It’s no secret that in the last 98 days, I have lived through a lifetime of stressful situations that have really put a strain on me, and as a result, my health has been affected tremendously. I have gotten frequent headaches, I cannot sleep – and for the first time – my heart has actually begun to hurt. While I have had a heart condition for many years that has caused my heart to beat both irregularly and fast – I have never had actual physical pain in my heart – until now.

Every day for the last few weeks, I have been experiencing sharp, “zinging” pains in my heart that have, quite frankly, been scaring me. Without warning, I would feel a shooting pain surge through my chest at all hours of the day and night – and it was getting worse with each passing day. As this went on, my fear grew as fast if not faster than my pain – and although I wanted nothing more than for the pain to go away – it kept getting worse – and I realized I had to do something about it, fast.

After trying to foolishly wish it away for the last few weeks, I finally decided to go to the hospital last night and see what was wrong – and to my surprise – my pain is due to the fact that I am suffering from high anxiety.

When the nurse took my vitals, I was amazed to discover that my blood pressure, for the first time in my life – was dangerously high. The first time she took the reading, it was 150/110, which completely shocked me because there are times I have had a heartbeat that was close to 300 beats per minute – while maintaining a blood pressure of 120/80. Seeing the level of my blood pressure, and finding out about my chest pains, made it very easy for the doctor to diagnose me with high anxiety. And while medication can certainly curb the high blood pressure and chest pains – the only thing that can curb my high anxiety is a complete life change…

…and that is what I am going to do – before it is too late.

My biggest problem is that I am a very high strung person and I let everything aggravate me. From a driver that cuts me off to a screaming child in a public place – I have the shortest fuse of anyone I know and have absolutely no outlet for my stress. So when life boils my blood – my stress just sits in my body and builds up with no way to release it. Couple life’s everyday incidental dramas with my own personal stress – and you can see why my heart has been in so much pain.

What I have to do, effective immediately, is learn to take life’s issues with a grain of salt and let everything roll off of me instead of set me off. I have to understand that life is always going to throw me curveballs and sharp turns, and instead of flipping out, I will just have to deal with it. And most importantly – I made an appointment with my cardiologist for next Friday at 8:00am so I can get a thorough checkup and return to a regimen of heart medication that will help curb the high blood pressure and heart pain – before I wind up writing my last column.

On January 7th, I wrote a column called, My New Year’s Resolution: Full System Reboot. In it, I stated that, “Now is the time to take control – and that is precisely what I will do – starting today.” – and although almost 100 days of this year have passed so far – for me – “today” begins right now.