Last year I had a mild neck injury which progressed into a frozen shoulder, so for the better part of a year I have been pretty sedentary, doing only the exercises suggested for physical therapy (for those problems) and some light house work and stretching. It was just too painful to do more.
I have been increasing my activity levels around the house over the past couple of months though, as the shoulder is finally becoming less painful. Today I tried raking leaves and had a rather scary episode though. After about 15 minutes of raking at what I consider an average walking pace, my heart began to pound very hard and I got short of breath. I also felt a bit weak. Nothing hurt though, and I didn't feel like I was going to pass out or anything, but it really scared me. I sat down and concentrated on taking slow deep breaths until I felt normal again, which I'm guessing took somewhere around 10 minutes to achieve. During that "cool down" time I took my BP, HR, and O2 readings and they seemed off to me. The first reading was immediately after I got in the house and sat down (while still feeling out of breath with the heart pounding).
My blood pressure was 90/61, which is well within normal range for me, heart rate 79, and oxygen level 98%.
The second reading was taken maybe 5 minutes later when I felt like the heart had settled down some and was breathing more normally.
Blood pressure was 92/63 (again, normal for me), heart rate 76, and oxygen level 98%
Several hours later, when I was feeling completely normal and had been resting (I'll refer to these as "resting readings" later), I took them again and they were:
Blood pressure 98/69, heart rate 87, oxygen level 99%
Several things bother me about this. First and most obviously is the fact that such a simple exercise as raking leaves would cause me to get out of breath and have a pounding heart. Could this be just a side effect of being out of shape? My next concern is about the readings. Is it normal for my blood pressure and heart rate to be higher when I took the resting readings than it was when I was taking them after exercising? Those are completely normal resting readings for me, so does that mean something bad is happening when I try to exercise? I'm also confused as to how I could have had a blood oxygen level of 98% right after exercise, which isn't bad, when I felt so totally out of breath?
I don't know how much health history may be helpful to you, so please ignore anything that isn't (helpful, I mean). I had a full panel of fasting bloodwork done around July of 2012 including a thyroid test, liver enzymes, and hormone tests. The latter showed that I am in "early" pre-menopause at age 43, which is a hereditary thing, but all else was normal and every blood test I've had in the past 5 years has been as well. I had EKGs, echocardiograms, and heart enzyme tests run in 2009 and 2010, exactly 1 year apart, due to the fact that I have and have had heart palpitations (funny enough, I didn't have any today though!) All they found was trace mitral valve regurgitation in 2009, and trace mitral (which was less than the previous year's) and tricuspid regurgitations in 2010, both of which they said were just incidental findings on the echo reports and nothing to be concerned about. The palpitations have repeatedly been attributed to chronic anxiety and panic attacks, which I do have quite a history of, by several doctors.
Other than that I do have some issues with acid reflux, which I am currently taking a twice daily dose of Zantac 75 for, a bit of insomnia due to hot flashes, and some ongoing tiredness which I attribute to the not-so-ideal sleep patterns. I am not overweight (I'm actually trying to gain a few pounds), do not drink alcohol or do any form of drugs, do not drink coffee or sodas, and my diet is pretty decent.
Do you feel that the heart-pounding episode I had is something to be very concerned about in regards to heart health? Or do I just need to build up my stamina after so much time off of vigorous exercise?