Journal entry by Ashley Machiela —
For the last week Ashlyn has been experiencing chest pain and with each one the pain level seemed to be increasing. She’s also been experiencing more of the chest pains in the last week than are normal for her. At one point the pain was enough that she almost dropped what she was carrying so she asked me to call Dr. Zussman. Thankfully they were able to get her in the next day.
These chest pains are something she has always had but they are spontaneous so they’ve been hard to identify. There were thoughts that it could be from the scar tissue of having 2 back to back heart surgeries or sometimes the cartilage in her sternum becomes inflamed but that is usually when she’s sick with anything respiratory related, like when she had Covid in February.
But every once in a while Ashlyn’s chest pains will travel to her teeth. I know it sounds kind of weird but it’s a thing.
When Ashlyn had her heart monitor in March the reading showed arrhythmia. Extra heart beats. There were roughly 274 extra heart beats in the 24 hours she had her monitor on. Not enough to be concerned with and she didn’t complain of any chest pain during that time. The thought is that these chest pains are when those extra heartbeats group together. Instead of a single extra beat there are 2,3 or however many in a short time span.
Ashlyn’s cardiologist recommended a beta-blocker to help get the arrhythmia under control and hopefully lessen the painful symptoms she has been experiencing. She’ll start them today and will go for a follow up in 6 weeks to see how things are going.
It’s nice to know that we might finally have an answer to the chest pains she’s been suffering for years and that we might be able to get them under control. These chest pains are why I get so many phone calls from the nurses office and what has lead to so many ER trips.
Patients and caregivers love hearing from you; add a comment to show your support.
Help Ashlyn Stay Connected to Family and Friends
A $30 donation to CaringBridge powers a site like Ashlyn's site for one month. Will you make a gift to help ensure that this site stays online for them and for you?
Invite friends and family to visit the site
