David Wood

Immediately after my first shot I feel my heart start to wobble in my chest, I got dizzy and cotton mouth, then I started getting tunnel vision and felt like my chest was caving in on me. I called over the paramedics that told me this was normal and nothing to worry about. Concerned about this reaction i called my doctor who told me to get the second shot since it was likely "anxiety" and nothing to worry about. In the coming months I started noticing a lot more palpitations. In late July i came down with a stomach bug (thought it might've been COVID but the test came back negative. i was sick for roughly 7 days with extreme stomach pain and elevated heart rate and fever. A week later in August my spouse and i were traveling to Chicago to film a wedding. While on the plane i developed severe nausea and dizziness which was followed by a rapid spike in heart rate. my heart rate jumped from 75 to 181 BPM. I thought i was having a heart attack. it was truly terrifying. during the rest of the trip i felt off and my heart stayed between 90-110 even when laying down. As soon as we returned home i booked a doctors appointment who assured me it was anxiety or a panic attack. my next episode was in a car in standstill traffic. First i felt extreme nausea, then my hands, arms and legs went numb and my heart started to wobble in my chest. i thought for sure i was gonna die. I picked up my phone and called 911 they directed us to get off at the very next exit and they would have an ambulance waiting there. We pulled to the side of the road where they took my blood pressure and heart rate. told me everything seemed normal and told us we had to option to take the ambulance or drive ourselves. we decided to go home and if it happened again we would head straight to the ER. I managed to make it to the next week where i had my next episode while eating dinner and watching tv. At this point everyday was a struggle something was and is very wrong with my body. The only way i can describe it is i feel unsure, uneasy, like my body could give out on my at any second. My heart rate spiked again to 200 BPM according to my apple watch. But this time it weas more like a roller coaster of up and down BPM wise. when we got to the hospital they told me it was likely indigestion and sent me home. I knew something was wrong so i pushed and fought for more testing from my doctors. fast forward to October i had a 30 heart rate monitor put on me and felt a sense of relief that we would get to the bottom of what is happening. On Day 29 of 30 I had a follow up with my Primary care physician who told me "see nothings wrong with you, you are completely healthy" after being gas lit for the past 3 months I bought this message and decided I would "Mind over matter" this situation. I decided I'd hop back into my old routine, I bought a large black iced coffee from star bucks and went to the gym near my house to play pick up basketball. the entire time at the gym my heart rate was elevated but thinking it was just nerves i pressed forward. during the game I felt a lot of PVCs almost like my heart was going to give out. I managed to play 2 games then I called it a day. went home and while making dinner. I went into Non-sustained Ventricular Tachycardia. I had my monitor on and knew it we just caught the the rapid spikes in heart rate that have been happening. The very next morning I received a call from the company saying I needed to go to the hospital ASAP. After meeting with the cardiologist he confirmed my worst fears that this was because of one of two reasons. Either I had a severely clogged arteries or I had inflammation of the heart muscle, also known as Myocarditis. I was scheduled for a cardiac angiogram the very next day. they was to rule out blockages. essentially they stick a tube in your wrist or femoral artery that travels up to the heart and pumps a contrast dye into the heart. its the gold standard for determining coronary artery disease and putting in stents if the arteries are to clogged. Thankfully that left us with the latter. Most likely this was due to Myocarditis. i was scheduled for a cardiac MRI with contrast in December. Thankfully that came back showing normal function and no fibrosis. However, it left me in a even stranger position. I had no damn clue why of what was happening to me. My symptoms continue to this day dealing with abnormal heart beats, chest pain, GI issues, joint pain, headaches, nausea, and dizziness. this year I have been to the ER 4 times.