are just dealing with anxiety.”

Anxiety? Really? Well, I can tell you right now that this is not my anxiety. I have been diagnosed nd mmedicated for my anxiety since I was 16 year old. This is different. My anxiety is not making me pass out while walking to my bedroom. My anxiety is not making me start feeling randomly sick while watching Bluey on the couch. My anxiety is not making me have a 113bpm in the Braums.

I left that day with heart medication that took the place of shut up pills and a promise that I would have a heart monitor sent to me (spoiler alert, they found nothing wrong).

I’ve still unfortunately had problems. While the Metoprolol helped for the most part, I still find myself having random episodes of palpitations and dizziness that come out of nowhere. Just a moment ago I started shaking as my heart started pounding and I had to sit down.

Heart problems run in my family. My papa Leon had a lot of problems from a young age. It just took the doctors several years to figure it out. He had problems when he went into the military. It took until he was in his 40’s till the doctors figured out he had Afib and Aflutter. In his later years he was pacemaker dependent. Is this what will happen to me? Do I have to wait another 20 years for the doctors to finally see what’s wrong? Do they simply believe that because I am young that I can’t have such problems cause most people that have the same ones are older? Doctors see a 17 year old claiming heart problems but decide that I’m mentally ill and it isn’t serious. Will they take me anymore seriously now that I am 19? Or am I still just an anxious kid?