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Me and the mouse went to the cardiologist Wednesday morning.
. . . “W-h-a-t???” you are thinking to yourself right about now.
Yep – that’s correct – the mouse. He, she, it (hopefully NOT they!!) has been living in my car for a week or so. In all the years we have stored wood in the garage in the winter and I have parked my car there, this has never happened. First time for everything, they say!
First thing I noticed was black dots on my passenger seat (no, not what you are thinking!!!) Until I picked up my leather glasses case I had no idea; then it became evident that something had chewed little pieces off it and left them all over the seat. Then I noticed a tissue shredded on the floor and my juice box chewed to pieces; he (she, it, they?) had chewed through the juice box under my seat and then carried it to the front of the passenger’s floor!! There was also one almond partially showing under the floor mat. As soon as I discovered my little companion(s??) it got so cold I didn’t want to be out in the garage tearing apart my car. Then it snowed, so I couldn’t get the car to the shop building where it would be a little warmer. Then I didn’t see any more evidence and thought they had departed. Boy, was I wrong!
On the way to the doctor visit, I noticed that they had gotten into the tissue box in the back, walked on my dashboard (little tracks in the dust!!!) and left little presents on the blanket on the back seat – guess they know it’s Christmas! Fortunately the back seat is covered with blankets for when the dog rides back there, so nothing is directly on my seat. And then, I realized they had gotten into the almond container – chewed through the plastic lid like a can opener and popped out the nuts. Now I’m afraid there are going to be nuts everywhere and even more critters. YUK. So, hopefully in the next day or two, weather permitting, I can drive my car up the hill to the shop and talk my husband into putting on my snow tires while I tear apart the car. Yippee, can hardly wait.
When I got home, I discovered that we have a cat living in the open garage behind the house. Maybe he (she?) can be enticed into the garage for a little buffet???
But, I digress. Enough about my companions – on to the doctor’s appointment.
The following is obviously written a bit “tongue in cheek” so I have to tell you that I really like my doctor –and the nurses and receptionist are really very nice ladies.
It was a sunny, balmy 10 degrees as I left the house! This time I didn’t drive past the hospital; I actually followed the large blue hospital signs to the correct driveway!
Then I parked in a different lot, much closer to the office, and promptly walked right past the office when I got inside (I thought it was farther down the hall!)
Then I got to watch a few minutes of the Ellen Degeneres show before being weighed in (not such an ordeal since I’ve shed a few more pounds!)
Then the nurse could only get my BP in the right arm so another nurse was called in for the left arm.
Then it was time to check my pulse – apparently faint and slow but, since I was still sitting in the chair and breathing that seemed to be OK. After they both concurred that I was alive, I was asked about my medications:
Had they changed?
“Nope.” (Why would they? This is the doctor who prescribed them!)
What was I taking in the morning or evening
“The blue one in the morning and the yellow one at night.” (This evinced a blank stare from the nurse who then referred to them by some fancy schmancy medical name! – “would that be the blah blah blah?”)
I replied again with my own fancy terminology “Blue in the morning, yellow at night.” (Guess I’ll have to learn some medical jargon to stay on top of this!)
Then I went through my aches and pains – apparently surprisingly few! But since I’d had some unusual (for me!) chest pains she hooked me up for the EKG which confirmed that, yep, sure enough, my heart was beating – but apparently somewhat slowly. This also evinced some medical term that started with “bra . . .” which apparently means slow heart rate. But, not to worry.
Then the doctor came in and we chatted, and I had to confess that I had missed taking the meds a couple of times; this did not overly concern him. (Hmm, after all, it ain’t HIS heart!!!) He looked at my most recent blood work and said that my cholesterol is good, my BP is good and I can cut the meds in half – literally. (Had to stop and get a pill cutter on the way home – those pills are way too tiny to cut in half with my husband’s molding cutter! As an added bonus it came with a pill holder for a weeks’ worth of pills. I spent 10 minutes cutting and filling and I’m all ready to finish out the week – and no more excuse for missing pills!).
The doc also said that if the temperature is less than 20 I’m not allowed out! Seriously! “No going to the grocery or walking outside in that temperature”. He used a cute little road analogy to explain why: “Think of your blocked artery as a closed road – the blood has to travel some back roads to detour around it and those roads can get icy.” (I.e., due to my closed off artery my blood is flowing in a different path now and breathing the cold air into my lungs can affect my heart).
I clapped my hands and told him that this heart attack has come in very handy as an excuse to get out of stuff I don’t want to do – instead of saying “no” I say “Well, you know, I recently had a heart attack” . . . . (pause) and people let me off the hook immediately!
Then, after laughing heartily - he told me that I had a “good attitude” (I think he likes me!)
Then I had to make a March appointment for something called a “stress test” which, according to my husband, apparently involves walking on a treadmill while hooked up to an EKG with the doctor and defibrillator paddles standing by. It does sound stressful, and also suspiciously like a phys ed class. Since my husband knows how athletic I am he has already kindly told me that I’ll fail the test miserably. But it does sound like an excuse to buy some new shoes – I’ve been eyeing those Skechers Tone Ups!
Showing posts with label heart attack. Show all posts
Showing posts with label heart attack. Show all posts
DEB'S BETTER WEDNESDAY - HEART ATTACK UPDATE!
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| Nifty pill cutter tool and that delicious Chewable Cherry Adult Baby Aspirin!!! |
He had a motto at the hospital: “One step at a time.”
I found that I also have a motto: “All the steps, how many are there and which way do I turn when I get to the top.”
So I thought we might have a communication issue. However, he was great, as was his nurse. Apparently his motto only applies when the patient (ME!) might be in a life or death situation!
They answered my complete list of questions and took a lot of time with me. My BP was down to 110/60 – LOW! – on the 2nd reading, the first slightly higher. And apparently the problems I’ve been having with lightheadedness in mid-morning are due to one of the pills – which he said I should be taking at night! I was not told that nor was it on the pill bottle! If that doesn’t work, I can cut the pills in half and take ½ in the a.m. and ½ at bedtime, so it seems to be a solvable problem. And I just happen to have the niftiest pill cutter! It’s actually some construction tool for cutting wooden trim work, but it works great for pills – cuts them straight in half!
I also get to keep taking my Chewable Cherry Adult Baby Aspirin (oxymoron??) every morning. I told the nurse I let it dissolve on my tongue and think of a big, gooey cherry Danish! (She thought I was funny!)
The doctor also said it will take 4-6 weeks to feel “normal” – that puts my timeline around the ViewPoint opening! So hopefully I won’t fall off the box my husband has threatened to put at the podium to elevate me while I’m giving my speech! (Last year he told me I was a “disembodied voice” during the speech and he aims to fix that this year!)
Anyway – all of the info from the doctor is good stuff to know. Barring any unfortunate incidents, I’ll be heading back there in January.
So now, apparently all of my impending health hazards are back to where they belong – our highways and byways. I always claim that any car I drive or ride in becomes invisible – cases in point:
Tuesday the car in front of me on the expressway ramp came to a DEAD STOP on the expressway – I had nowhere to go since a semi was whizzing along in the left lane. I had to slam on my brakes and the instant the truck passed me I changed lanes. Thank goodness there was no traffic behind me. A few minutes later the same guy who couldn’t find his gas pedal at the end of the ramp whizzed past me! Jeeeeeeeeeeeez.
Wednesday a large truck got over for me to come down the ramp – and then promptly pulled back into my lane – guess he had a very short attention span! (He received a rather UN-ladylike gesture and horn toot as I slammed on my brakes and got behind him and then passed him). And then another large truck pulled into my lane and then back into his lane for no reason I could see.
Gee – that’s enough to give a girl a heart attack!
DEB’S BAD TUESDAY – HEART ATTACK!
While you have been reading my posts which I had previously scheduled, I’ve spent 2 ½ days in the local hospitals with a minor heart attack (and had my first – and hopefully last! – ambulance ride).
The only reason I’m telling you this is so that the women reading this will realize that our symptoms can be very different from a man’s.
On Monday evening around 11:15, just as the local news was ending, my right bicep began to hurt. (Notice I said RIGHT bicep – i.e. not the heart side). I thought I had pulled a muscle. Later that night my upper back started to hurt and between my shoulder blades. Then I felt some chest pressure. Forget that “it felt like an elephant on my chest.” It was more like a 16 pound cat – I know this for a fact since I used to have a 16 pound cat that would sometimes sleep on my chest and wake me because I could not breathe! Then I had some slight pressure on my right neck. This is why I didn’t think it could be a heart attack – everything was on the wrong side of the body. So then I thought I was having an anxiety attack and the more I thought about it the more anxious I became! The symptoms alleviated, returned, changed pattern, etc.
At some point I decided it could be a heart attack so I made my peace and decided that if I was alive in the morning I would have my husband take me to the doctor.
Tuesday morning when he came in from moving the cows I was dressed and ready to go – called the doctor and we went there first. He assessed that I was having (or had already had) a heart attack and my husband drove me to the hospital. Only one problem – this is a local hospital and all they did was stabilize me – had we thought it out better we could have gone straight to Cincinnati to a cardiac care unit. Oh well . . .
After spending Tuesday there they transported me at 5 a.m. to Mercy Fairfield and I had a cardiac catheterization. The doctor said it was a minor attack in a minor artery and no point in putting in a stent – it is only about a 2% blockage.
However, I’m now on 3 medications for blood pressure, cholesterol and heart (thankfully CHEAP!) and a baby aspirin each day – I chose chewable cherry!
I did not know that I had high cholesterol and high blood pressure - that has always been low. Apparently this has been building for a while.
So, hopefully by following a strict diet plan and taking my medication I’ll be back to my usual self in no time. In the meantime, all I want to do is sleep!
The only reason I’m telling you this is so that the women reading this will realize that our symptoms can be very different from a man’s.
On Monday evening around 11:15, just as the local news was ending, my right bicep began to hurt. (Notice I said RIGHT bicep – i.e. not the heart side). I thought I had pulled a muscle. Later that night my upper back started to hurt and between my shoulder blades. Then I felt some chest pressure. Forget that “it felt like an elephant on my chest.” It was more like a 16 pound cat – I know this for a fact since I used to have a 16 pound cat that would sometimes sleep on my chest and wake me because I could not breathe! Then I had some slight pressure on my right neck. This is why I didn’t think it could be a heart attack – everything was on the wrong side of the body. So then I thought I was having an anxiety attack and the more I thought about it the more anxious I became! The symptoms alleviated, returned, changed pattern, etc.
At some point I decided it could be a heart attack so I made my peace and decided that if I was alive in the morning I would have my husband take me to the doctor.
Tuesday morning when he came in from moving the cows I was dressed and ready to go – called the doctor and we went there first. He assessed that I was having (or had already had) a heart attack and my husband drove me to the hospital. Only one problem – this is a local hospital and all they did was stabilize me – had we thought it out better we could have gone straight to Cincinnati to a cardiac care unit. Oh well . . .
After spending Tuesday there they transported me at 5 a.m. to Mercy Fairfield and I had a cardiac catheterization. The doctor said it was a minor attack in a minor artery and no point in putting in a stent – it is only about a 2% blockage.
However, I’m now on 3 medications for blood pressure, cholesterol and heart (thankfully CHEAP!) and a baby aspirin each day – I chose chewable cherry!
I did not know that I had high cholesterol and high blood pressure - that has always been low. Apparently this has been building for a while.
So, hopefully by following a strict diet plan and taking my medication I’ll be back to my usual self in no time. In the meantime, all I want to do is sleep!