Thursday, January 31, 2008

Heart Smart

I apoligize. I know it's been awhile. I will be done with my regular swim season tomorrow and will only have to worry about post season swimmers until the end of Feburary. I also started my spring semester class. It's Saturday mornings from 8:30 -12. Kind of sucks, but it's way better than Friday night class.

I admit I have been avoiding updating the blog because something significant happened and I have been coming to terms with it. As some of you may know Travis and I have been unsucessful in trying to get pregnant. I finally worked up the courage to go to the Doctor to find out what's going on and was greeted with some unpleasant news. The Doctors are very concerned about my heart. Apparently I have a flutter and extremely high blood pressure/other heart irregularities that have technical terms I don't understand. They took a lot of blood (and were not gentle about it) put me on a very strict diet, and are asking me to document basically every step I take. I have to visit the nurse's office at school every week to check my BP and some other stuff. At the end of March I will go to the hospital to have further tests done to determine if the blood flows correctly to my heart, blah blah blah.

It's hard because I feel just fine, no different than before. I don't think I ate that bad and I'm stressed, but no more so than at any other time. I do have "heart cramps" which I thought other people got. Guess not. They are concerned because I have similar symptoms to my Dad's A FIB condition. (For those of you who don't know my Dad has undergone 2 heart surguries in the past few years and almost died after they botched his last surgery.) So I'm alittle concerned/anxious/paranoid. And the worst part... they feel very strongly that I should not try to get pregnant now or soon because they don't feel my heart could stand the pregnancy right now. Don't get me wrong, I want to live, it's just somwehat startling and depressing.

The upside: I will lose alot of weight which is always good and I am signing up for every 5k or biatholon in the spring. If I have something to train for I think I will be more motivated during my workouts. I am also signing up for a walking marathon in Maine in the fall. Yeah I'm not that cool, i'm walking and jogging if the occasion arises. My diet is going well although I dreamed about eating potato chips the other night and woke up alarmed. I don't even like potato chips. Bland food is growing on me. And for whatever reason this is a blessing in disguise. I am learning a lot about self mastery and that's something I lack. So there it is. I am fine and I have faith that I will be better if I follow the Doctors orders. In the mean time, low sodium no taste.

12 comments:

Brie said...

Hi friend- I'm so proud of you...no taste food is a big jump for you :) Glad that the diet is going well. 5k, NBD...this could be just the prep you need for being a mommy..I love you and when can we have a sleepover??

ashley said...

so i guess you have had some good reason to not blog these days.

kirstin- hope you are doin alright. that is crazy. i think i would be sort of totally freaking out. at least they found it now though and you can do what you need to to get through it.

"you can do it" (picture me hip thrusting away as i say it, it makes it much more modivational)

Molly Malia said...

bird, keep up the good work...

your day, as well as mine, will come. i just took another test this evening and it was a no go. another month. maybe i need to learn some motivation from you...
i love your butt, you know that!

Dana and ohana said...

okay-
1. so sorry.

2. how much weigh are you going to loose?

3. what's the diet?

4. do I have it?

5. define "heart cramp"

6. bland food sucks BUT if it keeps the ticker healthy than Bottom's up!

7. jason says you can have our kids.

8. a marathon is a marathon. Who cares if you walk it or run it. If you cross the finish line you have completed a marathon.

9 we love you even if your heart is retarded

10 I will call you this weekend.

janeen said...

hey Kirsty, Sorry to hear about your heart condition. Too bad you live way back East or I'd run with ya. Good luck getting everything cleared up and in working order.

Anonymous said...

Kirsten,
I am so sad to learn of your news. I wish you did not have to go through all of this. I guess the positive thing is you found out now so your doctor can help you. Please keep us posted and know I am thinking of you with love always!
Aunt Lee

Anonymous said...

oops...I should have previewed for typos...sorry Kirstin...Aunt Lee

john and nikki said...

kirstin - that's crazy! at least you were brave enough to go find out what was wrong. hopefully, they can figure this thing out and get your heart back on track. our thoughts and prayers are with you, not only for your heart problem but also because the Pats blew it last night.

Shannon said...

Sorry to hear about the startling medical report. I know the docs will take good care of you, though, and hopefully soon you'll be better than ever! Just think of all the good, healthy food you get to eat now...(um, if you find anything healthy that actually tastes good, too, can you let me know?:)) Sorry to hear about the Pats, too. Another shocking blow when you're already down. I tell ya. Keep your spirits up and Adam and I will be praying for ya! Oh- and I only wish there were a walking marathon around here somewhere! I'd love to be able to say I did one, but have no desire to actually RUN one. If it was intended to be for walkers I'd be so much more motivated to sign up!
Shannon

Kristine said...

Okay so I don't know what it feels like to be told your heart isn't working like it should but I do know how it feels to be put on a sodium (no taste) free diet. I had to be on one (luckily only for two months) and I hated it. Whatever sodium I got daily came in the form of chocolate for me.

A few of us are running a 5k in April in SLC. You should join us. It isn't too far to travel for a run. Maybe we could talk Dana into it too and we could do a girls trip to Moab or something too. Come on you know you want to par-ty with me.

Well I hope you are feeling good.
kristine

winter said...

Kirstin good for you. I'm proud of you for going to the doctors. I can't imagine going on that diet. I can't imagine going on Steve's diet too... no sugar or yeast. that is crazy. My husband weighs 150 pounds. I'm so much more than him right now.
I'm sorry that you have a heart problem. I'll be praying for you... especially that you'll find flavor with your diet.
Love you....
Winter

heidi said...

i have no idea how you are really feeling, but I feel for you. things like this are never expected. i had a really hard time getting pregnant with cruz and i got really down--meanwhile, i wanted to get pregnant so bad that i was getting everyone else pregnant :), people that didn't want to get pregnant were even getting pregnant (NOT FUN for me, i'm sure you know how that feels!) anywho, what i truly realized was that no matter what i wanted, i wasn't the big boss. heavenly father was the only one with the plan--not me. i did eventually get pregnant, after a miscarriage in between, and during my pregnancy i found out i was gluten-intolerant. so i hear you on the diet stuff--hard to adjust, but better in the long run. hope you didn't fall asleep reading the novel i wrote on your blog.