Thursday, November 12, 2009

Scared and impatient

I know I've said this before, but I'm not a patient person.

Pain doesn't help that situation. With the upcoming surgery, I've been able to focus on a "deadline," of sorts. The point at which I'm likely to get some relief. I know, it'll hurt more before it gets better, but there's hope on the other side. I can make it to November 24th.

The other day, the hospital did all of it's pre-op testing. Yesterday, I went to my regular doctor to get medical clearance for surgery.

She furrowed her brow at the hospital's EKG report. "Have you ever had symptoms of a heart attack?"

Now, there's a question you don't like to hear.

"No. I've never had a problem. Why?"

She points at the piece of paper. "Right here, on your chart, we like to see a nice little bump there. Yours is flat. The report says this indicates that at some point you've had restricted bloodflow to this part of your heart."

Or, in other words, a heart attack.

"You've never had symptoms?"

No. I haven't. But neither did my dad, when he had two stints put in his heart and was told he could have had a major heart attack at any moment. And neither did my grandmother, when she had a heart attack no one saw coming, and died at age 56.

So, tomorrow morning, I go for a stress test. The doctor said the anomaly was "very minor" on the EKG, but we need to make sure. If anything shows, I need to see a cardiologist and surgery will be postponed. The thing that makes it worse is the waiting to find out. I'm a scared, impatient person.

Ranger is worried. He's always at a loss when I cry.

3 comments:

37paddington said...

I know about impatience. It's like the world slows to a crawl until you know the outcome of whatever it is you're waiting for. I hope it all turns out the best. Either way, you're taking charge of your health, which is what's most important.

e jerry said...

So I'm guessing you haven't had the echo yet.

Stress tests are so fun. When I had my heart issues back in 2005, they just kept me radioactive for four hours because they had to take a long scan, then the stress test, then another scan. They also didn't let me freaking sleep for 23 hours (I had to be admitted, and they found NOTHING wrong).

Here's hoping it's next-to-nothing for you.

Glitterstim said...

Jerry - That's the scan I had to have! Except for the not sleeping part. I've done that to myself....

And thank you Angella!