Yesterday...

was not so good. I went to get some tests done at 7:45 yesterday morning. I'm only 34 but I have a lot of heart disease in the family and I haven't been feeling well lately so I wanted to be sure I'm not going to keel over with a heart attack. Family history here: My father died at age 61 of a heart attack, having his first heart attack at 45, several bypasses over the years and was told he needed to be put on the transplant list because only 10% of his heart was working. My brother had a heart attack - only one that I know of - when he was 37, he'll be 39 next month. So, I wanted to be sure.

Anyway, I was getting a myoview - pictures of the heart, similar to an ultrasound. I had to have an IV put in, dye put into the IV, wait an hour and then get the first set of pictures done. Then I had to wait again, have a treadmill test, more dye in the IV, the second set of pictures. Getting the pictures done were ok - this big machine circled around my chest while taking pictures every 30 seconds or so for either 11 (1st test) or 7 (2nd test) minutes. The hard part was holding my hands above my head and lying flat on my back when I'm not used it. The tests came out abnormal. I had a little chest pain (probably from walking 6 minutes on a steep incline, but whatever) so the doctor took me next door to the emergency room. There I sat for about 4 hours. It wasn't so bad. Because it was my heart - no I did not have a heart attack - there was a swarm of nurses on me immediately. IV set up (again), oxygen, EKG, heart monitor, you name it I had it. Then they gave me a local, baby aspirin, some nitro (yuck!), and then something to keep me from being sick to my stomach (yeah!). Anyway, after about 2 hours they decided to admit me, but I had to wait another couple for an available/clean room. They decided that I needed a heart cath. That's right - a heart cath.
"Don't worry." They said. "You won't remember anything." They said. They were wrong.
They went in through my right groin artery (femoral artery?). They did give me some good local that made me loopy for a few minutes. That was fun. Then it felt like a lot of pressure in my leg (inner leg where my leg bends). Oh yeah, it was a lot of pressure in my leg! When it was over they showed me some of the recorded film from the cath so I did get to see the dye shooting through my arteries. That was kind of cool. Then I was taken back to my room told not to move for the next 4 hours. Flat on my back and don't move for 4 hours?! That was hard to do. And because it was a major artery they put a 10 pound sand bag on my leg where the stitch is. Let me tell you, you haven't lived until you've been put flat on your back with a 10 pound sand bag on your leg and told not to move for 4 hours. Did I mention that by now it's nearly 5 p.m. and I hadn't eaten since 8:30 the night before. Yeah... I was beginning to get a little hungry.

Oh, you want to know the results? Well the doctors weren't really concerned. I only have 30% blockage in my left artery. No big deal. That's what they said anyway. Then they told me to go on a cardiac diet and sent me home - after nearly 6 hours. (Does anyone know if I should be worried and get a second opinion? Just kidding, I'll just need to watch my diet and exercise more than once a month.) I got to go home very close to 11 p.m. Since my husband had to work yesterday, I did call and let him know what was going on but didn't feel the need for him to leave work and come up to the hospital. He didn't come up to the hospital until nearly 7. Needless to say, he missed all the excitement because by the time he and the kids got there I was flat on my back and getting irritated that I couldn't move.

So I am home now. Extremely sore muscles in my leg and abdomen. I couldn't drive today - we had to leave one car at the hospital so I didn't have a car at home anyway. Moving very slowly, can't bend over, and can't drive. I sound like I'm 90.

Deklan had a hard time this morning. I thought he was going to have a meltdown before school. He wanted to, I could tell. I can't bend over or lift so he was having some issues with getting ready this morning. He seemed better this afternoon and hopefully tomorrow a.m. will be better for him.