I've been in the hospital since Tuesday. I had to get transferred from my local hospital to Heart Hospital Austin. What initially seemed like the flu turned into pneumonia, which spread to my heart and caused numerous issues with other organs, including my liver and kidneys.
I experienced significant shortness of breath, and my Apple Watch issued several high resting heart rate warnings, which I foolishly ignored and shrugged off. In fact, I believe these warnings started popping up as early as October or November, and I was getting unusually tired quicker than usual. What’s worse, it was reading a high heart rate almost every night.
Never ignore those warnings, and if you're experiencing shortness of breath, go to the ER, even if you think it's nothing.
What finally triggered me to go to the hospital was not only the nausea and shortness of breath that I thought was just the flu along with GERD, but my feet started to swell. My doctor friend heard this from my wife and insisted I go to the ER immediately.
While my Apple Watch didn't indicate AFIB, the doctor diagnosed me with atrial flutter. My heart's function had dropped to 10% and was beating out of rhythm. They had to shock my heart back into rhythm on Thursday. I definitely feel a lot better now and am hoping to be discharged in the next few days.
Again, take your health seriously because if I hadn't gone to the ER in time, I wouldn't be sharing this message.
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