Dean and I were up and out on time, early actually (the benefit of not having to ready kids in the morning) to the hospital. First there was a problem w/ the paging system that lets you know they are ready for you. We had an interesting nurse who thought it would be fun to be rude to me about my hysterectomy and pseudo tumor, stating some very unfiltered comments which made me want to ask for another nurse to put in my iv, but she redeemed herself getting it in on the first try.
We then sat and waited for the next wave of staff to greet us, next up was the anesthesiologist. She was very thorough, so much so that she decided I should have an EKG before going ahead w/ things “to be safe” I have no clue how to read said report so when the nurse doing it printed it out and left I assumed we were done and ready to go. My doctor (whom we love!) arrived and started to tell us that the new joint was en route and had been held up by the snow so we would have to wait for it to arrive, as we discussed this the anesthesiologist returned to share the news with us: my ekg was abnormal. She showed the report to my dr (a podiatrist) who surprisingly knew what it meant, and his first reaction was thats how it look when you’ve had a heart attack , or a piece of your heart muscle is dead and not responding. My Cool Dr said this must be a sign from God to put things on hold on the surgery because the joint wasn’t there and the EKG was not good. I was floored, I’ve talked him about church before but those words were not something I’d ever expect him to say.
Dean was visually crushed by the news, and for a moment I saw the worry and upset on his face, as did the rest of the hospital staff. They left to find a cardiologist to look at the EKG results and try to get clarification before canceling the surgery. It didnt take long before I was in tears and confused. I had just come to terms w/ being out of commission for a few weeks and was ready to go get this done. Now we were faced w/ not only having to re-schedule but face the new medical problem: my heart was broken.
after having Boaz I was given an EKG that was abnormal so was sent for a stress test. i had a heart murmur and the stress test showed only that the left side of my heart was enlarged and the report stated it was just due to lack or exercise/being overweight. If you know me I’ve since had several surgeries and no problems(with my heart!) All it took was a too thorough anesthesiologist to throw me back into the fears I had back then….heart disease runs in the family and heck my father just had his 9th heart attack, has a defibrillator and is awaiting a pacemaker now because he might not survive another heart attack, he’s 50.
But back to today….eventually the cardiologist said the EKG showed “unspecified” problem not a heart attack and gave the go ahead for the surgery and they all agreed they’d monitor my heart closely. I awoke needing oxygen but for me and sleep apnea thats not a big concern. other than my awakening in the OR while the dr was testing out my new joint when I should have been out still there were no problems during the procedure.
I’ve been laying on the couch resting and am currently awaiting a call back from my surgeron as I’m having pain in my foot not where the surgery is, similar to the pain I had after a c-section when I had an allergic reaction to the tape used. (cause it’s NEVER easy !!)
The kids are playing at the neighbors house so Dean is playing on his puter and I’m trying to let go of the nagging fears that were put aside this morning. I cant get another stress test til I’m more mobile or so I assume. So I think the only thing I can do next is try to find the results from my last EKG and stress test so we have a baseline like was recommended by the drs this morning. I was freaked out a week or two when told Zeke needs to see a cardiologist, and now I do too. Too many similarities in his conditions and my own, which leads me to believe the answers to my problems may come by simply finding the cause of Zekes!
Unitl then, recovering from today and praying for my broken heart…..
