Mike Mayer's Heart <3

Well I suppose the first entry should cover anything that happened prior to right now. I will certainly miss some details but I’ll try to remember as much as possible.

On March 7th 2009 I had my first vasovagal episode which induced syncope (Sync-O-Pea). Basically my brain sent wrong signals to my body causing me to faint. It’s an electrical issue and the sensors were confused.

It was during a family dinner at my sister’s house in Corona. My grandfather was in the area and I rarely see him so I’m sure that was disturbing for him.

At the time I was having terrible back problems which caused me a great deal of pain and I was scheduled to have an epidural injection of steroids and pain killers in order to help relieve the pain. Since I was still in pain we assumed that perhaps I succumbed to the pain and that’s why I passed out. We generally disregarded that episode and assumed it wasn’t a sign of something else.

So I continued behaving normally. Dealing with the back pain and whatnot. Later that month I had the epidural for my back and my back pain was reduced significantly and was many times more manageable than before.

I felt it was time for me to try and get my life more on track. Be healthier and happier in general. So I decided I’ll start going to the gym. This was around May of 2009. I purchased a 24 hour fitness pass  and started going to the gym two days a week at a minimum. I was taking a cycling class and a lift class.

Those classes were hard at first but as I continued going they were easier and easier. I was feeling better and stronger than I have in a long time. I also lost 15 pounds over the next six months.

Which brings us to November 2009. This was a pretty good time in my life. I found myself with the most amazing girlfriend ever and things were looking up like never before. I felt on top of the world and all that good stuff.

Sharon and I went to La Salsa for lunchish one day. I felt normal. Like any other day. At the very end of the meal she looked at me and asked if I was feeling okay, to which I responded, “no.” With barely any warning I passed out and hit my head on the ground. She checked me and called 911. The paramedics responded and I was bleeding from my lip and the very tip of my forehead.

I refused to allow them to take me to the hospital for the fear that it would be too expensive to do so. Of course, nobody had any idea what was wrong with me and I was taking a risk by not allowing them to take me. Fine. Luckily Sharon was with me and she was able to take me to the nearest hospital. They would have only admitted me via the emergency room so we diverted to Memorial Prompt Care.

I was familiar with these doctor’s offices because I used to go there all the time. I was able to see a doctor that night and they did a EKG on me and said it looks normal. The doctor suggested that I do not drive and suggested that I see a cardiologist immediately.

Since this happened on a Friday and I always have to play stupid games with my insurance I wasn’t able to see the doctors at UCI Student Health until the following Monday. I saw my normal doctor Harry Siemonsma who referred me to Dr. David Pan but I wouldn’t be able to see Dr. Pan for ~3 weeks. Fine. I had no choice but to wait more.

During the time I was waiting to see Dr. Pan I was feeling bad. I had lightheadedness and weaknesses. I really was feeling helpless. I hate that feeling. I almost passed out on December 12 2009 but I was able to get my head down fast enough to prevent it. I certainly felt bad after that though.

I saw Dr. Pan shortly after that incident. He certainly won’t win any awards for his bedside manner or for appearing to listen to what you have to say but he did agree to prescribe some monitoring and testing to see how I am doing. He nearly sent me off saying that I should drink more water and be more careful not to miss any meals. Sharon and I wouldn’t have had any of that.

I was scheduled for a Tilt Table Test and for an echocardiogram (ECG) and wore a heart monitor for the next couple weeks. During the time that I wore the heart monitor I felt funky and had chest pains and had the ability to wirelessly report any incident to my cardiologist via a cellphone that was connected to my heart monitor via bluetooth. That thing was intermittent as hell but I’m sure they managed to get some good data out of it.

So I wore the heart monitor for a few weeks without incident. I was scheduled to have the Tilt Table Test on 01/06/2010.

At some point during those few weeks I got a fat letter from the DMV saying that my driver’s license will be suspended on 01/16/2010 if I do not get a doctor to explicitly go through a set of paperwork and say that I’m fit to drive. I felt good enough that I expected this to be no problem.

I go to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Orange to have the test. A tilt table test was made famous on House and I was starting to feel like I was a patient on the show. I arrive around 1pm and the test is expected to last about an hour and a half. The first part of the test they have me stand upright for 20 minutes. Then they’d have me lay flat for awhile then inject me with drugs to increase my heart rate to 80% of capacity then stand me back up.

The idea is to force a syncope by stressing the heart. A test is called positive when this is the result.

I set a record at St. Joseph’s Hospital. I passed out in 38 seconds and my heart stopped for 15 seconds. The cardiologist needed to do chest compressions in order to get my heart started again. The nurse told me they were ready to inject me with drugs or get the paddles out if they needed to.

Luckily I came back. I felt terrible. I texted Sharon letting her know I needed her to get back to the hospital. The test was supposed to take an hour and half but was over in five minutes.

I couldn’t sit up without my heart rate falling off for a long time. Once I was able to sit up for awhile they had me try and stand up then I got REALLY lightheaded again and thought I’d pass out. So I was back to laying down. I had to repeat this attempt at getting up many times. It took probably an hour and a half before I was stable enough to move.

The cardiologist told me that I pretty certainly needed a pacemaker at this point. He was ready to admit me to the hospital right then and do it immediately. Like before with the paramedics, I resisted. I didn’t like the idea of having something implanted in me without having a second opinion or even some time to research it on my own.

I had read about the likelihood of needing a pacemaker a number of times when reading about vasovagal episodes and syncope and bradycardia / tachycardia. It sounded like a normal procedure at this point. I was hoping I didn’t need this.

Eventually I made it home. I was feeling terrible but I was apparently stable enough to sit up and do things normally again.

I spent the remainder of the day talking to the people I could about pacemakers and if they know good doctors and what I should do. I was trying to use group think to decipher whether there was a consensus about my treatment. All signs pointed to “yes, this is the correct course of action.”

Today. 01/07/2009 I am going to go see an electrophysiologist who is going to advise me further on the situation. When I spoke to my cardiologist this morning he apologized for jumping on the pacemaker so quickly and said that after speaking with his colleagues that it might be more prudent to attempt prescribing medicine and do resistance training. I don’t know what kind of medicine he’s suggesting and I don’t know what he means by resistance training.

I also spoke with my insurance people. Apparently I’m scheduled for surgery tomorrow at 1pm. That’s news to me. I don’t have anything more to say about that other than I hope they let me know I’m having surgery tomorrow.

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Anyway. This is the first post and probably the longest. I’ll try and correct and add whatever comes up that I remember as I go.

Thank you all for your support.