I decided I'd get an Echo done privately. It would either reassure me that nothing was wrong (which would give me peace of mind at a price), or it would identify something was going on, and I'd be able to take it to the GP for help in getting it resolved earlier than otherwise.
The place I chose had a spot at 8pm last night, so I took that. It was an easy 40min drive and a three minute walk. I was 15 mins earlier, so stoof quietly in reception, waiting.
Mayble it was the sitting driving, or the standng idly for 15 minsm but my heart decided to choose yesterday evening to be fairly quiet. For the first time in weeks I couldn't actually feel it beating (and skipping). Even when I touched my pulse, it was all unusually quiet.
This meant that whilst I was having the echo done, it only did a couple of pathetic ectopic beats. It wasn't doing the usual, four betat regular, lub dup, lub dup, lub dup. BAMBETY BAM, pause, lup dup, lub dup, lub cup, BAMBETY MAM, pause,lub dup. It wasn't even doing its mega drum solo. Nope.
So the Echo didn't really get a chance to see what was going on. I also wasn't lying flat and, on reflection, I wish I'd asked him to let me do that.
However, it did show that there was no obvious damage to the valves etc, so that's reassuring.
It means that we still don't know what is causing the ectopic beats. It could be a virus. It could be coronary disease that an Echo can't pick up. It could be an auto immune thing, but there is no damage to the valves to suggest it is. Of course, for the doctor who did the Echo, all he saw was a couple of minor blips, so I can imagine that he thinks I'm overstating the issue a bit. (I wish I was having it done this morning, as it's been going mad all morning)
So. All he can do is look at how to reduce the symptoms. Vitamin D may help. Magnesium may help. He gave me a prescription for beta blockers which should stop the ectopic beats. I'm going to wait before taking betablockers, as (a) I really would like to try and find the cause of the problem rather than just treating the symptoms, and (b) I'm still going to go for my Echo at the beginning of September, and I need to be symptomatic for that to have a chance of showing the real issue up.
