A few weeks ago I started having difficulty breathing at night and also noticed my heart would beat rapidly for little or no reason at all. I have strange and new symptoms all the time so even though I was concerned I knew that there wasn't much that could be done. I kept most of it to myself, but took things a little slower to keep my heart from racing.
And then one day I got so caught up in a phone conversation that I put off taking a shower till the very last minute. Mind you a shower is one of the most painful and exhausting things I can do. Afterwards I rushed out the door to pick Shawn up from work. The whole car ride I struggled to catch my breath. There was a lot of vog so I figured that was at least part of the problem. When I got out of the car and walked down several steps I twisted my ankle. Twisting anything with RSD/CRPS is not a good thing. When we got home my ankle hurt but my breathing was somewhat better and eventually I fell asleep.
The next morning my ankle felt better but I could barely breathe and my heart really hurt. I had never experienced anything like it and knew I needed to go to the ER. The rest of the story you can read here. All the tests came back normal which is generally a pretty good indicator that the culprit is Lyme or RSD/CRPS. My primary care doctor confirmed that this is the case. Thankfully I am feeling much better although I am trying to be extremely careful of not overdoing it. I mean if "little" things like taking a shower and then twisting my ankle can cause this extremely scary episode then it's a pretty good indicator that I need to be even more cautious than normal.
