I was having chest pains. Been having them for over a month. So, I took myself to the ER and 12 hours later found myself in a room on the cardio ward.
Tuesday morning came and they did a stress test. Which came out abnormal. The doctor and I spoke and I had him talked into letting me leave and do an outpatient procedure, but my father called as we were talking and he wanted to be put on speaker phone.
The good thing was I had NOT had a heart attack. The bad thing was, I COULD have one if I went home and waited to have the procedure, so I ended up staying at the hospital. I was NOT happy, but understood that if the doctor hadn't felt there was a risk of a heart attack, he would have let me go home yesterday.
This morning, I went in for an angiogram. They found an artery that was clogged and unclogged it. It was a very uncomfortable procedure, but not painful. I was pretty scared and alone. I've bruises all over my arms, from IV's and blood work. My potassium levels are real low and my cholesterol levels are really really really high. Even though I do not eat like I use to and have lost over 100 pounds now, apparently my cholesterol problem is genetic. I also found out that my mother has what she calls a spastic heart as it turns out, so do I. The one thing I inherited from my mother. Figures. And apparently, my grams cholesterol was always in the 800's, though she took excellent care of herself, thus I inherited the high cholesterol from her!
Tonight, I have finally returned home. It feels so nice to be in my own bed. I'm on bed rest for a week. No walking too much, no lifting anything. I now must carry with me nitro and take cholesterol pills. I'll probably go to the vitamin store next week and get potassium pills, though doctor did say I could control that by eating foods high in potassium, such as watermelon, cantaloupe and bananas. But just to be safe, I think I'm going to take the pills if they sell them.
So that's it in a nutshell. Life in my fast lane has been a mess now for a few years...
I wonder if it will ever get better again.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
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3 comments:
im so glad to hear you are okay and hope you continue to improve! i was just thinking about you the other day and wondering where you'd got yourself to... xox.... annie
Oh hon! I am glad you are home but sad to hear of all your medical issues. Please take care of yourself and yes, you can buy potassium, they sell it in the vitamin isle!
Oh darlin' - sorry about it all. I too inherited cholesterol and high BP, but a good doctor in SD worked with me on pills and I now take a bunch but am where the doc likes.
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