Cardiology! Reprise Bad Baby!
Nov. 30th, 2007 09:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blackberry444I got to the hospital early, because I went by taxi. John had gone to Newark and I couldn't face trying to find a parking space after the last time I drove to the hospital, when I hit a consultant's car. I had time for an overpriced paper cup of coffee.
Because I was early, of course, the consultant was running late, so I sat in a superheated waiting space for well over an hour by which time I was reduced to a puddle of sweat. Who are all these people who have no trouble in sitting in crowded overheated hospital waiting rooms for hours in their overcoats?
When I finally saw the consultant, he spent quite a lot of time with me reviewing all the tests I'd had and finally telling me that he was baffled. All the tests showed that apart from my usual AF, my heart is perfectly OK and working rather well. He had wondered if I had any tiny emboli in my lungs, but the lung scan showed nothing. He reviewed everything I had told him and made a few more notes, then he made me do something which made me feel totally ridiculous.
He attached a clip to my finger and took some background readings and then he made me march briskly on the spot until I got out of breath. I felt really silly!
He found that there was a sudden big dip in the oxygen saturation level in my blood at the point where I started to get breathless.
I told him that I normally get more breathless than that if I go upstairs or uphill, and that sometimes I get a pain in the chest because of the difficulty I get in drawing breath. He mentioned that there was a faint chance that I had sustained some damage from chemotherapy, despite the MUGA scans I had and that although one would expect symptoms to show themselves straight away, occasionally they were delayed. That didn't make me feel very happy, and I haven't mentioned that possibility to John or Charles. He also mentioned the possibility that it could be angina, since, apparently, it doesn't always present with pain. I do hope not!
He was most apologetic about being unable to discover what was wrong, and he sent me for some more X-rays and blood tests. When he gets the results, if he thinks it will help, he will also send me for a mysterious BNP test for some hormone or other which is something they don't do very often as in most cases it doesn't tell them anything, but it just might tell them something about me. I got the impression that it was like being given a winning lottery ticket. He had to call his consultant friend up to ask if he would do it for me, although I don't know when that will be I have an appointment to go back to Dr. Adams in three months.
John was by now back from Newark so I called him to bring me home. When I finally got home at 1.30, after being at the hospital since 11.00, I started to feel rather unwell. I don't know whether it was the result of all that marching on the spot, or what, but I started to feel very shaky, in spite of immediately eating lunch. I should have taken my blood glucose measurement, but I just didn't think to do it. It might have been the effect of having had the extra Amaryl tablet, and then having nothing to eat all day except a yoghurt.
I had a short rest and then we all went shopping at Morrison's. John did the driving because I didn't feel up to it, but I said he could rest in the car and read a book after his early morning start, and Charles and I went and did the shopping.
It was absolutely vile in Morrison's. It was really crowded and suffocatingly hot. Thank God I had Charles with me, because I would probably have burst into tears, abandoned the trolley and gone home if he hadn't been there. He's always such a Rock!
When we got home, all of us were exhausted and poor Charles had to unpack everything and put it away on his own because I felt so seedy. It's useless expecting John to help because he has only the haziest notion of where anything might be kept! I always think unpacking the shopping and putting it away is by far the worst part of a horrible chore. But, bless him, he didn't complain, and afterwards he made me a cup of tea.!
Yesterday Morgan disappeared again and we did the usual running up and down the back lane looking and calling. Not a sight or sound of him. Later when I went out again to call him at 6.00, I stood in the gateway to the back alley and called him several times. Nothing!
When I turned round to go back indoors, he was standing in the yard near the door. He was suspiciously dry and warm and had only slightly wet feet, so I think he's found someone nearby to take him in and make a fuss of him. Adrian says it's not them, so I have no idea who it could be.
I still feel a bit seedy. I think I've probably overdone it again this week, what with one thing and another and going to Caroline's yesterday to reconcile her books. I shall have to have a quiet weekend, because I have to go to Halifax again next week for a Finance Committee meeting, which will make me feel like a bit of chewed string by the time I've left home at 7.30 and got back probably 12 hours later. Fortunately I don't appear to have any other appointments next week and that's the way it will stay! I need to recover my strength, such as it is.
I'm off to have a relatively early night, and I don't plan to get up till lunchtime tomorrow. So there!
Because I was early, of course, the consultant was running late, so I sat in a superheated waiting space for well over an hour by which time I was reduced to a puddle of sweat. Who are all these people who have no trouble in sitting in crowded overheated hospital waiting rooms for hours in their overcoats?
When I finally saw the consultant, he spent quite a lot of time with me reviewing all the tests I'd had and finally telling me that he was baffled. All the tests showed that apart from my usual AF, my heart is perfectly OK and working rather well. He had wondered if I had any tiny emboli in my lungs, but the lung scan showed nothing. He reviewed everything I had told him and made a few more notes, then he made me do something which made me feel totally ridiculous.
He attached a clip to my finger and took some background readings and then he made me march briskly on the spot until I got out of breath. I felt really silly!
He found that there was a sudden big dip in the oxygen saturation level in my blood at the point where I started to get breathless.
I told him that I normally get more breathless than that if I go upstairs or uphill, and that sometimes I get a pain in the chest because of the difficulty I get in drawing breath. He mentioned that there was a faint chance that I had sustained some damage from chemotherapy, despite the MUGA scans I had and that although one would expect symptoms to show themselves straight away, occasionally they were delayed. That didn't make me feel very happy, and I haven't mentioned that possibility to John or Charles. He also mentioned the possibility that it could be angina, since, apparently, it doesn't always present with pain. I do hope not!
He was most apologetic about being unable to discover what was wrong, and he sent me for some more X-rays and blood tests. When he gets the results, if he thinks it will help, he will also send me for a mysterious BNP test for some hormone or other which is something they don't do very often as in most cases it doesn't tell them anything, but it just might tell them something about me. I got the impression that it was like being given a winning lottery ticket. He had to call his consultant friend up to ask if he would do it for me, although I don't know when that will be I have an appointment to go back to Dr. Adams in three months.
John was by now back from Newark so I called him to bring me home. When I finally got home at 1.30, after being at the hospital since 11.00, I started to feel rather unwell. I don't know whether it was the result of all that marching on the spot, or what, but I started to feel very shaky, in spite of immediately eating lunch. I should have taken my blood glucose measurement, but I just didn't think to do it. It might have been the effect of having had the extra Amaryl tablet, and then having nothing to eat all day except a yoghurt.
I had a short rest and then we all went shopping at Morrison's. John did the driving because I didn't feel up to it, but I said he could rest in the car and read a book after his early morning start, and Charles and I went and did the shopping.
It was absolutely vile in Morrison's. It was really crowded and suffocatingly hot. Thank God I had Charles with me, because I would probably have burst into tears, abandoned the trolley and gone home if he hadn't been there. He's always such a Rock!
When we got home, all of us were exhausted and poor Charles had to unpack everything and put it away on his own because I felt so seedy. It's useless expecting John to help because he has only the haziest notion of where anything might be kept! I always think unpacking the shopping and putting it away is by far the worst part of a horrible chore. But, bless him, he didn't complain, and afterwards he made me a cup of tea.!
Yesterday Morgan disappeared again and we did the usual running up and down the back lane looking and calling. Not a sight or sound of him. Later when I went out again to call him at 6.00, I stood in the gateway to the back alley and called him several times. Nothing!
When I turned round to go back indoors, he was standing in the yard near the door. He was suspiciously dry and warm and had only slightly wet feet, so I think he's found someone nearby to take him in and make a fuss of him. Adrian says it's not them, so I have no idea who it could be.
I still feel a bit seedy. I think I've probably overdone it again this week, what with one thing and another and going to Caroline's yesterday to reconcile her books. I shall have to have a quiet weekend, because I have to go to Halifax again next week for a Finance Committee meeting, which will make me feel like a bit of chewed string by the time I've left home at 7.30 and got back probably 12 hours later. Fortunately I don't appear to have any other appointments next week and that's the way it will stay! I need to recover my strength, such as it is.
I'm off to have a relatively early night, and I don't plan to get up till lunchtime tomorrow. So there!
