"I thought it best to take a break for a while."
Yep, good idea :)
"I had a Barium swallow test shortly after my ENT exam and it too came back normal."
Yep.
"I had covid about three weeks back, which lasted about five days (only one day of feeling off)."
A hyperactive immune system comes in handy for fighting off infections. It's as if all your immune system "troops" are SAS and Royal Marines. You just don't want them to ever run amok and start attacking *you*.
"Hard to believe 17 months later here I am, no change but no serious diagnosis on it."
Well, it's run of the mill, from my vantage point. This forum is something like a secondary referral centre for mystery cases.
"I've been taking it easy on the runs and bikes and haven't had any heart issues lately, yay!"
That supports the notion that the episodes were triggered by heavy duty exercise. So then now, with no exercise-induced mast cell activation = no reflex tachycardia.
"It sucks coughing in public though because everyone looks or glares."
Yep, coughing does really stand out these days :) I'd try an antihistamine, particularly the common OTC Benadryl/diphenhydramine. Because mast cells make histamine. If you do that, let's talk dosage.
Chris, I hope your symptoms stay away. But if they return, I'll recommend a very relevant lab test. Good luck to you.
P.S. I would understand perfectly if you eventually want to return to the more intense exercising. It's like food for the soul. I think that's very possible to do, but only if taking the right preventative measures (mainly therapeutic supplements) beforehand.
I'd suspect this:
- exercise induced mast cell activation
- massive release of histamine etc
- profound vasodilation which is effectively akin to reduced circulatory volume and bordering on hypovolemic shock
- that results in very significant reflex tachycardia and probably also increased heart muscle contraction strength, to keep you from passing out
Be very wary in future of passing out and hitting your head hard on some gym iron. Intracranial bleeding.
Other wise, and less likely:
- serotonin storm, esp if on any serotonergic meds or other substances
Even less likely:
- carcinoid syndrome
"I think this is pretty normal for people who run and bike like I do.?"
[46] seems extraordinarily low to me, for someone your height. Your extraordinary cardiovascular fitness is what probably kept you from passing out.
At 46 BPM, be careful you don't get wrongly pushed into a pacemaker.
Is there a risk of going to the well too often? The barium test is very likely to be fruitless. When it comes time for a relevant test, the NHS might say that you've had too many tests already?
ENT appointment today went as you (Ken) expected, "everything looks great". The Doc recorded the whole thing then played it back for me, walking me through everything we were looking at along the way. He said my vocal chords look great too. The actual procedure only took about 2-3 minutes probably and wasn't very uncomfortable. I walked him through a brief run down of symptoms and medical history for the past year. He did examine my neck (feeling around and such) and did note my enlarged lymph node. He said he thought it felt soft and was mobile, which he took for good signs. Given the way I was feeling last night and today (symptoms) I thought for sure we would see something. But alas he said everything looked normal. He did offer a barium swallow test and I agreed to it - can't be to thorough. I need to put some notes down next time. I forgot to mention the swollen tongue issue and night sweats. My head was swimming from the time I got to the waiting room.
You don't have a cat, right?
The Hct and Platelets are just a tiny bit low. No doc would likely be concerned, unless there were a series of CBCs showing a steady trend downward - then they'd probably just order more CBCs to detect further decline, if any.
The scope might start by going in through the nose. You can almost certainly find videos demonstrating the procedure. My *guess* is it will show nothing. It's more a ruling-out kind of step.
Most definitely mention the swollen tongue, which of course argues strongly against cancer. A cancer wouldn't leap to there, then retreat. Btw, not all immune cells are in the circulation (WBCs). Some reside in tissue, such as mast cells - which secrete over 200 powerful biochemicals. Swelling usually results from histamine, which is made in mast cells.
You don't have any tooth root pain if you bite down on something like a pencil, right?
Good luck, cris.