It starts with a tightening in the chest, then a flushing feeling in my face and neck, and then my heart goes crazy and I think it’s going to pound out of my chest. It feels like a panic attack–without the panic.
I’ve been checking off the list of typical pregnancy symptoms over the last week or so–boobs growing to the size of melons and hurting under the weight of it all…pressure in the abdomen…crying unexpectedly during Good Morning America…feeling all alone in the world when my girlfriends were busy for lunch. But when this one presented itself during a women’s forum at work (focused on work/life balance, of all things), I headed straight for the family doctor.
All of this happened before the plus sign appeared in the early morning hours, so we weren’t certain of El Poquito’s presence yet. And the physician’s assistant think being a few weeks pregnant would cause heart palpitations, so she wrote up orders for the 24-hour holter monitor and today I enjoyed the sticky, bulky, awkwardness of that experience. I wish I’d remembered to get Baby Daddy to photograph me in the contraption…stickers, wires, box, strappy pouch and all. But I didn’t.
They said it would take a week to download the results and get them to my doctor. Shouldn’t heart concerns be a little more speedy than that?
