Prescribed Fatigue

So.... a brief history of my recently acquired fatigue:

November I notice that I"m dragging more than ever but don't know why. Go in for a routine INR check (blood thickness level) and suddenly am on the table shirtless hooked up to an EKG. They say that my pulse is above 193 and that I am in "Atrial Fibrillation." I get put on meds and referred to a cardiologist. I see him and he says meds should do the trick. I come back a month later and he changes the meds and says that the problem has been that my blood pressure, which has been consistently low over years, is now being lowered even more by the drugs that were supposed to be lowering the heart rate.

He explains that low blood pressure will make me feel tired and sluggish. He also says that a high pulse, or heart rate, will make me feel tired and sluggish. So I ask how I will know which one it is. He suggests buying a heart monitor.

The first one I bought was very cheap... and I knew it wasn't accurate because every time I pushed the button it was way different than three minutes before skipping from 118 to 173 to 123 to 180, etc. So I hooked up a better heart rate monitor and it was recording anywhere from 143 to 185 while I was sitting still.

Since my target peak heart rate in the past when I was in much better shape and exercising was 155, I was afraid to exercise. The cardiologist said that I should never have my heart rate over 160. So when I had the heart rate monitor telling me that I was already in the 140s or higher when I was sitting still, I was too anxious to ever try and exercise. Thus, I felt even more tired..

So today I went back to see him for the third time. I have been so wiped out the last few days it's been hard for me to even walk from one place to another and I sleep all the time. They hooked me up to an EKG and my heart rate was at 120.

He also said that the medication he was giving me had fatigue as one of it's side effects. So basically fatigue was everywhere! Take the meds, feel tired, don't take the meds, feel tired.

Today though he finally has decided that the situation is alarming enough that they have to do a procedure to shock my heart back into rhythm. Before that, though, they have to do a TEE (transesophageal echocardiogram). This is a very disgusting procedure that I had done two years ago when I was in the hospital.

So next week I go in and have the TEE done. If my blod clot is gone, then I can have a procedure done that will shock my heart into rhythm. If it goes into rhythm I can go home If it does not, I will be admitted to the hospital for 48 hours to get started on a different set of medications.

I am not sure what to think of all of this. I just know that I am beyond tired and I need way more energy than I have to live the life I need/want to live.

I'm desperate enough to try ANYTHING at this point and I'm just grateful that the doctor did something other that prescribing fatigue again!