Eagle, you've been under a lot a stress but absolutely MUST take care of yourself too! We love you and want you to be well. I know Gary would want you to see the doctor if he knew you weren't feeling well.

Eagle,
I'm with the others on this. Please make time to care for yourself.
So happy for the good news about Gary!
Continued prayers for you, your brother and your entire family.

Eagle, I had a heart attack 2 years ago, and YES, these are symptoms that your heart is working way too hard. It may be stress, but stress is what caused my own heart attack.

Get thee to a doctor now. You won't be able to be there for Gary if you are not there for yourself first. We love you, please, please get this checked out right away.

I'm going to call my doctor today, at 9am. I doubt that I'll get in to see her today, but will insist on seeing the duty doctor at the same clinic. My husband's coming over in awhile and will take my blood pressure again, and we'll decide then whether to go to the clinic or to emergency.

I'm feeling a bit better this morning. Only a slight dizziness when I got out of bed. But no tightness in my shoulder or back this morning. But I won't take any chances, and will get me to a doctor today.

Good girl, Eagle. I'm so glad you're going, and that your husband will be with you. Please keep us posted, and take care!!!

Well, I went to the duty doctor - a rather frustrating exercise in futility. My own doctor knows me so well, she would have understood my fear and concern. This doctor (a very young man) took my blood pressure and listened to my heart and told me everything was perfect and there was no need for concern. The bp reading was still significantly higher than my normal, but he assured me there was no concern...and then told me that I should have gone to emergency instead, since they would have been able to do an ekg and bloodwork.

But one interesting tidbit came out of the visit - he said that one of the things that raises bp in women my age is menopause - the drastic drop in estrogen can trigger higher blood pressure. That made a lot of sense in my case. I still intend to investigate it further with my own doctor, but am not as apprehensive. Hubby left his bp monitor with me; we took it when I had another dizzy spell, and my bp was not as high as it has been, so it's possible something else is at play here.

Anyway, thank you all for your concern. I was frightened last night but felt safe inside your prayers!

PS My brother just switched ISP's, and we're already noticing a good improvement - so hopefully I'll be here later on this evening after my brother goes to bed!

I'm glad you went, but I still think you need to have some heart tests run. That pressure in your shoulder/back and the dizzyness are not normal.

Take care!!

I just discovered something interesting tonight. My brother has a beautiful set of small dessert plates that used to belong to my Mom. We use them every day. Tonight I was reading the bottom of one of them, just to see what the inscription was. Along with the description was the warning to NOT (the word "not" was in big bold letters) use these plates for food consumption. Which makes us think the paintings on the plates may contain lead...I've been using these plates several times a day almost every day for the past six months. Makes me wonder if there might be a connection between the lead-painted plates and these recent health problems. I'm going to get my blood checked next week just to see...my brother's going to ask his hemotologist to do the same the next time he does bloodwork.

Wow, that's scary. You're probably right, it's most likely the lead content or lead paint. One more thing, huh Eagle? Hang in there!

Kathy

Eagle, please have blood work done and an EKG. Your symptoms warrant that. I can't believe the doctor didn't send you.

Also, I don't think this is what the dizziness is from, but I was a dizzy dame (still am) and after having soem tests done, learned that I was dehydrated. This wouldn't explain your other symptoms, but are you drinking enough fluids? I was nursing at the time. As soon as I began drinking tons of water, it went totally away. Drink up!